Image looks like a puzzle!

[Del99]

Hello, I'm new to the forum, but a long-time SLR user, and I'm relieved to find a place where I can ask some troubleshooting questions about my new (fairly expensive) purchase.

I have had my Digital XT for about a month or so and taken maybe 250 really great pictures. Just this past weekend I had three pictures become scrambled. When I was reviewing the shots in the play mode I noticed that these three images (taken at different times) looked like mixed up puzzles of 3-4 pieces (the top is on the bottom, sides flipped, etc.) I thought maybe it was just the viewfinder, but sure enough when I downloaded them I found them to be truly scrambled jpegs. Has anyone experienced this or have I purchased a dud camera?

The shots can be viewed at the following link: http://www3.telus.net/delaney/

Help!
Delaney

[tim]

Welcome to POTN :)

That's very very strange, i've never heard of that before. I'd try a different memory card and see if it happens again. If it doesn't, it's the card, if it does, it's the camera.

That's not very helpful, but maybe someone else has some ideas.

[Roy P]

Like Tim I have never seen anything like this and afraid cannot suggest a reason, but welcome to the forum and someone may have other ideas.

[felix21685]

you know some images do that to me when i photo stich them.
if i open them in explorer instead of photo stich ive had images that have done that to me.

but in your case i have no idea..i would reset the camera and try another card.

[robertwgross]

I would swap out the CF card first.

It's just a guess, but it sounds more like a faulty CF card than anything else. Of course, sometimes CF card faults are created by the user (opening the CF door too early, for example).

---Bob Gross---

[Del99]

Thanks for the comments so far! I will definitely investigate the memory card. I look forward to further comments.

Delaney

[elbirth]

I'd definitely check the card first as has been suggested.

but I just wanted to also say that I've had something similar happen only on 1 picture taken on my 20D. What mine did, however, was to cut off part of the left side and put it on the right (like the bottom portion of your shot with the girl on the horse).
Mine actually happened somehow when transferring around on my computer. I transferred them all off the CF card and went through them and they were fine... I copied them to another drive and also to another computer over the network, and the other computer showed the odd variation... I'm guessing it somehow got corrupted when going over the network, not sure if you've transferred your files around to cause it....

[joeseph]

Delaney,
I still get grumpy remembering this shot caused by a faulty flashcard, which I had replaced:
http://joebloggs.servebeer.com/potn/IMG_1573s.jpg

I've now changed camera's and the other day came up with this photographic gem:
http://joebloggs.servebeer.com/potn/IMG_0437s.jpg
which is pretty obviously a different problem. It occured when I had the 20D in mirror lockup & timer mode and took a shot - noticing nothing happening on shutter press I took a chimp at the screen to see what was happening when the shutter fired.

[photoshooter]

ive had this happen before and had err messages i reformatted the card and no promblems since if it has happen to anyone its happen to me my luck is nillllllllllllllllll:rolleyes: :( ;) :p

[condyk]

Had you been drinking before you took these shots? :lol: :lol: :lol:

If it only happened the one time and hasn't happened since then I would reformat the card, 'reboot' the camera and forget it.

[Mohawk]

Which brand of card, and do you reformat it on a regular basis? Sounds like a reformating problem. I know I have had problems with my Sandisk cards if I do not reformat on a regular basis, but I use two different bodies too, and occaisionally get them mixed up.

Mike

[mattsiesco]

With my sony cameras and memory sticks, I've had that issue. I would have to take out the memory card and re-insert it whenever it would screw up. I think it was just a bad card, so perhaps its the same for the CF card. As stated, reformatting may help.

[speedy_2]

I've had this problem before. But, I've also had the same problem when transfering photos. Someone want a pic that I had on my computer. Moved it to a USB flash drive. Then, when they viewed it on their computer. It looked like a puzzle. Again, a reformat of the USB flash and everything was ok.

[Nightcrawler]

I had a few corrupted RAW files and some messed up JPEGs with my 20D this last weekend. It makes me feel a little better knowing that it is most likely not my camera but maybe my CF card. I am using a 1GB Viking card. I have had absolutely no problems with it until now and I have taken many thousands of images with it.

[Nightcrawler]

From the examples in this thread, it almost looks like the camera stopped processing the images and just wrote what it had in memory to the card.

[93octane]

Put in a new ROLL of FLIM that will fix it:D Just kidding probably the Memory Card Reformat I had problems with my 300D where it started deleting pictures automatically after 20-30 shots on a 512MB after the format is was fine. And someone sugguested to format your card before each shoot which I do and haven't had any problems.

[Del99]

:) Thank you for all of your helpful comments. I called the store where I bought the camera and CF card, and apparently they've been exchanging a fair number of cards - but the reason appears to not be because the card is faulty, but because it is too fast! I purchased a 66x card (upon their recommendation) but apparently there are some problems with SLRs of all brands in being able to keep up with the speed of the card. Apparently, the camera manufacturers are not necessarily keeping their firmware up-to-date with the increasing speeds of the cards. The store rep recommended an exchange to a 45x card, which they have not had any problems with on newer cameras (the 45x cards caused similar problems when they were first released, but the cameras are now up to speed.) (To be honest, I don't really understand the importance of card speed, and it probably isn't even detectable, but I doubt that I needed the fastest card on the market. Stores just seem to want to always sell you the latest and greatest.) So, I'll try a slower card, and see what happens...
Delaney

[felix21685]

what brand was it ? dont remember readin that info up top.

i dont think it would be the camera that needs to be updated..
seems like the card manufacturer should have made the card compatible with the camera.
i believe ultra II's are 60x or 66 and they work fine with my XT..

[robertwgross]

:) Thank you for all of your helpful comments. I called the store where I bought the camera and CF card, and apparently they've been exchanging a fair number of cards - but the reason appears to not be because the card is faulty, but because it is too fast! I purchased a 66x card (upon their recommendation) but apparently there are some problems with SLRs of all brands in being able to keep up with the speed of the card. Apparently, the camera manufacturers are not necessarily keeping their firmware up-to-date with the increasing speeds of the cards. The store rep recommended an exchange to a 45x card, which they have not had any problems with on newer cameras (the 45x cards caused similar problems when they were first released, but the cameras are now up to speed.) (To be honest, I don't really understand the importance of card speed, and it probably isn't even detectable, but I doubt that I needed the fastest card on the market. Stores just seem to want to always sell you the latest and greatest.) So, I'll try a slower card, and see what happens...
Delaney

Delaney, if you can identify which store clerk told you that stuff about the card being too fast, then avoid him at all costs. That was total b.s.

The hell of it is that a store clerk can tell you anything like that they want, and there is no record made of the conversation, so you have no recourse. The clerk can simply claim that you misunderstood what he really said. For that matter, maybe you did misunderstand. A camera store clerk that says that stuff and means it needs to move over to McDonalds or something.

---Bob Gross---

[theflyingkiwi]

That is a very interesting problem. A couple of other things that I would recommend is looking at the pins used in both the camera and your card reader. The problem looks like to me a corrupt imagine file. I wouldn't think the camera would do this (but you never know) so I would image that this problem would either happen when the camera is writing to the card, or when the data is being copied to the PC.

a simple format of the card would tell you if you are having a problem with the card.

One other thing to do and that is check the images on the card before you transfer them to the PC, if you see that they are damaged, with out touching the card put it back in to the camera and then do a preview, if the camera shows the same thing you saw on your machine, then it's a problem with the camera or writing the data to the card.

If however they look fine, then the problem is between when you take it out and connect it to the machine.

As Bob said, is 100% correct. If the card is rated at xx speed and the camera does a slower speed then everything will operate at the speed of the camera.

[Salleke]

:) Thank you for all of your helpful comments. I called the store where I bought the camera and CF card, and apparently they've been exchanging a fair number of cards - but the reason appears to not be because the card is faulty, but because it is too fast! I purchased a 66x card (upon their recommendation) but apparently there are some problems with SLRs of all brands in being able to keep up with the speed of the card. Apparently, the camera manufacturers are not necessarily keeping their firmware up-to-date with the increasing speeds of the cards. The store rep recommended an exchange to a 45x card, which they have not had any problems with on newer cameras (the 45x cards caused similar problems when they were first released, but the cameras are now up to speed.) (To be honest, I don't really understand the importance of card speed, and it probably isn't even detectable, but I doubt that I needed the fastest card on the market. Stores just seem to want to always sell you the latest and greatest.) So, I'll try a slower card, and see what happens...
Delaney

Like Bob said: forget what this store rep told you. If your card is faulty go back to that store and insist on replacing your CF card with a Sandisk.
Bob - If that store rep moves over to Mc Donalds I would'nt eat there ever again. Who knows what he would serve his custumers ... :rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes:

[Mitcon]

Hi and welcome to the forums :).

I have a 350D/XT also and had this same exact problem when I first got my camera. The people that suggested the CF card hit the nail on the head. I have used several brands and speeds of cards and found several incompatable to the 350D/XT. It's not the speed in itself as the fastest card I've used is the most stable.

I think it maybe a card firmware issue, as the faster cards made in Tiawan seem to give me the most problems, but the slower ones seem fine. Formatting the card won't help either. You will find that it is drive related because it seems worse when you put the camera in high speed drive/burst mode. I've had no problems at all with the Sandisk Ultra II range.

Change to a better card and you should have no problems.

[I Simonius]

:) Thank you for all of your helpful comments. I called the store where I bought the camera and CF card, and apparently they've been exchanging a fair number of cards - but the reason appears to not be because the card is faulty, but because it is too fast! I purchased a 66x card (upon their recommendation) but apparently there are some problems with SLRs of all brands in being able to keep up with the speed of the card. Apparently, the camera manufacturers are not necessarily keeping their firmware up-to-date with the increasing speeds of the cards. The store rep recommended an exchange to a 45x card, which they have not had any problems with on newer cameras (the 45x cards caused similar problems when they were first released, but the cameras are now up to speed.) (To be honest, I don't really understand the importance of card speed, and it probably isn't even detectable, but I doubt that I needed the fastest card on the market. Stores just seem to want to always sell you the latest and greatest.) So, I'll try a slower card, and see what happens...
Delaney

Hmmm. sounds like merde du cheval to me :D
I suspect you arre being palmed off with techobabble
I have never had the problem you had but I had big pink lines down more than one card and they swapped my 20D and the cards, so Canon thought it was the camera, and the shop thought it was the cards

Never had it since ( digits intertwined :D )

[Jon, The Elder]

Del99 - BobGross has it pretty well said. Couple of key things to remember- reformat your card IN CAMERA ONLY, and regularly. It is a matter of camera firmware and computer software not speaking the same language. Just deleting from your card reader isn't enough.
I noticed in your phots that they are 'jpg medium' Why spend money on a great camera and then limit its capabilities? Just conserving on your CF card space? You will eventually end up with several CF cards, so don't cheat yourself on the quality of the images. Tell your wife you need a belated Fathers Day CF card - worked for me !

[Del99]

Del99 - BobGross has it pretty well said. Couple of key things to remember- reformat your card IN CAMERA ONLY, and regularly. It is a matter of camera firmware and computer software not speaking the same language. Just deleting from your card reader isn't enough.
I noticed in your phots that they are 'jpg medium' Why spend money on a great camera and then limit its capabilities? Just conserving on your CF card space? You will eventually end up with several CF cards, so don't cheat yourself on the quality of the images. Tell your wife you need a belated Fathers Day CF card - worked for me !

Hmmmmm...well, I will consider all of your comments. It could definitely be related to card brand, as I think I have a Taiwan genero-brand card.

To respond to setiprime - the only reason those photos were called 'medium' was to save on upload time to my website. I reduced my original (full resolution) photos using my XP PowerToy Image Resizer tool. I never skimp on resolution. Cheers!