What is this!!!!!????

Zerodog

New problem with my D3s?? Or could this be card related? When it was noticed I was thinking it was a problem with my Sandisk 32. But it did it on each card to varying degrees. Some fights were 10pics some were none. I am bummed.

ziggy53

That looks like the RF grounding has failed. Since it happens with all cards, check the card bay inside the camera to see if one of the grounding pins is bent or broken first.

If the pins are OK, it sounds like the camera will need repairs.

Zerodog

Just checked the pins............they are perfect in both slots. Damn it!!! Got a motocross at the end of the month.

Matthew Saville

Time for the backup camera to come out, and this bad boy to hit the doctor's office! Even if it magically comes back to life, this is a dead camera waiting to happen.

=Matt=

Zerodog

I just had this one serviced not too long ago . New shutter box and board. Maybe the new board is weird. I have always thought it was slower to AF in some situations after the service.

Zerodog

Really glad I picked up that d700.

ThatCanonGuy

Notice it's not just color, the objects are off center as well. Ouch.

kdog

Try another card reader just to be sure.

pathfinder

Can you see the correct images with the card in the camera?? Or is this what you see on the camera LCD? Or is this only seen after importing the files onto your computer?

Have you tried each of these cards in another camera as well?

I have seen this kind of thing with a defective card, while the camera body was fine, so just be careful about what you assume. I am not saying it is not the camera, but I think that has not been totally proven without answering Joel and my questions.

Joel's suggestion is worthwhile.

MarkR

I used to run into this from time to time with a specific SD card. Strangely, this only happened if I imported using Lightroom. Almost always if I deleted and redownloaded from the card i was able to recover the image.

I suspect it was a problem with the card, and not the camera itself. Still not sure why it only happened with LR tho.

Zerodog

This was during an event, using 3 different cards that have always worked flawlessly. Images were imported into LR3. Maybe I need to test more. All cards were formatted in camera after each download. So, can't really check by viewing in camera. Still processing images. Maybe the last fight has some. I haven't erased that card yet. Maybe it is my computer's card reader?

kdog

kdog wrote: »

Try another card reader just to be sure.

Zerodog wrote: »

Maybe it is my computer's card reader?

Matthew Saville

Zerodog wrote: »

This was during an event, using 3 different cards that have always worked flawlessly. Images were imported into LR3. Maybe I need to test more. All cards were formatted in camera after each download. So, can't really check by viewing in camera. Still processing images. Maybe the last fight has some. I haven't erased that card yet. Maybe it is my computer's card reader?

Yeah, this CAN happen on import. That's why you verify the transfer thoroughly before formatting, haha.

Shoot some more images, and try downloading them on various card readers, using various methods.

Personally, I avoid using Lightroom for downloading for this very reason; I always download my images manually using explorer / finder. Can't get any more basic than that.

=Matt=

sara505

This is why I *never* and I mean *never* reformat until I have three copies - one on computer, two on back-up drives - and have checked to see if everything is fine. Scary stuff.

Moving Pictures

These look like corrupted .jpg images to me. The kind you might see if, say, you were using something like PC File Recovery on a card that has died or been formatted. Not sure what the cause is, but I wouldn't be prepared to say it was the camera ... as others have noted.

Zerodog

Because of the situation we were in, massive backup is not practical. We were shooting fights and showing photos throughout the night. Luckily, nothing really good was lost. LR is the easiest way to import these NEF files and get them into folders and quickly apply settings as the files are imported. We then use picasa to view them on multiple stations. We rotate a few cards and format as we go. I will do some more looking before I freak out and send away to Nikon. I think it is highly possible this is just a corrupt file. There are more files that have an error message that are uneditable and smugmug will not let them up load. These files look just fine. But there is something wrong with the file that LR and SM do not like.

RyanS

You may want to reconsider reformatting your cards often. Modern CF cards use wear leveling. When you format, you can reset the wear leveling (depends on implementation, vendor specific). This can lead to early card death. Deleting the images does not do this.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wear_leveling

kdog

RyanS wrote: »

You may want to reconsider reformatting your cards often. Modern CF cards use wear leveling. When you format, you can reset the wear leveling (depends on implementation, vendor specific). This can lead to early card death. Deleting the images does not do this.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wear_leveling

Given that photographers tend to fill memory cards before downloading and reformatting, I can't see how this applies. We are already using our cards very evenly.

puzzledpaul

Zerodog wrote: »

We rotate a few cards and format as we go.

Maybe consider getting more cards so that you don't have to re-use / format full cards at the event?

pp

Zerodog

13 high speed cards to do the event I just shot= $$$$?
Loaded up the last one last night and unfortunately, it was perfect. I didn't have one corrupt file out of 535 images. This was with a card that was giving me issues earlier. I am leaning toward the card reader. It is mounted into the PC card slot in my laptop. Maybe it has an issue? It seems most of the images I had problems with were from the first half of the night.

sara505

Zerodog wrote: »

13 high speed cards to do the event I just shot= $$$$?
Loaded up the last one last night and unfortunately, it was perfect. I didn't have one corrupt file out of 535 images. This was with a card that was giving me issues earlier. I am leaning toward the card reader. It is mounted into the PC card slot in my laptop. Maybe it has an issue? It seems most of the images I had problems with were from the first half of the night.

I'm now remembering, I briefly had the same issue on a couple of files a couple of months ago. It was shortly before the card reader on my computer crapped out. I now use plug-in readers, haven't had any more issues. May or may not be a similar situation.

zoomer

Do any of these pictures look ok on your camera viewing screen? If so then losing something in translation....I know Captain obvious.

Bum deal .

Zerodog

zoomer wrote: »

Do any of these pictures look ok on your camera viewing screen? If so then losing something in translation....I know Captain obvious.

Bum deal .

Not sure zoomer. I rarely preview pics on the screen while shooting something like this. There isn't time. Other than checking exposure on occasion.

I will try to get one of the corrupted files that is not rainbowed out. There are many more of those. They look fine but give me an error in LR. As far as how many. It was maybe 30 pics out of 3000?

zoomer

I mean load a card back into the camera, see if it shows ok on the camera preview screen if so....then a translation error somewhere.....grasping at straws probably.

In my experience I have never seen anything like what you posted here.

Zerodog

zoomer wrote: »

I mean load a card back into the camera, see if it shows ok on the camera preview screen if so....then a translation error somewhere.....grasping at straws probably.

In my experience I have never seen anything like what you posted here.

I need to check my other card to see if it has images on it. I think all of the pics that have had problems have been formated.

Sam

I have experienced the same thing in the past. The problem was in the transfer process. How why what I don't know but the original file was fine.

Like other here I don't reformat my cards until all the images have been transferred looked at and backed up.

In your situation maybe you could have who ever is downloading the images into LR watch the process. Spotting a corrupt file will be easy.

Sam

Moving Pictures

Sam wrote: »

In your situation maybe you could have who ever is downloading the images into LR watch the process. Spotting a corrupt file will be easy.

Sam

Or, perhaps, Irfanview? I know Irvanview (which is a spectacular image view for Windows systems) reads Canon Cr2 raw file formats, with a plugin, and suspect it woudl do the same for Nikon ... breezes through files quickly.

Zerodog

LR is embedded in my workflow. No way around it. It is my cataloging and editing program and no way I am switching unless something is somehow blazing fast and better. In 100,000s of images I have loaded into LR I have never seen it. So I am guessing I could have a problem with the reader or my computer or, my camera. My HD is really really full. So is it possible that that is part of the problem?

ziggy53

Zerodog wrote: »

... I am guessing I could have a problem with the reader or my computer or, my camera. My HD is really really full. So is it possible that that is part of the problem?

A new card reader is cheap, so start there.

At this point you should explore everything until you find the problem. If the coming motocross is an important event you may want to rent a body and get some additional cards, just to amortize your losses across the 2 bodies and the new cards. Use both bodies and alternate, shooting even more than usual.

Don't reformat the cards until you have verified the files, of course.

Zerodog

Really the Motocross might be the only good test. It is hard to test something like this without shooting tons of photos. I will order another reader from Delkin and try that first. I have 2 other bodies. So I am backed up there if there is a problem at an event. From here out I need to really watch this and also have whoever is loading images watch this as well. If there is a download that has some of these oddball files we need to stop and investigate with the camera and card. I am leaning toward something being corrupted in the transfer at this point. But as so many have said, it could be many different problems.

catspaw

Camera has two card slots - test this with only writing to the second slot, or dual writing to both and see if it happens to both cards?

Also, seen some recommendations that triple formatting (do it 3x in a row) a card is best for it. Good luck!!!