Most likely cause is the the SD Card is the wrong type. There are different types in the same size card.
Some cameras can only take a card to a certain volume in GB. You put a 5GB card in a camera that is only rated to 2GB and you will get an error.
Make you the Lock Protection tab is set to unlocked.
Remove battery, wait 2 minutes and try again.
The manual says this regarding format failure
The digital video camera cannot guarantee to perform formatting on all memory card formats. When this happens, please format the memory card on a PC as the FAT format.
Aug 23, 2019 - The SD Association devised a way to standardise the speed ratings for different cards. These are defined as 'Speed Class' and refer to the absolute minimum sustained write speeds. Cards can be rated as Class 2 (minimum write speed of 2MB/s), Class 4 (4MB/s), Class 6 (6MB/s) or Class 10 (10MB/s).
hi,
i think it is because of your SD card that is on "record protected" position...
just change it to non protected by moving the tiny lock on the left side it must be up, not down (that arrives sometime when inserting the SD card in the cam, if not really straight !
cheers
mich
SD cards have a slide switch along one edge. The position farthest from the metal contacts locks the card, protecting it from writes. The position nearest the contacts unlocks the card.
Try turning the screen all the way around and close the screen so the screen its left outside where you can see if that doesn't work you will need to replace the ribon that connects the screen to camcorder.