Corrupt DMR DNG files

[Sandokan]

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I took some photos of my daughter and her friends the twins. I used two SD cards on the R9/DMR. The first 20 shots were fine. Then the camera went to power down mode but afterwards acted "funny". I carried on shooting. The photos displayed on the screen afterwards and I thought it was OK. However , a Mac doesnt open them. Neither does Lightroom nor PS2 nor a RAW viewer on the PC.

 

Anyone seen this before or know how to fix it?

 

Luckily I have a few shots on another camera but most were on the DMR.

 

Thanks....

[graeme_clarke]

Hello Ravi,

 

Can you tell us what you mean by "went funny".

 

Was it the same battery after the camera powered down, or was the battery flat and then did you change the battery?

 

If so, perhaps when the camera was writing the file and it powered down during the process the card was corrupted.

 

Have you tried a file recovery software program to see what's there on the card?

 

I've had similar things happen when I've been shooting one shot after another without checking the battery state and it suddenly powers down when its flat. I've learned to change the battery before it happens or, if it powers down without me expecting it, to change the card as well when the battery is replaced.

 

Hope this helps,

 

Graeme

[Sandokan]

HI Graeme,

 

The battery was not changed and is the same as last week when I did about 60 shots (but all in JPG). But there could be something in this.

 

I shot about 28 JPGs before switching to DNG and made another 28 shots before the card was full. Then I switched SD cards (powering off and powering on). That is what I meant by "funny". I had to pull the battery out to power it off - turning the mode dial did not switch off the DMR nor the camera. I did wait until all flashing light activity was finished (I understand this to mean the camera is writing to the card) before switching off.

 

It turns out that all 67 shots on the new SD card (they are both SanDisk Ultra II, 2GB) are corrupt. However the first 12 do not display on the DMR screen and trying to display them locks up the camera (take battery out again) whilst the others display and give all information on the DMR screen. On the PC and Mac computers they are all "unrecognised". I just tried a jpg and that is also not recognised. I will test again later with another SD card.

 

What recovery software do you recommend?

 

My final solution would be to use a byte editor and compare the headers for one of my corrupt and a normal DNG file, but that will be very time consuming.

 

The only good news is that I have about 6 shots on another camera but these were made with on camera flash and not the lighting system.

[graeme_clarke]

Hello Ravi,

 

I've used Sandisk Recue Pro and Lexar Image Rescue - but not recently. Both came on free mini CDs with the SD cards I bought about 4 years ago.

 

I've had the trouble you mention with the camera not wanting to switch off with either the control on the camera or the back of the DMR - the only solution being to remove and re-insert the battery by gently clicking it into place. It seems to happen only when the battery is almost discharged.

 

I wonder if the new card you inserted was corrupt - crucially, had it been formatted in the camera? After you've tried to recover files from it, can you reformat it in the camera? I found a long time ago that formatting a card in the computer then putting it into the DMR caused the card to be useless and unrepairable. The moral of that tale was to always use a card reader to transfer the files and format the card in the camera before using it again.

 

I hope this helps and its nothing more than an inconvenience caused by the sudden fall-off in voltage the DMR battery seems prone to as it gets near to being discharged.

 

Best wishes,

 

Graeme

[tobey bilek]

Lith Ion batteries like to be frequently topped off. The lower the discharge before recharging, the better off you are. This is the opposite of NiCad batteries.

 

And format the card in the camera before use the first time and every time. Never delete photos on a card.

[Sandokan]

Thanks all ... it was a corrupt card :-(

 

Nothing salvageable from it either. Last chance will be to try a file editor.

[Overgaard]

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Thanks all ... it was a corrupt card :-(

 

Nothing salvageable from it either. Last chance will be to try a file editor.

 

I've had 100% success getting back images from SD cards with the MediaRECOVER software.

[Sandokan]

Thanks for the advice Thorsten - I will try to dig it out of the rubbish but I have already said goodbye to the images :-(

[glenerrolrd]

Its not your card..its the battery. I had this several times with my DMR. When the camera doesn t have sufficient 'juice" ..it does not complete the write to the SD card. Depending on when and how this happens ..you can get a variety of bad writes to the card.

 

First ...make sure all the contacts are clean ..particularly where the battery contacts the DMR. I took my DMR off and apart and cleaned all the contacts with a pencil eraser. They I wiped them off with just a bit of alcohol(not advisable but this is how I cleaned up the dust.

 

Second ..the batteries die from age . They will show a full charge but really don t hold one. I have no reliable way to test a DMR battery as you have to put the battery under a load to test it. Find a few new batteries as the originals are out of date now (what 4-5 years old?) .

 

Third...you have to go with a more powerful rescue program..I found one thru LL and it recovered all but a few images. Essentially up until the DMR could not write to the card.

 

Four....reformat the card in your computer to a FAT32 standard.

Put it in the DMR and reformat again. Don t use cards for the DMR in other cameras.

 

 

You can find all this advice and more by searching on DMR corrupt card. There is a lot of variety in the problems but they all come from an electrical problem. A few cameras had to be repaired as the contacts for the battery were shot as well.

 

Hope that helps.