SD cards can be recovered in the same way as CF. Put the card in a reader, and use recovery software. My SanDisk cards came with recovery software (Rescue Pro) that has recovered images that went through more than one reformat cycle.
I had 3 SD cards, was shooting gorgeous stuff in Bryce and Zion national parks, and for a few weeks before had been juggling the cards and backing them up on my Roadstor without incident, but then one day, after shooting two and a half SD cards at Bryce and on my way to Zion, thought to back up the first two and shoot the rest of the third card at Zion. After shooting more at Zion on one of the two other already backed up cards, I made the wrong choice and reformatted the one of Bryce and Zion (the one I hadn't backed up). I have not shot anything on this card since I reformatted. I believe there might be software with which to recover the lost photos, but don't know if I can risk choosing the wrong software for fear of killing my chances of recovering these photos. Has anyone had good experience with recovering photos formatted over on an SD card? Which software is best?