Body, card or reader failure?

I'm getting corrupt shots, and trying to narrow this one down.

This is the shot

HTTP response: 404 | MIME changed to 'image/png' | Byte size: ZERO

Thinking this through a bit more as I was writing this post.

I don't see the bad shots on the LCD - but I don't know if thats because I'm missing them (they don't happen often), or they are corrupt in the download.

I have a shoot coming up today, I'm going to download using the direct USB cable instead of through the reader to see if it helps - it's not a garantee though, as I may not get a corrupt shot.

Looks like a corrupted card, try formatting it in the camera, see if it happens again, if it does, then try confirm with another card plus other computer to confirm where the fault lies

yeah - I've formatted all my cards, it's happened on a couple of them now.

I'm downloading a shoot from the camera direct, with no error yet - but thats not a confirmation as I've had shoots with no issues before.

pcj wrote in post #10013140
I'm downloading a shoot from the camera direct, with no error yet - but thats not a confirmation as I've had shoots with no issues before.

I was just going to suggest trying that to see if it still did it that way.

If I read the OP correctly, you can re-download and it corrects itself? It sounds like the card reader may be the problem here. Maybe keep downloading directly from the camera for a while, or borrow another (or replace the) card reader.

My best guess would be the card reader. Every corrupt file I have ever had has not been the camera or the card, it's been the reader. A cheap enough fix.

jdrtrumpet1 wrote in post #10013796
I was just going to suggest trying that to see if it still did it that way.

If I read the OP correctly, you can re-download and it corrects itself? It sounds like the card reader may be the problem here. Maybe keep downloading directly from the camera for a while, or borrow another (or replace the) card reader.

I just switched memory cards during a shoot - one card, in the reader, failed three or four times during import (but I have no corrupt to show for it), the other card from the camera direct, no problem.

So I took that second card, shot some more, put it in the reader, and it failed a couple of times.

I think I'll pick up a new reader and give it a second shot. It's so hard to troubleshoot, because I can't *make* it fail, and I'm still concerned it's the camera itself.

I had this happen, but much worse. I had removed my memory card from my camera, then inserted into friends card reader on her laptop. Mine were very jumbled up. After some research online we determined it was her computer and the way Windows Vista/card reader handled the high capacity card. my online research showed it was a known Vista issue. The same memory card has always worked fine, before and after.

I've had similar problems with my 5D and actually sent the body in to Canon. They replaced one of the boards but the problem persisted. It has to be something in PC processing as I've had good images go bad simply by editing them in PS Elements.
By the way, I understand the thumbnail image is a different part of the file than the viewable image itself (someone correct that statement if it is incorrect.)

For anyone following along, I think I've narrowed this one down to my reader going screwey.

I just downloaded a shoot - and it crashed half way through. I was able to re-mount the reader and keep downloading, but I took 355 shots and downloaded 354. One failed.

I put the card back in the camera without erasing, shot 10 more, then used the Canon download cable to pull the unique shots off the camera directly - 11 unique shots - the one that failed to download on the first attempt was now available and was perfectly clear (not corrupted at all).

I've done a few more small shoots around the house and downloaded them all from the camera direct with no failures. I'll keep this method up for a while and if I get no more failures, I'll dump the old reader and shop for a new reader.