5DMII to 5DMIII problems

So I recently bought a 5DMIII as I phase out my MII. Whenever I put a memory card in my camera for a new shoot I always format it to clear it. I've been using the MIII for two weeks now with no troubles... until today. I put a CF card in, formated it, and shot on it. Everything looks fine on camera, I see all the images I expect and none of the ones I don't. But, now I put that card in a reader on my computer and I see only the images that I took on that card from the MII and none of the ones from the MIII... What's up? Anyone know what I did wrong? How can I get the images I took on the MIII, with a cable to the camera? How can I prevent this in the future? I thought formatting the card in the camera you use it in made it right.... no?!

Don't format the card that much. If its file system is doing its job without errors there's zero reason to reformat it between shoots. Perhaps you solved a problem in the past with this ritual but it's completely unnecessary. Do you format your hard drive each time you use your computer? There's no reason why the two different bodies can't share a card.

Dermit wrote in post #14967356
So I recently bought a 5DMIII as I phase out my MII. Whenever I put a memory card in my camera for a new shoot I always format it to clear it. I've been using the MIII for two weeks now with no troubles... until today. I put a CF card in, formated it, and shot on it. Everything looks fine on camera, I see all the images I expect and none of the ones I don't. But, now I put that card in a reader on my computer and I see only the images that I took on that card from the MII and none of the ones from the MIII... What's up? Anyone know what I did wrong? How can I get the images I took on the MIII, with a cable to the camera? How can I prevent this in the future? I thought formatting the card in the camera you use it in made it right.... no?!

lago_b wrote in post #14967376
Don't format the card that much. If its file system is doing its job without errors there's zero reason to reformat it between shoots. Perhaps you solved a problem in the past with this ritual but it's completely unnecessary. Do you format your hard drive each time you use your computer? There's no reason why the two different bodies can't share a card.

So you do a delete all to erase images? That takes longer, at least it used to. But the main question here is there IS a problem. I am not getting any images off this card from the new camera and only seeing old images from the old camera.... any solution?

After I import images I post-process and delete them from the card after I'm satisfied with the final output. This could be minutes or months.

Each time you format that card you may just be doing a high-level format, which means errors can slip by instead being detected and either corrected or marked as bad sectors which can no longer be written to. I'm not sure if in-camera formatting is high or low level or something in between. If it's super quick when you do it then it's likely high-level and the card could have recurring file system issues or surface problems which are being written to.

Try and check the card for errors using whatever disk check is available in your OS. Then try the cable. Or vice versa.

Dermit wrote in post #14967425
So you do a delete all to erase images? That takes longer, at least it used to. But the main question here is there IS a problem. I am not getting any images off this card from the new camera and only seeing old images from the old camera.... any solution?

The EOS 5D Mark III Owners manual even says that if it is a new card or if it was used in any other camera or if it is full of images or data you need to format it.

Currently I am trying rescue pro to recover... the cable from the Mark III to the computer still only makes it see the old pics.

Are you sure you are looking at the right card? This seems like a simple user error like looking at a CF card, but all the images are on the SD card.

If you formatted the card, you should not see any images. This is what leads me to think a simpler user error.

formatting isn't going to hurt anything and they're zero reasons why he shouldn't format between shoots.

The 5D3 format menu says "low level" format, but all it really does is a reinitialization of the card (zero-fill).

And just deleting the images doesn't provide anything as well.

Not to argue terms, but low level formatting is not what you think it is. Low level formatting is done at the factory and not even possible on modern hard drives without special factory utilities. Reinitialization is what zero-fills the hard drives, and what people confuse with a low level format. A "quick" format only removes the pointers in the FAT (file allocation table) and is typically called high level formatting. Disk checks like checking for bad sectors can be done in a high level format or reinitialization format.


back to the OP..
Are you sure your 5D3 is writing to the card you think it's writing to? When you pull a CF card and leave a SD card in a slot, it will default to the SD card for writes and playback. You have to switch it back to the CF card.

I would suggest formatting the card in camera, make sure it is writing to the correct card, and shoot again.

Gregg.Siam wrote in post #14967644
Are you sure you are looking at the right card? This seems like a simple user error like looking at a CF card, but all the images are on the SD card.

If you formatted the card, you should not see any images. This is what leads me to think a simpler user error.


formatting isn't going to hurt anything and they're zero reasons why he shouldn't format between shoots.

The 5D3 format menu says "low level" format, but all it really does is a reinitialization of the card (zero-fill).


And just deleting the images doesn't provide anything as well.

Not to argue terms, but low level formatting is not what you think it is. Low level formatting is done at the factory and not even possible on modern hard drives without special factory utilities. Reinitialization is what zero-fills the hard drives, and what people confuse with a low level format. A "quick" format only removes the pointers in the FAT (file allocation table) and is typically called high level formatting. Disk checks like checking for bad sectors can be done in a high level format or reinitialization format.


back to the OP..
Are you sure your 5D3 is writing to the card you think it's writing to? When you pull a CF card and leave a SD card in a slot, it will default to the SD card for writes and playback. You have to switch it back to the CF card.

I would suggest formatting the card in camera, make sure it is writing to the correct card, and shoot again.

Gregg.Siam,
You are a genius, I am an idiot. This is exactly what it was. Somehow, somewhere the Mark III started writing to the SD card. I never remember consciously switching to this card. The Mark III is the first camera I've had that has dual slots. Anyway, problem solved! Thanks! And I plan on continuing to format my cards every time I need to start a fresh shoot. That's the way I've done it for ten years with no problems.

OK, so I just learned something. If you have a CF and an SD loaded in the camera with only the CF chosen to write to, then pull the CF card, dump contents on computer, Turn on the camera at anytime without the CF card loaded and the SD card only loaded then reload CF card, the SD card will be the chosen card. To write to. It will not default back to where you had it because it was forced to select the SD card since it was the only one loaded at one point in time. This is a gotcha. When I think about it it makes sense for the camera to do this, but it got me because I never switched them myself so was not thinking about which card it was writing on....

I have never seen anyone burned by the format before every use rule. The recommendations to not format are contrary to any advice that I have ever heard from any knowledgeable source.

Dermit wrote in post #14967735
OK, so I just learned something. If you have a CF and an SD loaded in the camera with only the CF chosen to write to, then pull the CF card, dump contents on computer, Turn on the camera at anytime without the CF card loaded and the SD card only loaded then reload CF card, the SD card will be the chosen card. To write to. It will not default back to where you had it because it was forced to select the SD card since it was the only one loaded at one point in time. This is a gotcha. When I think about it it makes sense for the camera to do this, but it got me because I never switched them myself so was not thinking about which card it was writing on....

If you have images on your CF and you turn off the camera, then turn it on, the camera will switch to the SD and there is no warning that this has happened. I finally removed the SD media so that I could keep the camera running at its highest speed.

benttop wrote in post #14969609
If you have images on your CF and you turn off the camera, then turn it on, the camera will switch to the SD and there is no warning that this has happened. I finally removed the SD media so that I could keep the camera running at its highest speed.

Nope. It only goes to the SD card if you remove the CF card and put it back in. I turn mine off all the time and it always defaults to the CF card. Are you sure you have the CF card set as default?

The whole "SD card slows it down" is just wrong unless you are writing to both cards. The SD card simply being in the slot doesn't slow down the CF card. (the blog that initially started this whole rumor has since went back and corrected their mistake)

Dermit wrote in post #14967711
Gregg.Siam,
You are a genius, I am an idiot. This is exactly what it was. Somehow, somewhere the Mark III started writing to the SD card. I never remember consciously switching to this card. The Mark III is the first camera I've had that has dual slots. Anyway, problem solved! Thanks! And I plan on continuing to format my cards every time I need to start a fresh shoot. That's the way I've done it for ten years with no problems.

LOL, im sorry butthat was quite funny as we've all done it at one point me not as yet good

Gregg.Siam wrote in post #14970737
Nope. It only goes to the SD card if you remove the CF card and put it back in. I turn mine off all the time and it always defaults to the CF card. Are you sure you have the CF card set as default?

The whole "SD card slows it down" is just wrong unless you are writing to both cards. The SD card simply being in the slot doesn't slow down the CF card. (the blog that initially started this whole rumor has since went back and corrected their mistake)

I believe that is how I have it set, but now you have me challenging myself. I shall confirm before I rebut.

Okay. Let's see if I understand this. Suppose I'm using both cards. CF for RAW and SD for JPEG,I remove CF card, install new CF card, do I need to reset the settings or will my original settings continue to be in effect.

OK I guess my confusion is that the manual completely sux in this area.

I cannot say which way I had it set before, but I just this minute confirmed that if it is set to Standard, with the CF set to play back, it always records to the CF until it's full. Likewise if it is set to Auto Switch card it stays on the CF until it is full, then switches.

Edit: Hm. I cannot duplicate the condition I previously experienced in which the camera decided on its own to switch to the SD. I'm not sure what happened, but I can say it appears to be working just as I would expect. Odd, but I'm happy.