teehas53 Posted August 9, 2007 Share #1 Posted August 9, 2007 Advertisement (gone after registration) This happened yesterday: I shot a number of images, as usual, no apparent problems. Came back to the camera after a period of time (during which it had gone into sleep mode.) Shot about 15 - 20 additional images, all seeming as normal. The red LED blinked indicating card-writing activity, and I could see the "review" images on the LCD panel. Now comes the scary part: I hit the Play button to review the entire contents of the SD card, and none of the images shot after waking up from sleep had been recorded to the card. Zero, nada, bupkis! Upon putting the card in a reader, I confirmed that in fact, those images were never recorded. And the REALLY frightening part? NO indication of this problem at the time of shooting. As far as the camera's behavior indicated, all was working normally. I had plenty of battery, a freshly formatted card, nothing at all out of the ordinary. Once previously I had an odd Play/Review issue, but it didn't result in lost images. The symptom was that the file name only displayed on the LCD, instead of the thumbnail. Only happened once. So, today the card went through a battery of tests, and two different recovery programs, and there is not a trace of the missing images. That card has come out of service for now, as a bad card seems like a possible scenario. I've never had a bad media card - I know they can fail. This is a Sandisk Ultra II, one of many that have worked perfectly for the last eight months or so. It's also somewhat mysterious that though I shot well over the buffer capacity, the camera seemed to be writing images, didn't freeze or act strange. By far the worst part was the fact that the camera appeared to soldier on blithely, while not recording any of what I shot, and giving no sign of error. (Happily, this was not a critical shoot!) Anyone else had media card issues (on ANY camera) similar to this? I'm attempting to reproduce the problem today (at the same time kinda hoping I can't... ) I think I'll re-install firmware, and have already had the battery out and back in a couple of times. I thought I had dodged the "back-to-Solms" bullet, but maybe not. T Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Advertisement Posted August 9, 2007 Posted August 9, 2007 Hi teehas53, Take a look here Lost images - a frightening tale.... I'm sure you'll find what you were looking for!
carstenw Posted August 9, 2007 Share #2 Posted August 9, 2007 Ouch! I have had problems of various kinds, but nothing this fatal. I really hope for all of us that this is a one-off problem, or even better, something to do with a card failure. Is the card lock on? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
teehas53 Posted August 9, 2007 Author Share #3 Posted August 9, 2007 Is the card lock on? No lock, the first thing I checked. I'm polling some other resources to find out how other cameras behave when trying to write to a failed/corrupted card. More later... T Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kent10D Posted August 9, 2007 Share #4 Posted August 9, 2007 While not exactly the same, I did have a system freak out yesterday than rendered an SD card senseless for a while. It was also a Sandisk II, I think. I had just replaced the card and put the bottom plate back on, then in the process of turning the camera on I missed the switch setting (went to far) and ended up "jiggling" the power switch back and forth between a couple of settings quite rapidly. The camera did not like that. It complained that the bottom plate was off, which it wasn't, and that the SD card was full, which it wasn't, and I couldn't view the few pics that were on the card, or take any new pics. So I removed and replaced the battery. Didn't fix it. Tried formatting the card via the MENU but the red light just flashed ... and flashed ... and flashed ... couldn't stop it, couldn't turn the camera off. Freak-out time. So I removed and replaced the battery, and put in a different SD card, and everything worked fine. In order to resuscitate the senseless Sandisk card I stuck it in my DSLR and formatted it on that camera, after which it worked fine on the M8, and could be re-formatted there. So my DSLR is useful for something! Anyway, everything seems to be back to normal. These things sure are scary though. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
M6J Posted August 9, 2007 Share #5 Posted August 9, 2007 Every time I "recover" from scary threads and I am ready to finally buy the M8, another one (or more) appears to make me think again... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest sirvine Posted August 9, 2007 Share #6 Posted August 9, 2007 It seems very likely this is a card issue. I wish this camera had room for redundant cards. I sometimes (rarely) get a situation where the M8 decides all my cards are locked, when none of them are. The old battery reset always works, though. Did you happen to notice how the frame counter on top of the camera handled this? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
teehas53 Posted August 9, 2007 Author Share #7 Posted August 9, 2007 Advertisement (gone after registration) I didn't take note of the frame counter. After three tries today, I have not been able to replicate the problem with a different SD card. Hopefully this is good news. As annoying as random, erratic camera behavior is, it's *seemingly* normal behavior that actually isn't normal that really freaks me out... T Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
wparsonsgisnet Posted August 9, 2007 Share #8 Posted August 9, 2007 Tom, this came up in a thread earlier this week. I had the same problem -- in my case initiated by removing the bottom cover during the write process (red light blinking) -- you know, you just can't get good help. I believe my sequence is that I put the cover back; replaced the card after the write process ended (in some fashion); and then put a new card in. It was on the second card that the problem happened. The first few pix showed up on the review screen than then ... I could see the file name and couldn't review the pix. I shut down, replaced the card, and after that everything worked just fine with the 3rd card. I have images on all 3 cards, but, of course, can't tell what got lost. All is well with the camera since that particular time, and I have seriously admonished my s-t-u-p-i-d assistant to look for the blinking light before removing a cover. The problem was that I saw only 2 images left in the top lcd and knew I needed to change the card. Hence, the stupid-guy problem. It would be really nice if I knew how to prevent this in the future. It is not surprising that you can't duplicate the problem. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
teehas53 Posted August 9, 2007 Author Share #9 Posted August 9, 2007 Well, in my case there was no base plate removal while the camera was writing. The card wasn't removed until I realized (from the lack of thumbnails to review) that some images had not been written. And (so far) I haven't ever removed the cover with the camera powered up. This is good info though - I can see how removing the base plate might interrupt the write process. I'm not surprised either that I haven't been able to re-create the problem - it has too many variables. Just hoping that not-being-able-to-duplicate and not-going-to-happen-again are the same... T Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
jaapv Posted August 10, 2007 Share #10 Posted August 10, 2007 A bit of Eclipse - clean the card contacts, insert and remove a few times when the contacts are still moist. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
lars_bergquist Posted August 10, 2007 Share #11 Posted August 10, 2007 Mister Kurtz, he dead. —The horror! The horror! The old man from the Heart of Darkness Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
arnaudhaifa Posted August 10, 2007 Share #12 Posted August 10, 2007 It happened to me once, while taking pictures regularely. I could see the pictures on the lcd after each shot, but none were on the sansdisk extreme III card. Using the same card I could never -happily- reproduce it. Frightning, I don't think it comes from the card anyway. Is there an internal memory big enough to memorize small images for the lcd, if not how is it I could see them while not on the card? Using RAW only. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guy_mancuso Posted August 10, 2007 Share #13 Posted August 10, 2007 Whenever I read about these issue the damn name sandisk always seems to come up. Not sure this is truly the case of the Sandisk name but it just seems so. Anyway it does sound more like a card issue than anything else. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
carstenw Posted August 10, 2007 Share #14 Posted August 10, 2007 I had some hiccoughs with a SanDisk Extreme III. I have switched to Ultra II and have had no card-related problems with that. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
adan Posted August 10, 2007 Share #15 Posted August 10, 2007 Is there an internal memory big enough to memorize small images for the lcd, if not how is it I could see them while not on the card? Using RAW only. I think "instant review" images are read directly from the camera's buffer memory. I was playing around with a Canon 1D-MkIII that a friend had last week, and was able to shoot and see individual images (for the brief instant review period) with no card inserted at all. It does seem that SanDisk shows up a lot in "card issue" threads - but that may be because they are so popular (as Mark Twain said - "There are lies, damn lies, and statistics"). But the one troublesome card I have is also a SanDisk 2G Extreme III - it on occasion is very reluctant to establish a connection with my card reader (although it always does eventually). Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Venkman Posted August 10, 2007 Share #16 Posted August 10, 2007 Whenever I read about these issue the damn name sandisk always seems to come up. Not sure this is truly the case of the Sandisk name but it just seems so. Anyway it does sound more like a card issue than anything else. Probably because virtually everybody uses them? For example, they cover over 50% of the flash card market in the US. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
total_recall Posted August 10, 2007 Share #17 Posted August 10, 2007 Whenever I read about these issue the damn name sandisk always seems to come up. Not sure this is truly the case of the Sandisk name but it just seems so. Anyway it does sound more like a card issue than anything else. whenever I read about malfunctioning digicams the damn name LEICA M8 always comes up. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Venkman Posted August 10, 2007 Share #18 Posted August 10, 2007 whenever I read about malfunctioning digicams the damn name LEICA M8 always comes up. You only read this forum section? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
doubice Posted August 10, 2007 Share #19 Posted August 10, 2007 Whenever I read about these issue the damn name sandisk always seems to come up. Not sure this is truly the case of the Sandisk name but it just seems so. Anyway it does sound more like a card issue than anything else. There are many fake Sandisk SD cards out there.... So well made, including the packaging, that they're indistinguishable from the real thing. Maybe that could be the reason? Best, Jan Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
carylwithay Posted August 10, 2007 Share #20 Posted August 10, 2007 I have lost images on several cards and cameras but I bought a program called RESCUE for about $30 on the internet and when i use it on the lost cards, it brings everything back. It is important not to try to shoot after the images are lost or the newer ones write over the old. The program is simple to use and has saved me many times. Caryl Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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