Corrupt S40 images...any ideas?

[bstrand]

I have a brand-new S40. So far, I've only used it in
"Auto" mode. I like it, when it works, but I'm having a serious problem with it.....About half the time I take a picture, the image appears corrupted on the display. I've experimented with all four "picture quality" settings, all three "compression mode" settings, and I've used 3 different CF cards (16MB, 96MB, 128MB). So far, I have not found a combination that is immune to this problem.

I also performed the firmware upgrade to rev 1.1. in an attempt to fix this.

There seems to be no corrolation between battery state and likelihood of a corrupted image.

Typically, if an image is corrupted, approximately 2/3
of the image looks good, followed by an obvious "hiccup" in the data stream, followed by either images with distorted colors or completely scrambled data.

Any ideas?

Thanks.

[Rustle]

Is the image corrupted on your computer, as well?

Russ

[bstrand]

Yep, they sure are. :-(

[calypso]

Just a suggestion.
You could try cleaning the contacts on the Flash card with a soft eraser, blow off any debris, then insert and extract the card a few times to clean the camera's internal contacts.

Worth a try.

John.

[Rustle]

If the eraser thing doesn't work, it's almost definitely a hardware problem. You should get it replaced.

Russ

[Saeons]

Yeah, I get that problem on my S40 too. It usually happens when the camera heats up after prolonged use, or when I slide the Replay button too soon after taking the shot.

BTW my previous S40 had the same problem, so I think there could be a design fault somewhere.

Since I slowed down my actions and started monitoring the camera's body temperature, the problem has more or less vanished. Over the past 10 days I packed my CF card with close to 250 shots. Only one was corrupt. :-)

[bstrand]

My camera's problem is sort of the opposite. When I
am in display mode and switch to picture-taking mode, the next image is always (100% reproducible) corrupt. I did the following experiment yesterday.

go to display mode

loop
switch to picture-taking mode
take a picture
switch to display mode
look at the picture
end loop

I repeated this 30 times, and all 30 images were corrupted. If I stay in picture taking mode after
taking the first picture, no problem....all subsequent
pictures are fine.

Frustrating, because it "sort of" works...but I have to take a "dud" picture every time I turn the thing on before it's ready to take a good image.

:-(

Brad

[bstrand]

Just to wrap this one up, I sent my S40 back to Canon
for servicing this week. I already miss it!

Brad

[arocholl]

HI, I have a sort of similar problem. Did you get a solution from Canon? Is it working properly now?

Thanks!

[rcpage]

If for any reason you send your camera back to Canon I recommend that you ask them to upgrade the firmware for you at the same time. Maybe your corruption problem is with your firmware and will be solved by an uograde to the latest firmware? T

For those interested and brave enough there is a firmware upgrade on the Canon Drivers website:

http://www.canon.co.jp/Imaging/PSS40/PSS40_Firmware-e.html

but you run it at your own risk.

If you want to quickly check whether your camera needs the upgrade go to the bottom of the page:

http://www.canon.co.jp/Imaging/PSS40/PSS40_Firmware5-e.html

but then go back to the first weblink and read all the preceding pages in order!

Despite being in the computer industry and knowledgeable about doing PC upgrades doing one on my expensive camera is a not something I would risk. I prefer that Canon do the upgrade and if anything goes wrong then they can fix it!

[delphinus]

This reply might not related to your problem, but I own an S30 and gave me not a single corrupt file picture ever since I bought it (early june). Been taking more than 1000 pictures with it and still okay.

Experienced another problem though, 2 mths after I got it, the auto mode goes haywire, it goes to stitch mode by itself, without pressing a single button. Need to literally squezze the camera at right hand side with my thumb to return it to auto mode. Sent to Canon service center, and got no more problem (yet?) afterwards.

Delphin

[PeterS45]

Could it be possible that you switch to the 'Play'-mode to quickly. It can take a digital camera quite a long time to write the picture to it's flashcard (could be up to 30 seconds), so if you switch to replay before the writing is finished I can imagine something will go wrong.

[bstrand]

Yes, they replaced the main circuit board, which fixed the problem. The repair took about three weeks total.

[bstrand]

I did the firmware upgrade myself, which went fine...but did not fix my problem. I thought the FW upgrade was quite straightforward, but I'm a computer weenie. ;-)