Slight problem.... camera? file? transfer? HELP PLEASE!!!

[Doctor]

Ok guys, slight problem here, it happened occasionally, but of late, its happened more and more often. This photo was shot of a Canon 400d, purchased in february, now shot approx 9,500 photos, dont know about shutter actuations, (dont know how to tell)

Occasionally this can be seen on the raw file, the rest of the time, its not until the photo is opened in CS3 that what you can see here appears, is this a camera fault, a transfer fault off the camera, a fault in converting the file from raw or what? is there some way i can stop this

[sirhc55]

Have you tried another CF card?

[Doctor]

Have you tried another CF card?

It doesnt seem to be effected by CF cards, and its difficult to judge when its going to happen, out of 50 odd shots tonight, i got 3 with this sort of thing on it, over the course of last week, i shot nearly 1000 photos, and got maybe 2 from memory, its a thought though, will certainly try different cards and see how we go

Cheers

[gstark]

What Chris said.

Unless you try different cards, there's no way that you can begin to isolate and identify this problem.

As you noted, this is a rare occurrence - you said 3 times in about 1K shots? So yes, rare, but bloody annoying. You will need to run the alternate cards in the camera to try to see if the problem recurs.

And if not, then you will never know for sure, but you will have a good idea.

What's your procedure for resetting your cards? Do you simply delete images, or do you reformat the card? and whatever you do, is that done in the camera, or on a pc or ?????

And what sort of card does this happen on? Does it happen on just the one card, or on more than one card?

[Doctor]

From what i can see its not isolated to one card, i dont recall what cards this type of image has been produced from, (i have 2 4 gig, and a 512mb), prior to this, i simply deleted all the images off the card via the camera, the only card reader i have is in my HP printer and takes way to long to do anything, so i dont bother with it. I use Kingston CF cards, mainly 4 gig ones, due to the price i get them at, im not keen on using no name ones and have never had a problem with kingston stuff prior, but a few people have mentioned that they were unaware they existed.

But out of 50 shots last night, 3 were like this, and the 1000 prior, maybe 3 at most, its confusing, i have formatted the cards now, and will see how i go!

Thanks guys!

[methd]

From what i can see its not isolated to one card, i dont recall what cards this type of image has been produced from, (i have 2 4 gig, and a 512mb), prior to this, i simply deleted all the images off the card via the camera, the only card reader i have is in my HP printer and takes way to long to do anything, so i dont bother with it. I use Kingston CF cards, mainly 4 gig ones, due to the price i get them at, im not keen on using no name ones and have never had a problem with kingston stuff prior, but a few people have mentioned that they were unaware they existed.

But out of 50 shots last night, 3 were like this, and the 1000 prior, maybe 3 at most, its confusing, i have formatted the cards now, and will see how i go!

Thanks guys!

try formatting the card in-camera before each use rather than deleting images.

[DaveB]

What if you set your camera to RAW+JPEG, so that next time it happens you can see if the problem exists in both the JPEG and RAW images?
If it does then obviously the problem is not in writing to the card (what would the odds be of both images getting corrupted in the same way in different file formats?) and at that point I would suspect loose cables inside the camera (e.g. one of the ribbon connectors that go from the sensor to the PCB).

I had a problem with a D30 some years back that visually was vaguely similar, and it turned out to be just a loose connector (the camera had gone through some heavy treatment by then).

[Doctor]

What if you set your camera to RAW+JPEG, so that next time it happens you can see if the problem exists in both the JPEG and RAW images?
If it does then obviously the problem is not in writing to the card (what would the odds be of both images getting corrupted in the same way in different file formats?) and at that point I would suspect loose cables inside the camera (e.g. one of the ribbon connectors that go from the sensor to the PCB).

I had a problem with a D30 some years back that visually was vaguely similar, and it turned out to be just a loose connector (the camera had gone through some heavy treatment by then).

Ok, so i did this, shot in both raw and jpeg, and a few hundred photos later it happened again, but this time in the RAW shot, so i take it this means i lose the camera for a period of time while it goes to canon???

[Ant]

What if you set your camera to RAW+JPEG, so that next time it happens you can see if the problem exists in both the JPEG and RAW images?
If it does then obviously the problem is not in writing to the card (what would the odds be of both images getting corrupted in the same way in different file formats?) and at that point I would suspect loose cables inside the camera (e.g. one of the ribbon connectors that go from the sensor to the PCB).

I had a problem with a D30 some years back that visually was vaguely similar, and it turned out to be just a loose connector (the camera had gone through some heavy treatment by then).

Ok, so i did this, shot in both raw and jpeg, and a few hundred photos later it happened again, but this time in the RAW shot, so i take it this means i lose the camera for a period of time while it goes to canon???

Did you shoot in RAW+JPeg? Was the image the same in the RAW image and the JPeg image? If the same in both then probably the camera, if only in one of the two then inconclusive.

Ant.

[Doctor]

Did you shoot in RAW+JPeg? Was the image the same in the RAW image and the JPeg image? If the same in both then probably the camera, if only in one of the two then inconclusive.

Ant.

Only on the raw shot, not both, the jpeg seems to be fine, this is by the way, viewing them in Adobe Bridge....... I have no idea what else to use to view RAW files, i saw in the general discussion area someone using another adobe program, lightroom i think..... but they will view the file the same i suspect given that its the same data they are reading....

Chris

[Doctor]

Ok, so this problem has popped up again, but to make it more confusing, Brand new Body, and a different brand CF card......

Canon 50d, and a Scandisk 4gb Compact Flash card, Camera is not even 1,000 photos old yet, had it since friday

In Bridge, it comes up blue, opened into Photoshop, CS3, Pink. Shot in raw, no jpeg.

Cant be a card reader issue, as i dont use one, only use the USB cable that came with the camera.......



Can anyone shed some light on this? So far its been shots that i wont use, but id hate for it to happen on a brilliant shot....

[Big Red]

its likely to be the USB connector on your computer, try a different one.

[Doctor]

its likely to be the USB connector on your computer, try a different one.

I thought the same thing, will be trying a different one next time i upload, any other ideas?

[big pix]

had similar while I was using a firwire upload device. it only happened every now and then and I put it down to the card, but no, it was a conflict between firewire devices that I had pluged into the computer at the time.

Disconected all other drives, printers etc when uploading, and since then not had a problem......... hope this helps

[Doctor]

I am beginning to believe that it is a software problem on my computer, and not a hardware problem. While browsing some photos from the weekend, i clicked onto an image to have it open and snap to a similar thing as i have posted previously. This is in Adobe Bridge.... Can anyone shed any light on this? All my raw files are opened through this as it allows me to browse the raw files and view them before putting them through Photoshop.......

Any other programs i could use? I have Lightroom 2, but do not understand it enough, and got frustrated last time i opened it.

[big pix]

....... Nikon view comes at the right price on the Nikon web site........ I now use this for viewing and checking images

[ATJ]

....... Nikon view comes at the right price on the Nikon web site........

I suspect it won't be able to read Canon raw files.

[ATJ]

Any other programs i could use? I have Lightroom 2, but do not understand it enough, and got frustrated last time i opened it.

At the very least, you could import the photos in Lightroom and see if they display the same characteristics.

Does Canon provide any tools for viewing raw images?

[big pix]

....... Nikon view comes at the right price on the Nikon web site........

I suspect it won't be able to read Canon raw files.

....... opps........ missed that bit of vital information........ sorry.........

maybe Canon has something

[JC_Denton]

IrfanView is a free imageviewer that can read RAW files once you install the plugins it needs (also free, from the irFanView website). It can read Nikon .NEF files, so probably can read canon RAW.

http://www.irfanview.com/

Microsoft also has a 'Powertoy' available that allows Windows picture viewer (not a very nice program) to view RAW files, and also allows the thumbnail previewing of RAWs http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/downloads/powertoys/xppowertoys.mspx. I have just tried this powertoy myself and I think it might be buggy as Explore keeps crashing when I am moving .NEFs around. It also doesn't seem to want to uninstall, so i wouldn't recommend it but it's another option. You could also try spome demos of other image apps like Paint Shop Pro, FSViewer, ACDSee etc. - I am not sure if they all have Canon RAW support.


I think you should try to isolate what is causing the problem a bit more - it sounds like it is not the camera, try and read the same card (with a defective image on it) on a card reader and on a different computer. If you can't get access to another computer, you could post the RAW file somewhere and someone here might be able to open it to check. The trick woth these sorts of computer related problems is to try and test each likely cause, and to only test one thing at a time. Good luck!

[Doctor]

Thanks for the replies guys

Opening Lightroom to test the theory (i hadnt thought of that thanks) To get a notice pop up telling me that they now have the download to support 50d raw, so im in the process of downloading it now, but my net is running ridiculously slow at the moment for some reason

As for trying the photos on another computer off the same card, no other computer i have access to can read RAW files, so thats kinda outta the question at the moment.

Im in the process of getting an inbuilt card reader put into my computer so will test it then when/if another defective image appears

Not keen on any Microsoft plugins, they never seem to just work like some other stuff, and as you said, i may encounter problems running it, and uninstalling it

ACDsee has been suggested to me, will look into it

Thanks again

Chris

[JC_Denton]

As for trying the photos on another computer off the same card, no other computer i have access to can read RAW files, so thats kinda outta the question at the moment.

You could try installing irfanView on another machine - it is only a few MBs. You could also take a memory card into an internet cafe - they usually have a card reader so they can burn tourists photos to disc. then you could bring the files homew on the disc and see if there is a difference.

[Doctor]

As for trying the photos on another computer off the same card, no other computer i have access to can read RAW files, so thats kinda outta the question at the moment.

You could try installing irfanView on another machine - it is only a few MBs. You could also take a memory card into an internet cafe - they usually have a card reader so they can burn tourists photos to disc. then you could bring the files homew on the disc and see if there is a difference.

Your a thinkin man!

[who]

and a Scandisk 4gb Compact Flash card

That sounds like a nasty Chinese knockoff or a typo

Good luck in solving your problem......

[darklightphotography]

If you can post a raw file with the problem up somewhere then others can see if it opens OK. Then you can narrow the problem down a bit.

[Doctor]

If you can post a raw file with the problem up somewhere then others can see if it opens OK. Then you can narrow the problem down a bit.

Brilliant idea.... any ideas on where one could host such a file?

[darklightphotography]

If you can post a raw file with the problem up somewhere then others can see if it opens OK. Then you can narrow the problem down a bit.

Brilliant idea.... any ideas on where one could host such a file?

Any one of these places could do - http://www.google.com.au/search?q=FILE+ ... =firefox-a

You're welcome to email it to me, address is on the about page of my web site.