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View Full Version : I am not happy right now with my 1DsMkII


Longwatcher
16th of April 2005 (Sat), 11:43
Had a wonderful photo session with a beautiful model, except for one major problem. When going over the set to make a copy, I discovered some images did not write correctly.
It was not one or two, but about 234 of 1163 images (or 10%) that appear to be lost and gone forever. I have tried two different card/image recovery programs to recover at least the last set, but no luck.

I am open to suggestions:

What I have been able to determine is apparently my Sandisk 1GB Extreme II SD card would fill up and then it or the camera would continue to let me think it was writing images to the card for about 30 more shots. I was also using a Sandisk 2GB Ultra II CF card and a Lexar 1GB 40x WA card. As far as I can tell these two did not lose any images (I know the Lexar didn't since I only used it once and can acocunt for all of it's images). Since I would alternate between the 2GB CF and the 1Gb SD cards (except once when I used the Lexar near the end, when I got impatient) I am pretty sure I know which ones are which. My first 247 images were fine, then I started losing them. In other potential causes my SD card was the one in use when I went over 10,000 images taken (at about the 298 image mark (so I had appearently been writing bad images when it went over) and that created some weird files on the card, but I formated in the camera after transfering what I had at that point. Given that I seemed to get 150-180 good images then a batch of 50 bad images, I know my 2Gb card will only hold about 120 at most, usually 110ish, my SD card usually gets around 48-56 images, it is fairly easy to figure it was the SD card. I shoot Raw plus Jpeg M2 Level 8 compression. The camera got turned off and on when I changed lenses (which didn't happen until late in the session and once between cards. The cards got formated at least twice in the camera, which is rare, since I usually don't find the need. Once before the session to make sure the cards were clear (this I almost always do) and after it went over 10000 images because of the weird files on the sandisk card (the weird files did not reappear until I tried the second recovery program - but I have seen those before when doing a recovery).

So in short form
- Only the SD card had this problem
- it happened close to the 10000 image mark when the camera told me to change folders
- It appeared to let me overwrite the card, but the first images taken on the card were okay, overwite images are bad.
- I can't get it to repeat today, despite several attempts.
Other then the 10000 images passing, I did nothing different then in past sessions with the same cards.

That's all the info I can think of,
First anybody have any suggestions on how to recover the images (if they are there at all)?
and Second anybody have suggestions on what might have happened and how to prevent it in the future?
An $8000 camera with pro cards should not be doing this.

radar-eclipse
16th of April 2005 (Sat), 12:30
I'd be calling San Disk on Monday. That is horrible! You must feel violated. I know I would.

the7ferret
16th of April 2005 (Sat), 12:46
perhaps the camera did not overwrite the files correctly. Since you ran out of space (camera asked you to change folders) perhaps its a bug in the cameras programming which caused it to corrupt the images.

Longwatcher
16th of April 2005 (Sat), 12:56
I'd be calling San Disk on Monday. That is horrible! You must feel violated. I know I would.

I just feel let down, I am not yet blaming either the camera or the card, but one of the two is at fault and I lean towards the camera given the circumstances. The camera going over 10000 was the only factor different from previous sessions. Hard to fault the card if nothing changed there and it didn't go bad until I was at the 10000 mark.

Chazs
16th of April 2005 (Sat), 21:16
I just feel let down, I am not yet blaming either the camera or the card, but one of the two is at fault and I lean towards the camera given the circumstances. The camera going over 10000 was the only factor different from previous sessions. Hard to fault the card if nothing changed there and it didn't go bad until I was at the 10000 mark.

The only thing I can add here is that I used an Ultra II 1 gig card for a ballet shoot and my 20D definitely told me when it was full. Not that this helps your dilemma at all, though, but more info can't hurt. Major, mjor, major bummer. I feel for you.

raylks
16th of April 2005 (Sat), 22:59
Probably it is due to card factor, instead of camera. You may use the same card to shootin other digital camera and test if it fails.

Simon Spiers
17th of April 2005 (Sun), 01:34
Longwatcher did you format the card on a PC or the camera?
Sounds to me like it's formated in FAT32 and maybe the Canon is misreading the space avalible?
Just a thought mind;)

dito
17th of April 2005 (Sun), 09:03
My only suggestion/possibility is that when it goes over that 10,000 image, it ask if you would like to create a new folder. If you select yes, the next images will go to that folder. did you check this folder also? if so, it seems to me that switching back and forth between cards might have caused the camera to blurp somewhere. Personally, I never use Sandisk card anymore. I've had several occasions where the cards themselves take a dump when they become almost full. I've changed to Lexar and have never had the same problem.

DwightMcCann
17th of April 2005 (Sun), 11:04
I appreciate just the mention that such problem might occur with this Pro equipment.

Longwatcher
18th of April 2005 (Mon), 11:34
Longwatcher did you format the card on a PC or the camera?
Sounds to me like it's formated in FAT32 and maybe the Canon is misreading the space avalible?
Just a thought mind;)

That was my first thought, but I formatted it in the camera when I started the session and then as always I cut and pasted the images into my computer. I again formated the card when it went over 10000 images, because I didn't trust it having two folders. My normal proceedure the one that has worked for over 30000 images between D60, 10D, and 1DsMkII is to format in camera at start of session and then cut and paste for the rest of the day. I just cut and paste the images (not the folders). This proceedure has worked for over 9000 images on my 1DsMkII so far. And since Friday, I have not been able to get the problem to repeat. The card works fine, The camera works fine.
I might allow that maybe I just hit it right and it messed up after the first download, but I formatted in camera after the second download (which was messed up), so it should have fixed the glitch at that point, but it continued messing up for the rest of the day.
And now it is working fine again (so far). As mentioned the ONLY difference with ever before is the over 10000 images factor.

Very bizarre,

Longwatcher
18th of April 2005 (Mon), 18:03
After talking with the Canon Tech Support (always amusing -especially the comments on Tech support is usually not the first to know of firmwear updates - read as last to know)

I think I figured out what might be my problem or I am wildly speculating here.
Noting that in previous discovered Canon problems, they have a problem with software writing and seem to not have a lot of photographers actually test out their cameras.
I also note that the manual says "you can not write more then 9999 images to a folder"
Which may be one of the low key statements like "do not use any menu functions while the red light is on" AKA don't hit the display button while it is writing to the card.

I am currently suspecting that the card got corrupted when the camera tried to put another image into a folder that was either full (at 9999) or did not exist yet. Or when I tried to create a folder it got confused. And since there is a shorter way to create a folder then I used. I, using the regular way to create a folder, instead of the hey the folder is full method (which takes many fewer steps) because it was the first time I had to create a folder since I got the camera and I didn't RTFM. The camera may have gotten confused as it wrote to the card and a single formating did not clear the problem.

SO unless the card itself had issues, still a possibility. I may be able to avoid this problem in the future by just changing the folder before every photo shoot. I am after all not likely to take 9999 images in one photo shoot as my record was 3400 in a 9 hour session and my average is 1200-1500.

On the other hand if it happens again before I forget and let it go to 9999, then I can only blame the card and back to Sandisk that one goes.

Anybody else get their 1DsMkII to go over 9999 in the frame count in the middle of a card? So I can confirm/deny this theory.