images did not write to cf card

Took some shots at an event, and the camera gave me a message that it could not format the card. this happened in the middle of the memory of that card. later found out that ten images were missing. can they be found in the cameras internal memory somewhere? we ran a recovery program, but can't find the images. any ideas?

There is no internal memory, sorry...

It could be a corrupted card.
Beware of unreliable no name brand cards you buy.

Sounds like a corrupt CF card, try another CF card and see if it happens again. If so then maybe something with the camera. Also you can test your bad CF card out on a buddies camera as well to make sure it is the card.

Beware of cheap memory. Invest in a quality CF card like Sandisk or Lexar...it's minimal cost for peace of mind

Memory cards are like batteries. They are great until they stop working!

You should always have a backup card and always have a backup battery, and have them with you in your bag.

gfigge wrote in post #12889196
Took some shots at an event, and the camera gave me a message that it could not format the card. this happened in the middle of the memory of that card. later found out that ten images were missing. can they be found in the cameras internal memory somewhere? we ran a recovery program, but can't find the images. any ideas?

This is why, when I had my XTi. I always had 6 Sandisk Ultra or Lexar Platnium CF cards on hand.

Image recovery software might work, work partially, or not at all. Probably the OP's images are lost. The camera certainly does not retain anything in memory (On a related note, be sure to set your camera to not be able to shoot without a memory card installed... Otherwise it's possible to shoot a bunch without a card, and each image is disposed when a new one is taken. Nothing is saved!)

One key thing... It's important to format memory cards in camera... I make a habit of doing this each and every time I insert a card....which I do fairly often... I have fourteen 8GB and two 16GB that I use most of the time and somtimes fill in a day's shooting... plus a bunch of smaller/other cards used in older backup cameras and P&Ss.

Formatting clears the memory card and preps it for new images. In the past I've gotten in trouble with a card that was formatted in computer or in another brand of camera (a friend's Nikon), had some minor errors when I didn't make it a habit to format cards regularly. Another thing that screwed up some of my images was trying to download via a USB hub... Problem cleared up completely when I attached the card reader directly to the computer instead. My current destop has a built-in memory card reader, that's considerably faster than USB 2/Firewire 400 I've used in the past (important when I have ~150GB of images to download!).

Lots of recent camera models, you can set up Format as a top item in My Menu, making it fast and easy to access. It takes me about 3 or 4 seconds to install and format a card now.

It's rare, but memory cards do sometimes go bad or develop bad sectors. Some softwares "inspect/test" memory cards and will map out any bad sectors, so they won't be used when data is stored to the card.

Actually this might have been done on the card right at the factory. It's not uncommon for memory to have one or a few bad sectors right from new. Each one is tested and bad sectors mapped out... You never even know it when you buy the card. If one of those were accidentally "unmapped", it might start causing errors (just a guess, I am no expert on this stuff!). Most memroy is actually made with some extra "headroom" so the card's size isn't changed if a few sectors are mapped out, whether at the factory or later by the user. I think it's Lexar Image Rescue that I've used to "test and condition" memory cards this way in the past.

happened to some transcend cards of mine.

Sounds like they died a digital death.

There are two kinds of photographers:

1) Those that have lost images
2) Those that will lose images

This was/is as true for film as it is for digital...

Dont forget to disable taking pictures when there is no CF card present....been there done that.....for testing purposes only.

Some cameras (5D MkII) using the CF cards have been known to end up with bent pins in the card socket of the camera. Typically this presents an error about the card needing to be formatted but not always. Remove the card and with a bright light look very carefully donw into the card socket. More on this problem at https://photography-on-the.net …?t=1016614&high​light=bent.

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