Canon acknowledges disappearing image problem

[NickC]

Link to article on Canon's site (http://consumer.usa.canon.com/ir/controller?act=PgComSmModDisplayAct&keycode=2112&fcategoryid=215&modelid=10598)

Here is the text if you don't want to go their site:

May 20, 2005
Canon U.S.A.

We have received inquiries about the problem of images disappearing when using specific digital SLR cameras. As a result of our investigation, we found that the following two problems may occur. Please be advised of the details and countermeasures.

1. Disappearance of images within the camera's buffer memory
Affected Products: EOS-1Ds Mark II, EOS-1D Mark II
Problem:
Pressing the [DISPLAY] button immediately after shooting with the camera set to "RAW+JPEG (high image quality)" causes the LCD monitor to become entirely white and the camera to lock up, losing all the images in the buffer. This problem is caused by the firmware for these models and sometimes occurs regardless of the recording media used.
Countermeasure:
We are now making arrangements to release new camera firmware incorporating the correction of this problem by the end of May 2005. In the meantime, please be aware of the following when using these models.

* Before pressing the [DISPLAY] button to check captured images, make sure the access lamp is off, indicating that files have been written to the media.
* When this problem occurs, remove and re-install the battery to restore correct operation.

2. Disappearance of images when using Lexar Compact Flash Cards
Affected Products (D-SLR): EOS-1Ds Mark II, EOS-1D Mark II, EOS 20D, EOS Digital Rebel XT / EOS 350D Digital / EOS Kiss Digital N
Affected Products (CF card):
Lexar Professional 80x-speed Compact Flash cards
Problem:
Captured images on some Lexar CompactFlash cards can be lost when used with the Canon cameras listed above. Working together, Lexar and Canon have investigated the cause and confirmed that the problem occurs in extremely rare instances when the products above are used together.
Countermeasure:
Lexar will offer a free firmware update incorporating the correction of this problem by the end of May 2005 for Lexar Professional Series 80x CompactFlash card customers using the affected Canon cameras.

Lexar customers can contact Lexar Professional Support in US at (+1) 510-413-1233, or in UK at (+44) 1483-522-947 or visit Lexar on-line at www.lexar.com/support.

We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience these issues have caused for you. We will make every effort in quality control to provide products that our customers can use with confidence. We appreciate your understanding in this matter.

Contact Information for inquiries:
Call Center
1-800-848-4040 (toll free)
*Available with your cell phone or PHS.

Office Hours:
Weekdays: 9:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m.
Saturdays, holidays: 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.

[tim]

Thanks for the link Nick! :) Glad my Sandisk cards aren't affected, i'm suprised CF cards have a firmware.

[DocFrankenstein]

A trend is developing...

[lancea]

Dang - that's me :( Anyone know just what Lexar requires for a firmware update? Is it something that we can do?

I can't find anything useful on their support pages - but http://www.lexar.com/support/cust_advisory.html talks about a "Return Materials Authorization". That looks ominously like they have to be returned - and I bought mine from the US.

[tim]

I'd call them, this time of night calls to the US are cheap, and they should be open now or soon.

[lancea]

They're pretty cheap during the day too, but no point. They haven't got a solution yet. I'm just curious if someone has been through a "firmware update" of a Lexar card before. Just as a lot of digital cameras aren't "user updatable", I didn't think CF cards were either.

[kenyc]

Dang, and that's exactly the 1G card I have. Is it ONLY the Lexar cards? Apparently so. Maybe I'll pick up a Sandisk 1G today.

It sounds like it's easy enough to avoid if you just are careful to not press the view image button while it is still saving the image. (i.e. make sure the red light has stopped flashing).

KAC

[Cadwell]

Dang, and that's exactly the 1G card I have. Is it ONLY the Lexar cards? Apparently so. Maybe I'll pick up a Sandisk 1G today.

It sounds like it's easy enough to avoid if you just are careful to not press the view image button while it is still saving the image. (i.e. make sure the red light has stopped flashing).

KAC

There are two problems detailed in the release. The Lexar problem is not related to pushing the view image button too soon according to that statement.

[Longwatcher]

The amazing thing is it took Canon over 5 months to find a fix and officially acknowledge the first problem. I wish they would acknowledge the problem back about 3 months ago at least and then tell us they were working on it. We knew, they knew and they were working on it, but it would nice if they would admit it.

The second problem was announced a couple months ago (probably because Lexar admitted it).

The good part though is there will be a fix in a few weeks, Yeah!!!

ignoring of course that the problem happened to a lesser extent with RAW+jpeg at any size. Hopefully the firm wear will fix it all.

[ShadowFlyP]

The amazing thing is it took Canon over 5 months to find a fix and officially acknowledge the first problem. I wish they would acknowledge the problem back about 3 months ago at least and then tell us they were working on it. We knew, they knew and they were working on it, but it would nice if they would admit it.

The second problem was announced a couple months ago (probably because Lexar admitted it).

The good part though is there will be a fix in a few weeks, Yeah!!!

ignoring of course that the problem happened to a lesser extent with RAW+jpeg at any size. Hopefully the firm wear will fix it all.

You have to realize that from a consumer standpoint, of course this is what we'd want. But from a business standpoint, Canon has to be concerned about its relationship with other companies; Lexar in this case. If they had released this information of a problem, which they claim is very rare, it would have cause a panic among us Canon owners where we'd stop buying Lexar-branded cards at least until they had a solution, probably for good. It's possibly much cheaper from Canon's point of view to sacrifice a few pictures on our cards (since we've already bought cameras) than it is to damage the relationship they may have with Lexar.

[MDJAK]

My problem has been slightly different yet less serious. Twice now my display button has had no effect. I've not lost images, but it just stops displaying images, right after the shot and/or when display is pressed. The first time it happened, I did have to remove the battery to correct it. The second time, which was this past week, turning the camera off and then back on corrected it. I have the last firmware update already installed and, while I have a Lexar 80x 1gb card, I've not used it lately as I have a bunch of Sandisks, including two 2gb cards and I use those mostly.

I guess sometimes it's the nature of the beast. It is an extremely complex machine that is bound to have glitches from time to time. While we would all like companies to acknowledge problems immediately, if they don't have a fix for them it doesn't really help.

[Streetshooter]

I have 4 Lexar 1 gig cards and 2 20d's...never had a problem but I shoot in raw and manual...only......maybe it's the jpeg thinggy...dunno...at any rate...I look forward to the firmware update from lexar.......good luck all....don

[condyk]

No problems here either ... very good cards, but I format after each copy to my computer and maybe it helps keep them clean.

Mountain out of a molehill ...

[Longwatcher]

You all did note that problem #1 only happened on the 1D2 and 1DsMkII, big problem for those users as we don't want anything that might cause us to lose images. It was an any card problem. I paid good money for a Professional level camera and expect it to behave as such. Letting us know what the problem was and the work around would have avoided a bunch of headaches. With the work around of just don't hit display button until done writting, we can live with that for awhile if we know about it ahead of time. too many people found out the hard way and had to be told after the fact by other users.

Problem #2 was only Lexar 80x cards.

The two problems together confused a bunch of people.

[robertdrake]

I reported a problem like this here a month ago. Mine is the 20D and a Sandisk Ultra II card. I take the picture, its gone when I go to download.

[Jackal]

Haven't had too many problems with Lexar. However, once in a blue moon and I mean like ONCE every 300 shots or so ONE picture will be "corrupt." Not sure what the cause of it is though. But the card has been more than good.

When you zoom out into the thumbnail view in playback mode it shows the image as a black and yellow CORRUPT sign if I recall correctly.

Maybe it's because I did alot deleting during the session and kept shooting and deleting or something. But it's rare. I've taken a little over 1,000 shots with this camera and so far it's happened to 3 pictures.

How do you upgrade CF card firmware?

[MDJAK]

Just wanted to add that my problem (of the display button not working) was both while the light was on and when it was not. Also, I was writing only RAW.


i'M GOING TO B&H ON SUNDAY.
Haven't been there in weeks; I'm jonesing.

[Medic1]

Interesting.....glad only 1 of my 3 cards are Lexar

[lancea]

Both my cards (1GB and 2GB) and 80x Lexar, and I didn't think I'd ever had a problem. But now I know why I can never find those exceptional shots that I'm certain I am taking ;)

I've just found the following at http://www.lexar.com/software/image_rescue.html that explains how Image Rescue 2.0 can be used to update a card's firmware:

Card Updater

This feature will check for an update to a card's firmware by making a request to Lexar's update server via the web. The request will be made using the HTTP protocol so that any firewalls will not block the update. If an update is available a message will be displayed, if there is no update an "up-to-date" message will be displayed. In the case there is an update, the user can request it to be applied to the card. The firmware will be downloaded from the server and the card's firmware will be updated.

Hopefully that's the method they'll use to release the fix.

[Dave Parsels]

hey yall! I had a wolf/rits camera 512 made by lexar and i got the err cf and a locked up d350. its not just the 1 gig cards. took the card back put it in another camera with the same results.

[Tomsk]

Both my cards (1GB and 2GB) and 80x Lexar, and I didn't think I'd ever had a problem. But now I know why I can never find those exceptional shots that I'm certain I am taking ;)

I've just found the following at http://www.lexar.com/software/image_rescue.html that explains how Image Rescue 2.0 can be used to update a card's firmware:

Card Updater

This feature will check for an update to a card's firmware by making a request to Lexar's update server via the web. The request will be made using the HTTP protocol so that any firewalls will not block the update. If an update is available a message will be displayed, if there is no update an "up-to-date" message will be displayed. In the case there is an update, the user can request it to be applied to the card. The firmware will be downloaded from the server and the card's firmware will be updated.

Hopefully that's the method they'll use to release the fix.

Unfortunately this may not work for everyone.
My cheap generic card reader and my laptop don't report any firmware information when IR2.0 does a card info.

[lancea]

I've got a Lexar reader, and it didn't report firmware info either - however when I used the "Check for update" feature it did seem to go away and check. There wasn't an update of course. Fingers crossed it will work. I have the newest Lexar reader at work, so I'll see on Monday if that one displays firmware info.

[Chris1le]

They better have another way of updating this card. I'm not paying $30 to update the firmware on my card. :evil:

[stoneylonesome]

I guess lucky me. I didn't see the 10D mentioned in any of the problems :) :) or did I miss something.

[Longwatcher]

Just the new cameras have the problem, they go to fast. The old timers take their time so they don't get into accidents as much.

:) :) :D

[CyberDyneSystems]

1D MkII as well.... hmmm had mine fr over a year...

"Pressing the [DISPLAY] button immediately after shooting with the camera set to "RAW+JPEG (high image quality)"

Ahhh I see,...
No wonder it never happend to me...

I never Chimp..... http://members.bellatlantic.net/~vze2hdzu/pics/banana.gifhttp://members.bellatlantic.net/~vze2hdzu/pics/chimp.gif

[CyberDyneSystems]

The real reason is I never shoot RAW plus Large Fine jpeg on the MkII...

And with the 10D you can't....

[lancea]

Unfortunately this may not work for everyone.
My cheap generic card reader and my laptop don't report any firmware information when IR2.0 does a card info.
I just tried Image Rescue 2 with my newest Lexar card reader and it still doesn't show the firmware version - so we'll just have to see if the updater works when it's needed! But like you, I don't fancy having to return my cards.

[DwightMcCann]

Jackal, I have that problem, too ... most often with the first image on my card! I sometimes get two or three such images with "Bogus" data. I haven't lost an important images so I did think to report it to anyone, but given the $4100USD cost of the body this really isn't acceptable.

[davidfig]

Thanks for the link Nick! :) Glad my Sandisk cards aren't affected, i'm suprised CF cards have a firmware.

The complete low down. I'm a programmer and I know people who work on the firmware for CF cards. Believe it or not, but most CF cards have a tiny arm processor with a little cache and the flash. The processor sort of acts like a disk drive controller. It is able to move data in and out, make the card look like a harddisk (need IDE interface board) and is able to fix some simple errors. If a sector goes bad, it may be able to recreate it. It recrates the data on a spare sector and removes the bad one from its list. This is why I like the idea of CF for my camera.

No I do not know if the other cards do this. But if people are interested I will look into it.

adapter - http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=6768397440&category=41994

David
-----------
Rebel XT
Canon EFS 17-55
Sigma 18-125
wish'n for some L glass
humble home page -- http://home.comcast.net/~davidfig (http://home.comcast.net/%7Edavidfig)

[CyberDyneSystems]

New Firmware fix is out.

http://www.canon.co.jp/Imaging/eos1dm2/eos1dmk2_firmware-e.html

[MDJAK]

My 1dsmkII's display does not turn white and I've never lost images in the buffer, at least to the best of my knowledge. I have, though, had the display stop functioning at times and either had to power down and/or remove the battery to correct that.

I wonder if this firmware will correct that also.:rolleyes:

[DwightMcCann]

I just checked and one of my 2G CF cards, the one I keep losing images from (including this past weekend doing an important shoot) is a Lexar Professional 80X. I also have a Sandisk Extreme III 2G that I will now use rather than the Lexar. It kinda sucks that the Canon website says that Lexar will have information/firmaware by today but it's not there! Over $4000 for a camera body and a couple hundred for a CF card, both supposedly state-of-the-art, and they are effectively broken. I doubt I will buy another Lexar CF card ... regardless of all the spin about extensive testing they clearly haven't made much of an effort given all the reports and the months that have dragged on and they also don't have much of a notice on the website about this failure. BTW, I have also been getting corrupt jpgs that expect will disappear if I don't use the Lexar. What a horrible waste of time and effort. And, of course, I have now updated my firmware for the third time since I got this body about three months ago ...

[dmstraton]

I experienced problem number 2 with a the 1GB card two days after purchasing the XT...I thought I had banged the camera around too much, but I figured I would just return the card and all has been well since, no issues. Good to know it is nothing to be too concerned about...however, I don't feel I need to spend more $$ to get some software to rescue images. I definitely was hitting the display button while it was writing...excited to see what I was getting.

[DwightMcCann]

Turns out that my CF card was in the range of defective cards based on the identifier on the edge of the card. I just went through the RMA Form on the Lexar website. They are supposed to email instructions to me on how to proceed to return it for a replacement. I am still less than happy that it has taken them so long to provide a remedy but pleased that I don't have to keep wondering where my images went ... at my age the first suspicion is always a "Senior Moment®".

I'll edit yesterday's post since no one else has posted. I got my emailed RMA from Lexar today. I will send my card back early next week. They want the sales receipt ... I doubt I have that but I will look. Last night I shot Steve Winwood using my other 2G card, the Sandisk Extreme III and was delighted to note that there was no 'bad image' on the card immediately after formatting, no 'bogus marker' images in the 400+ images I shot, and no images disappeared ... I hadn't realized that I had been simply ignoring some of these symptoms. And I'm definitely going to pick up a couple of more large non-Lexar cards. If they had been more proactive I would feel differently ... it's not that they did such a poor job of QA but that they took their sweet time making a fix available that bothers me ... and, of course, I don't know if their "fix" even fixes anything yet.

[tomynate]

This is my first visit but seems to be an appropriate place to jump in. Just purchased a Canon EOS Digital Rebel XT. Inserted a SanDisk 1G card. After taking about 3 raw pics I got an err 99. The display of the first two pics looked good, the 3rd is washed. I called Cannon the next morn and after removing the lens, it took five shutter clicks to display the err msg. Have been told to send the camera in with a brief letter explaining both problems with a print out of the pics. I put the card in a SanDisk reader and it showed the pics in the Adobe Photo Downloader but, when I tried to transfer to hard drive received message "the file is damaged or is a format that cannot be included in the organizer", etc. therefore files not imported. This is my first experience with a dslr and raw. Am wondering if I have two separate problems or both related to the err 99 message. Any input will be appreciated.

[S230]

The firmware update applies to the following memory cards:

Lexar Professional 80x-speed CompactFlash 512MB (last 4 digits of card edge stamp is A4B6 or 9171)
Lexar Professional 80x-speed CompactFlash 1GB (last 4 digits of card edge stamp is A4B6 or 9171)
Lexar Professional 80x-speed CompactFlash 2GB (last 4 digits of card edge stamp is A4B6 or 9171)
Lexar Professional 80x-speed CompactFlash 4GB (last 4 digits of card edge stamp is A4B6 or 9171)

[Tom Skoropad]

Greetings all,
My first post here so bear with me.

I own 3 1GB Lexar Pro cards and of course all of them have the "A4B6" code. So far I haven't had any problems with disappearing images but thought why take a chance.

Contacted Lexar for a RMA # and receieved their reply and a number yesterday.
Read Lexar's Standard RMA Terms and Conditions statement and got to thinking.....

I've spent about 450$ CDn on these cards. :shock:
Lexar states that I am responsible for any shipping charges to them and customs, duties, and brokerage charges on on the card(s) return. :cry:

Not only that, but I'm inconvenienced by losing my 3 cards for a period of time (2 weeks or more).
So, I decided to call Lexar Customer Service and voice my displeasure.

Their answers as follows:

When asked about losing 3 cards at one time.
Send each card separately. Use the same RMA # for each card.
Yeah... right. More added shipping costs.

When asked about customs, duties, and brokerage fees.
We're sorry but that is the way it is. The customer must pay these charges if they are incurred.
I guess it is my fault that I bought their faulty product.

When asked if the firmware upgrade would be available for download.
We are working on it, but it is not a priority. It could be 2 - 3 months before it is available, if at all.
Strike three.....

When asked why Image Rescue doesn't provide card information.
It doesn't work with with these cards. Nor does it work with most other Lexar cards.
You're out......

Considering that this was my "nickle. " I had to wait on hold for about 10 minutes to speak to someone. I decided that enough was enough. So far I bought the cards and spent money on the phone call. If I send them back it could wind up costing me the shipping charges X3 and duties and brokerage X3 on their return.

After working in the customer service industry for 28 years, I find that this feeble attempt by Lexar at customer service to be totally unacceptable.

I'll take my chances, so far the cards have not given me any problems, and hope that Lexar posts a firmware upgrade in the future.

Oh Yeah! I guess I'll shop for SanDisk cards next time too.

Cheers,
Tom

[DwightMcCann]

Tom, I agree completely! I just bought a new Sandisk Extreme III 4G card (hasn't arrived yet) but I am done forever with Lexar. What amazes me is that this defect affects only their biggest customers (those who can afford the most expensive Canon DSLRs) who tend to buy their latest, greatest technology when it is the most expensive and they are trying to recover their costs and yet they don't really seem to care very much. I imagine that there are a lot of other forums/boards around the world where folks are coming to the same conclusions about Lexar and before long we will be hearing them whine and try to blame someone/something other than their terrible "bedside manner". I will salute them as they sink below the waterline ... while shooting pictures of them on my Sandisk cards!

[lancea]

Tom - thanks for posting that information about your conversation with Lexar. It answered all the questions I wanted to know (and didn't cost me a dime :) ). My 2GB card was sent to Australia on Monday. Cost me $10 for standard air mail. The alternative was $33 to get full insurance, faster delivery and tracking. If Lexar showed more interest in making a firmware update available over the web, then I would be happy. As it is, I'll be looking at alternatives for my next cards.

[S230]

I recently got hold of Lexar. I used web messaging instead of waiting. I asked if there was a firmware update we can do ourselves and the answer was no. It's just silly for Lexar not offering this capability for users to do themselves because it can certainly save lots of downtime. I used to be a Lexar fan...

[sundtracy]

If I had only known!! I bought my Rebel XT on Mothers Day and the Lexar card mentioned. The first week of June we went to DisnyLand mostly for my 11 yo daughter who has so many health problems. We were going to go last summer to celebrate a year without any surgeries then she needed new hearing aids ($4500) so we couldn't afford to go, so we finally got to go this summer. Anyways, at approximately picture 700 in day 4 at Disney I lost every picture. I was so sick and I wanted to cry (even now 2 weeks later it makes me want to cry). Got home, did research and found the problem. But had Canon/Lexar acknowledged the problem months ago when it was suspected it may never have happened, I would have bought a different card and we went with Lexar because of the name.

:( Tracy

[lancea]

Hello Tracy. That's a great shame. I've lost entire films in the past after visiting somewhere special, but being family pictures makes it much worse. Until your posting I'd never thought the problem would cause the entire card to be lost. Did you try and recover the photos with the software that comes with the card? If that didn't work you could have sent the card to Lexar or (probably far better) a company that recovers "lost data"? If you still have the card it may not be too late and would be worth trying. Even if you've tried taking some shots on it since, provided you haven't overwritten all the photos there is still a chance some are on the card.

[DwightMcCann]

Tracy, I think most of us here understand. I will never have another Lexar card and I will go out of my way to recommend to others to avoid Lexar. They sold a product for our cameras when they knew for quite a while that the product was defective from what I have read. They minimized their effort to advise us. They have shifted a lot of costs for this recall to us. My card took three weeks to turn around ... I was forced to buy more storage (I got a Sandisk Extreme III 4GB card) to cover a Michael Jackson event ... they didn't offer any explanation or compensation for their failures which to my mind suggests that they would treat future failings in the same callous manner.

[condyk]

Tim in NZ posted a download link to an excellent recovery application. I tried it and on a formated card I'd part used several times it suddenly found about 40 images still there from the guy I bought the card off ... it was a bit scary! Hopefully, Tim will post the link here and you could try it. I did it for fun on my Lexar 80x's which have always performed A1 for me, but mine had the serial numbers that are Ok rather than the serials needing firmware updating.

[lancea]

Tim in NZ posted a download link to an excellent recovery application.
I know Tim doesn't have Lexar cards, which is why he would have posted that. But since you have :) - is it better than the one that you get free with Lexar cards? I find it works very well and have successfully recovered from a format.

[condyk]

I know Tim doesn't have Lexar cards, which is why he would have posted that. But since you have :) - is it better than the one that you get free with Lexar cards? I find it works very well and have successfully recovered from a format.

I bought mine SH and they had no utilities with them: they just arrived apparently blank, but I soon discovered it wasn't the case. I thought posting an alternative would be useful. When you've lost stuff you want as many options to hand as possible.

[lancea]

Okay. I was really just interested as to whether it was better. No sense me trying it otherwise. It does look as though you can only get an updater from the Lexar site, but sounds like you're happy with the freeware one. I guess most of the Windows "undelete" utilities would work also.
Cheers.

[sundtracy]

Thanks everyone...it is quite depressing. Data recovery is about $500-$2000 (at least what I have found, still searching) for that I could almost take her back to Disney LOL I do still have the card. As soon as it happened we took it out, bought a 256 card at Disney (that was cheap :) and used it for the rest of the trip. When I got home Photoshop showed that I had 678 pictures, 205 of those corrupt, so while I was bummed things looked somewhat brighter. Well I had no time then so I thought I would just wait until the next day to burn them to CD when I had time. The next day there was nothing...I have 473 corrupt photos. I did try the Lexar recover software, but at 50% it stopped working, so it recovered some pics with .thm extensions. I can open them in explorer and that is all, when I tried to print it prints them huge, I mean page one was an 8X10 of 2 of my kids feet in front of a statue, not sure how many pages it would have taken. Now none of my 3 card readers will even read the card. Lexar said that they will attempt recovery, but for all I know (and it sounds like customer service sucks there) they will just write me and say "shucks, couldn't get anything, heres your new card" (which I am now leary of using too) without ever even looking at it. Do any of you know anything about .thm? Can I conver that to anything? I know it has something to do with Canon and thumbnails?? Thanks~~Tracy

[lancea]

Hi again Tracy. Sounds like all is not lost anyway. I hope Lexar can perform magic. You just need to find the right persion. If they can't (and they return your original card) it's just possible that there is someone on this forum who could have a go. The important thing is that no one tries to write to your card. You could try the local police I suppose - their forensic people are supposed to be pretty good at recovering deleted files off computers!

Regarding the THM extension - going by the number of photos you said were on the card, I'm presuming you were saving in JPEG format (as opposed to RAW). The Lexar recovery software assigns ".THM" to files that it can't get the name of. Simply rename the extension to ".JPG". You should then be able to load them happily into Photoshop (or any other viewer).

[sundtracy]

Thanks! You've been such a big support :) I am so leary of sending it to Lexar, but waiting to hear from 2 other places, then if they are way to exspensive I am sending it off to Lexar with my fingers crossed. When I try to rename the files as jpg it doesn't do anything (that was the first thing I tried lol) Thanks again~~Tracy

[lancea]

Hmm. Could you possibly send me one of your THM files? How big are they? Not sure if you can attach one to a message, but you could send me a private message and I'll tell you my email address. Since I'm in New Zealand it's not so easy to get the whole card! I'm actually at home sick today (but expect to be back at work tomorrow) so have lots of free time.

I agree you want to be sure before sending it to Lexar.

[sundtracy]

that would be so cool...my email is sudemotracy@hotmail.com...I would be so greatful if you would try...I will pick a smaller one :)

Thanks~~Tracy

[lancea]

I've sent an email to your hotmail account Tracy. It's 6pm here, so if I don't get something from you tonight it'll be at least another 12 hours (from now) till I check my email again. Hope I can help.

[S230]

Thanks! You've been such a big support :) I am so leary of sending it to Lexar, but waiting to hear from 2 other places, then if they are way to exspensive I am sending it off to Lexar with my fingers crossed. When I try to rename the files as jpg it doesn't do anything (that was the first thing I tried lol) Thanks again~~Tracy
I had a similar issue before. So far at least you tried on different card reader and gave similar problem. This would likely rule out the readers. have you tried reading it on another computer? I once had come across this problem where a bad driver caused problems. No hurt giving it a shot. Make sure it is a CLEAN machine WITHOUT any junk or weird applications.

[Tomsk]

I got my 2 x 1GB Lexar cards back.
Different ones from what I sent in - Orig = A4B6, replacements = 2D97

I did a speed test by videoing my 20D as it fired off ~150MB of large, fine JPEG and timing the red write LED.
The Lexar cards and my new 2GB Transcend 80x both got 3.1MB/sec (2.5% difference in speed between cards).
I don't have a reference speed for my original Lexar and I don't know how this compares with Rob Galbraiths speeds as my test was different to his. However the cards are fast enough for me :)

[cmosman]

Received my 2GB x80 Lexar card back Saturday.

As per Tomsk, not the same card I returned even though the letter states that: -

"the card you sent us has now been updated with the latest firmware, has been extensively tested and is now free from potential issues when used in conjunction with a Canon EOS"

So if my card has been corrected why not send it back to me!!

Trying not to be too concerned, but I will call UK Lexar Monday for an explanation.

[lancea]

So if my card has been corrected why not send it back to me!!
Because they're sending it to me (via Australia) which is why I'm still waiting - hope you've got some nice shots on it :mrgreen: To be fair though, Lexar did say you may not get the same card back.

[cmosman]

Because they're sending it to me (via Australia) which is why I'm still waiting - hope you've got some nice shots on it :mrgreen: To be fair though, Lexar did say you may not get the same card back.

Hi Lancea,

Please take good care oy my CF card when it arrives, it came from a good home. Looked after well ....fed and watered!!:lol:

Plently of good shots, see what image rescue manages to retrieve.

I will post my response from Lexar UK when I have it.

Although I was aware of the possibility of getting a different card it is funny that the letter from Lexar states "My" card is being returned.

[lancea]

Hi cmosman. I surely will :) My card left for Australia (the nearest return centre) on the 13th June (probably not the best of dates to post something expensive), and this evening I thought I'd send them an email - just to say "hello". Cunningly they don't have an address listed, so I sent one to the US with a request that they forward it. Then, duoh! I realised it is a holiday weekend and the only people working in the US are at NASA and JPL.

You can guarantee that I will put Image Rescue (and probably one or two other utilities) over your card. All in the interest of ensuring that your privacy has been upheld ;) Whether I post them on Flickr or sell them to the Sun will depend on what's there ... :mrgreen:

[IanD]

I dropped my 1gb. card off at the local camera shop two weeks ago today. Lexar Canada delivered a brand new, boxed, card this morning. No complaints here considering that there were 2 3 day weekends in between and that really screws up deliveries. It would have been faster but they just got there first shipment of replacement cards last Thursday.

[cmosman]

Lexar UK confirmed by telephone that the card I received is brand new, not re-conditioned.

Good news:D

[Benmok7]

In reply to Jackal, I find that if you open a file from the CF card and then pull the CF card reader out of the USB drive this will corrupt the file.

Or is it something else????? My Lexar 1g came with the camera package and I had 3 corrupted files on 1 day.
: (

Ben

[txeventphoto]

Appreciate the link - usually buy SanDisk & never a problem with them. Got the Lexar in a package deal with my 20D & have had problems with using in both that body as well as my 1DII. Looking forward to the replacement - will expand my capacities for bigger events if it is reliable! Had just put the Lexar aside with the problems was having.

[selector]

I've got a problem with Canon Digital Rebel (350D)
and 1GB Lexar CF card (last 4 digits on the side stamp - 9171).
The card stopped working while inside the camera.
I had many images on the card - and now I can't
restore them.

According to the Lexar web site, it is a known problem
for these cards (with this exact stamp) - and I can send
the card back to them for replacement.

QUESTION:
IS THERE ANY WAY TO RESTORE THE PICTURES ??

I am using the Lexar USB 2.0 CompactFlash Reader.
I tried both Windows XP and Macintosh computers.
I also tried the Lexar software (ImageRescue2).
It doesn't help, because the computer can't
read the card properly. It starts (I can see that it
finds the CANON folder and the size of the card),
but then it hangs - and just keeps re-trying to read.

I tried to do the firmware upgrade using this software - but
it doesn't find any updates. Probably because it can't read
the firmware version on the card.

The reader itself works perfectly well with other cards
(Lexar, Sandisk). And it worked with this one until
the card got corrupted.

I have also tried Norton Disk Utilities - but it can't read
the card (says that the device is not connected).

May be there is a way to read the card on a lower
(hardware) level ? I thought may be t here is an upgrade
driver to the reader - but there is none on Lexar site.

Any suggestions?
May be there are some readers / drivers which would allow me to read the card?
What about rescue services - any recommendations?

Lev

[Juan Zas]

Hi Lev,

I have recovered images from demaged CF with success using this program:

PhotoOne Recovery 2.0, there is a trial version you can try; here it´s the link:

http://www.photoone.net/product_recovery.asp

Good Luck