Ten lost images

[rdubois]

Advertisement (gone after registration)

While photographing at a graduation ceremony yesterday my M8 suddenly had problems writing the files. Lots of flahing then nothing. The battery was two thirds full. The sequence of some 10 images was lost from the card (Sandisk 2 mb). Only one of the images was written to card and I can briefly see that image (on Aperture) before the screen goes red with the message "unsupported format". After a few moments all subsequent images recorded normally again.

 

Unfortunately this sequence was rather important and can't be rephotographed and I guess that what was not written to card cannot be retrieved but any suggestion as to retrieving the unsupported format?

 

Thanks

Dubois

[boilerdoc]

i would suspect a card problem. It's happened to me with a Lexar card. That's why I switched to SanDisk. Maybe i need to switch again! It's possible that a recovery program would pull them out from the card. Did the SanDisk card come with a small 'recovery' CD or maybe a built in piece of software when you first downloaded it to the computer?

Anyone else have other ideas?

Steve

[Advertisement]

The Leica Q3 is available for pre-order at B&H Photo Video and Adorama

[thehouseflogger]

Very sorry to hear this. Yes, try Rescue Pro which is downloadable, just google it or go to Sandisk's site. I have used it before and it is remarkable what it can do.

 

Good luck!

[kahudson]

I second the others in suggesting the use of SanDisk's RescuePro software. It allowed me to rescue dozens of concert photographs from a Lexar CF card.

[wparsonsgisnet]

Dubois, I hope you can find the images. You might try using the usb umbilical to fetch them from the camera. If they come, you will probably see that they are "tiff" files that come in pairs. If that is the case, I believe that one of the pair is a DNG and the other a JPG. They both show a size of 10MB. You can rename them during your copy process.

 

This may still be a battery problem. If you go looking for battery threads here, you will find a lot. You may need to condition the L-ion battery by fully discharging it and recharging it. Even with that treatment, I suggest replacing the battery when the last segment shows.

 

Conditioning the battery involves discharging it fully, by playing a picture while the display is set to continuous and the camera shut-off is turned off. It takes a while. Then recharge the battery to full. There are smarts in the battery and the camera talks to it. If it has not been conditioned, the M8 may show the wrong charge remaining.

 

Sorry for the problems. If this can be explained better by one of the real monsters here, I'm sure you'll get a better version.

[Guest jimmy pro]

It's the card...It's the battery...It's pilot error...It's sunspots, it's swamp gas, it's the alignment of Mercury and Venus....sheesh allmighty, anything but "it's the freakin' camera"

 

Two of my M8-shooting buddies have had file corruptions on cards, stuck them in there Canon or Nikon DSLR and they worked just fine, put them back in the M8 and no dice...tried new cards to and same deal. Along with the frequent lockups that get cured by reboots, these card glitches indicate that as a computer, the M8 gets unstable..or at least that's what guy's I know who do computers for a living tell me.

[wparsonsgisnet]

Advertisement (gone after registration)

It's the card...It's the battery...It's pilot error...It's sunspots, it's swamp gas, it's the alignment of Mercury and Venus....sheesh allmighty, anything but "it's the freakin' camera"

 

Two of my M8-shooting buddies have had file corruptions on cards, stuck them in there Canon or Nikon DSLR and they worked just fine, put them back in the M8 and no dice...tried new cards to and same deal. Along with the frequent lockups that get cured by reboots, these card glitches indicate that as a computer, the M8 gets unstable..or at least that's what guy's I know who do computers for a living tell me.

 

Jimmy, I agree: not swamp gas. It is the fault of the M8 and it is my contention that it is OVERLY sensitive to low battery voltages. I think it was Jamie who measured battery output toward the end of the cycle and said it falls of quickly.

 

Speaking for myself and not the swamp gas monsters, I used to have these kinds of problems with my M8. After reading Jamie's report on battery output, I conditioned my batteries, swapped them when the last segment showed up, and I do NOT have the problems any more. I had the problems during the first year of camera use. I have not had them at all under new management.

 

That was what I attempted to say in the earlier post.

[Guest jimmy pro]

Hey, no, I wasn't busting your balls, I was just reacting to the way every time someone asks a legitimate question about some M8 malfunction there having, a few guy's always have to chime in and blame something other then the M8.

[peterv]

Hey, no, I wasn't busting your balls, I was just reacting to the way every time someone asks a legitimate question about some M8 malfunction there having, a few guy's always have to chime in and blame something other then the M8.

 

That's funny, YOU are always around in these same threads telling you and your buddy's have C's and N's that function flawlessly

[Guest jimmy pro]

What's funny is that I never said anything of the kind. I said the same cards that screwed up in the M8 worked perfectly in there Canon's and Nikon's. Sorry but that's the truth even if a lie that there Canon's and Nikon's are as unreliable as there M8's would of made you feel better.

[peterv]

What's funny is that I never said anything of the kind. I said the same cards that screwed up in the M8 worked perfectly in there Canon's and Nikon's. Sorry but that's the truth even if a lie that there Canon's and Nikon's are as unreliable as there M8's would of made you feel better.

 

Whatever...

 

It's just an observation.

[jaapv]

What's funny is that I never said anything of the kind. I said the same cards that screwed up in the M8 worked perfectly in there Canon's and Nikon's. Sorry but that's the truth even if a lie that there Canon's and Nikon's are as unreliable as there M8's would of made you feel better.

Leicas use SD, Canon uses CF:confused:

[dalippe]

I had an experience that I've written about once before which makes me very dubious of claims that M8 glitches are because of low batteries, bad cards, etc.

 

I have two bodies. I placed a new card and freshly charged battery (i.e., just out of the charger) into body 1. I took a shot and although the preview appeared, nothing was recorded to the card as confirmed by hitting play. I moved both card and battery into body 2. It worked perfectly. I moved both card and battery back to body 1. Repeat of problem. I probably moved card and battery back and forth about four times before the gremlins in body 1 fled and it returned to normal operation with said card and battery. Somewhere in that sequence I also tried putting a different card and battery into body 1 and it still failed to operate.

 

Now the failure I'm discussing is something that has happened in both bodies. So I think it is a "typical" M8 glitch. There has never been another time it persisted in one body like this, so that was unusual. But since that time it has been no less reliable that body 2 so I have no other evidence that it is an unusual specimen.

 

There is something flaky about these otherwise wonderful cameras and I don't think it has anything to do with bad cards or their response to low batteries.

 

David

[ken_tanaka]

 

There is something flaky about these otherwise wonderful cameras and I don't think it has anything to do with bad cards or their response to low batteries.

 

David

 

That the M8's evolution lies somewhere between version 0.9 and 1.0 is a fact that's been firmly established through wide experience. The sometimes teetering reliability that the camera's engineering immaturity can produce is augmented by the little additional thrill and suspense of using the camera. I wonder if this might not be Leica's strategy for adding the film-days suspense into the normally sleepy, predictable process of digital photography.

 

As an owner of two M8s myself, here's the standing gag.

 

Question: Who the hell needs TWO M8 bodies?

Answer: Anyone who only has one.

[rdubois]

 

Question: Who the hell needs TWO M8 bodies?

Answer: Anyone who only has one.

 

Sounds like good advice but in my opinion it should really not be necessary. In the instance I am writing about a second body would not have helped as the moment passed very quickly.

 

The thing is that I was just starting to trust my M8 again after a shaky start with it and two trips to Solms and my confidence has taken a bit of a knock.

 

Doing a wedding next Thursday so better take that second camera after all

 

Thankyou everyone for your suggestions.

 

Dubois

[rdubois]

 

Doing a wedding next Thursday so better take that second camera after all

 

Dubois

 

Forgot to say that this will be my first commercial wedding so suffering from nerves! Any calming suggestions will be most welcome!

 

Dubois

[diogenis]

Leicas use SD, Canon uses CF:confused:

 

oops problem

maybe he was trying to fit CF into Leica instead?

[diogenis]

What's funny is that I never said anything of the kind. I said the same cards that screwed up in the M8 worked perfectly in there Canon's and Nikon's. Sorry but that's the truth even if a lie that there Canon's and Nikon's are as unreliable as there M8's would of made you feel better.

 

Can you tell how exactly did you do that?

And what's your opinion in the end?

[Skippy Sanchez]

Question: Who the hell needs TWO M8 bodies?

Answer: Anyone who only has one.

 

I have two because I don't like changing lenses, it makes me more, well, swashbuckling (chicks "in the know" will bed a guy with two Leicas faster than a guy with just one, especially if one is sporting a hunky Noctilux) and because I can afford them.

[Advertisement]

Hallo,

Look here: Leica M

[leicajh]

What's funny is that I never said anything of the kind. I said the same cards that screwed up in the M8 worked perfectly in there Canon's and Nikon's. Sorry but that's the truth even if a lie that there Canon's and Nikon's are as unreliable as there M8's would of made you feel better.

 

Canon cameras do not use sd cards. How did your friend get them to work in a cf slot?