Help with new Digital Camera?

i just bought a new samsung digimax L60, and in the manual it says i should 'format' the 512MB SD memory card i bought with it. how do i do this, and do i need to?

Format the card from a menu option within the camera.

It should be an option in one of the menus on your camera. You don't need to do it unless you're having problems saving pictures.
They tell you to do it with the camera because most cameras only read and write FAT or FAT32. If you format the card with your computer the default is NTFS which renders the card unusable to the camera.
You can always reformat it to FAT to make it usable again.

If you just bought the card, it should come already formatted. It wouldn't hurt to format it again. Formatting will erase everything that's on the card. Your instruction manual should tell you how to format the card with the camera. It is typically under the tools or settings menu.

it's also a good idea to use a card reader attached to the computer rather than downloading from the camera ,this is a much easier and faster way . always format a new card to a new camera as this will help prevent errors in copying ,on rare occasions new cards are not formatted so doing so will do no harm . Generally in (view pictures) there is a facility to format card

read the manual