Corrupt RAWS and G2s

Has anyone experience problems with RAW images being corrupt off the memory card?

I'm up to 800 pictures on my G2. Around about the 200th, one of the RAW files I downloaded off a 64 meg sans media card refused to convert to TIFF (not only with Canon's converter but a 3rd party one (Powershovel) as well).

Last night, I pulled 41 images off a 128 meg sans media card. Again, one of them refused to convert.

Now 2 out of 800 isn't bad, but I'd really hate for the next one to be an important shot.

Any ideas?

--
http://members.shaw.ca/wulfespirit/home.html
http://www.photosig.com/userphotos.php?id=25643

I had the same problem with the G1, and it seemed be happening a bit too often, so I stoped using RAW for now. I rather have a JPEG than nothing at all. If anyone comes out with a solution, would be happy to go back to RAW.

Sorry, did not have an answer, but you are not alone...

David

Wulfespirit said:

Has anyone experience problems with RAW images being corrupt off
the memory card?

I'm up to 800 pictures on my G2. Around about the 200th, one of
the RAW files I downloaded off a 64 meg sans media card refused to
convert to TIFF (not only with Canon's converter but a 3rd party
one (Powershovel) as well).

Last night, I pulled 41 images off a 128 meg sans media card.
Again, one of them refused to convert.

Now 2 out of 800 isn't bad, but I'd really hate for the next one to
be an important shot.

Any ideas?

--
http://members.shaw.ca/wulfespirit/home.html
http://www.photosig.com/userphotos.php?id=25643

Click to expand...

Did it get worse over time or remain at roughly the same rate?

I can live with 1 out of 400 if I have to. But if it gets worse, I'll be going the way of the JPG too.

David Selvidge said:

Sorry, did not have an answer, but you are not alone...

David

Wulfespirit said:

Has anyone experience problems with RAW images being corrupt off
the memory card?

I'm up to 800 pictures on my G2. Around about the 200th, one of
the RAW files I downloaded off a 64 meg sans media card refused to
convert to TIFF (not only with Canon's converter but a 3rd party
one (Powershovel) as well).

Last night, I pulled 41 images off a 128 meg sans media card.
Again, one of them refused to convert.

Now 2 out of 800 isn't bad, but I'd really hate for the next one to
be an important shot.

Any ideas?

--
http://members.shaw.ca/wulfespirit/home.html
http://www.photosig.com/userphotos.php?id=25643

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

--
http://members.shaw.ca/wulfespirit/home.html
http://www.photosig.com/userphotos.php?id=25643

Although not having shot any RAW yet, may I suggest to perhaps take two shots if the image is an important one. I know it doesn't solve the problem but anyway.

• McD.

Wulfespirit said:

I can live with 1 out of 400 if I have to. But if it gets worse,
I'll be going the way of the JPG too.

David Selvidge said:

I had the same problem with the G1, and it seemed be happening a
bit too often, so I stoped using RAW for now. I rather have a JPEG
than nothing at all. If anyone comes out with a solution, would be
happy to go back to RAW.

Sorry, did not have an answer, but you are not alone...

David

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

Same here. About 1 in 400 on the G2. Does anyone know whether this is a media issue or a RAW issue?

--
Jim Lewis

I had a couple of these about 4 months ago but not again since. That's maybe 4 all together after shooting close to 4500 RAW images. The problem is definitely not getting worse for me...if anything it's better. One thing you can do though is watch to see if there is a long pause after shooting your image. We've found that if there is a long pause showing a black screen (say 6-10 seconds) after shooting the image, then that's a warning sign of a possible corrupt image.

Michael

MacDigitalist said:

• McD.

Wulfespirit said:

I can live with 1 out of 400 if I have to. But if it gets worse,
I'll be going the way of the JPG too.

David Selvidge said:

I had the same problem with the G1, and it seemed be happening a
bit too often, so I stoped using RAW for now. I rather have a JPEG
than nothing at all. If anyone comes out with a solution, would be
happy to go back to RAW.

Sorry, did not have an answer, but you are not alone...

David

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

--
http://www.pbase.com/mooremwm
http://www.photosig.com/userphotos.php?id=7178

I believe this is happening when the CF card gets fragmented. Zoran mentioned this issue about a month ago and believed he got the problem after he had deleted several files rather than formated the card. I usually format the card after each download and rarely see the problem. However I remember once this problem occurred that I had deleted a few files to free up space. Based on this I bet Zoran’s explanation is correct.

• Frank

Mickey said:

Michael

MacDigitalist said:

• McD.

Wulfespirit said:

I can live with 1 out of 400 if I have to. But if it gets worse,
I'll be going the way of the JPG too.

David Selvidge said:

I had the same problem with the G1, and it seemed be happening a
bit too often, so I stoped using RAW for now. I rather have a JPEG
than nothing at all. If anyone comes out with a solution, would be
happy to go back to RAW.

Sorry, did not have an answer, but you are not alone...

David

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

--
http://www.pbase.com/mooremwm
http://www.photosig.com/userphotos.php?id=7178

Click to expand...

You mean Zoran's explanation is correct in that if you format the CF card before you re-use it and do not delete any photos on the CF card then the RAW corruption will NOT happen? I am very sorry this explanation is wrong. Here is what I have had:

1. PowerShot S30 for about 7 months.

2. Have tried 3 different CF cards (one Sandisk 192MB, one Lexar 128MB and the Canon 16MB).

3. Each and every time after I download photos to my PC I always erase ALL photos and then FORMAT the card before I re-use it.
4. I take photos in RAW and in RAW only.

5. So far I have had more than 10 times when one or two RAW photos on a CF card became corrupted, the last time happened about a week ago. By the way so far I have taken about 3600 photos

6. I updated my S30's firmware from 1.0.0.0 to 1.1.0.0 but the update did not solve this RAW corruption problem.

7. Whenever a RAW photo took too long (about 8 to 10 seconds) writing to the CF card (before the LCD became lit again ready to take next photo) I knew it would be a corrupted one and it ALWAYS was!

8. All of the corrupted RAW files after downloaded to my PC have a size smaller than a good RAW file. In the case of my S30, a corrupted RAW file is always around 1.9MB and a good RAW file is usually around 2.0MB to 2.7MB, for example.

9. I have never deleted any photo in camera. I simply ALWAYS download all photos I take to my PC and then delete whatever I don't like from the PC (not from the CF card inside the camera).

Now do you still believe Zoran's explanation is correct? At least I don't.

James

Frank said:

I believe this is happening when the CF card gets fragmented. Zoran
mentioned this issue about a month ago and believed he got the
problem after he had deleted several files rather than formated the
card. I usually format the card after each download and rarely see
the problem. However I remember once this problem occurred that I
had deleted a few files to free up space. Based on this I bet
Zoran’s explanation is correct.

• Frank

Click to expand...

Well, I’m sorry if I’m wrong about this. Until now I believed that a fragmented CF card caused the problem but you seem to prove that this is not the case. Perhaps a fragmented CF card increases the chance of getting the error? This is at least what Zoran and I have experienced. I have recently taken 1000 pictures without deleting any files from the camera. I didn’t get any corrupted files among these.

• Frank

James with S30 said:

1. PowerShot S30 for about 7 months.
2. Have tried 3 different CF cards (one Sandisk 192MB, one Lexar
128MB and the Canon 16MB).
3. Each and every time after I download photos to my PC I always
erase ALL photos and then FORMAT the card before I re-use it.
4. I take photos in RAW and in RAW only.
5. So far I have had more than 10 times when one or two RAW photos
on a CF card became corrupted, the last time happened about a week
ago. By the way so far I have taken about 3600 photos
6. I updated my S30's firmware from 1.0.0.0 to 1.1.0.0 but the
update did not solve this RAW corruption problem.
7. Whenever a RAW photo took too long (about 8 to 10 seconds)
writing to the CF card (before the LCD became lit again ready to
take next photo) I knew it would be a corrupted one and it ALWAYS
was!
8. All of the corrupted RAW files after downloaded to my PC have a
size smaller than a good RAW file. In the case of my S30, a
corrupted RAW file is always around 1.9MB and a good RAW file is
usually around 2.0MB to 2.7MB, for example.
9. I have never deleted any photo in camera. I simply ALWAYS
download all photos I take to my PC and then delete whatever I
don't like from the PC (not from the CF card inside the camera).

Now do you still believe Zoran's explanation is correct? At least I
don't.

James

Frank said:

I believe this is happening when the CF card gets fragmented. Zoran
mentioned this issue about a month ago and believed he got the
problem after he had deleted several files rather than formated the
card. I usually format the card after each download and rarely see
the problem. However I remember once this problem occurred that I
had deleted a few files to free up space. Based on this I bet
Zoran’s explanation is correct.

• Frank

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

Frank,

Thanks for your reply, and I guess you are right in that a fragmented CF card may increase the chance of getting the error. Well, I am still hoping sometime Canon will fix the problem in a firmware update...

James

Frank said:

• Frank

James with S30 said:

1. PowerShot S30 for about 7 months.
2. Have tried 3 different CF cards (one Sandisk 192MB, one Lexar
128MB and the Canon 16MB).
3. Each and every time after I download photos to my PC I always
erase ALL photos and then FORMAT the card before I re-use it.
4. I take photos in RAW and in RAW only.
5. So far I have had more than 10 times when one or two RAW photos
on a CF card became corrupted, the last time happened about a week
ago. By the way so far I have taken about 3600 photos
6. I updated my S30's firmware from 1.0.0.0 to 1.1.0.0 but the
update did not solve this RAW corruption problem.
7. Whenever a RAW photo took too long (about 8 to 10 seconds)
writing to the CF card (before the LCD became lit again ready to
take next photo) I knew it would be a corrupted one and it ALWAYS
was!
8. All of the corrupted RAW files after downloaded to my PC have a
size smaller than a good RAW file. In the case of my S30, a
corrupted RAW file is always around 1.9MB and a good RAW file is
usually around 2.0MB to 2.7MB, for example.
9. I have never deleted any photo in camera. I simply ALWAYS
download all photos I take to my PC and then delete whatever I
don't like from the PC (not from the CF card inside the camera).

Now do you still believe Zoran's explanation is correct? At least I
don't.

James

Frank said:

I believe this is happening when the CF card gets fragmented. Zoran
mentioned this issue about a month ago and believed he got the
problem after he had deleted several files rather than formated the
card. I usually format the card after each download and rarely see
the problem. However I remember once this problem occurred that I
had deleted a few files to free up space. Based on this I bet
Zoran’s explanation is correct.

• Frank

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

Frank said:

Well, I’m sorry if I’m wrong about this. Until now I believed that
a fragmented CF card caused the problem

Click to expand...

To use the punchline from an old Tomashevsky joke, "What harm would it do?" Thanks for the tip, Frank. I've just been using MindStor to erase the card. This is worth a try and ... what harm would it do?
--
Jim Lewis

That may be the problem...you should refer to the "Storage & Media" forum where I recall reading several times that you should never erase from the PC and always erase/reformat from the camera only.

I've had the same problem intermittently.

My two suspects are:

1. The Microdrive was damaged when I dropped it. Easy enough to test but I'm lazy to get another CF card.

2. There might be a correlation between switching modes and getting a corrupted picture. Anecdotally, I've noticed I'm more likey to get corrupted pictures when I hand the camera to someone else - specifically I will quickly switch from P Mode to AUTO, usually right after taking a meter reading, and getting a focus lock ... just a theory, needs to be proven, but since I don't know why it's happening it's something I need to get my lazy butt to research.

So right now, I just deal with it. Format the G2 everytime and go from there.

That may NOT be the problem! I mean I always erase and format the CF card in the camera using the camera's function. I never erase or format a CF card with my PC. I don't have a CF card reader and I am running Windows 2000 so once I connect the camera to the PC the CF card (still inside the camera) does not appear as a hard drive. And I do not use Doombrowser's or BreezeBrowser's erase/format function at all. So I am not sure how you came to the conclusion that I erase/format the CF card with my PC? Maybe because I didn't explicitly indicate in my previous post that I always erase/format the CF card IN CAMERA?

James

Grain-to-Pixel said:

That may be the problem...you should refer to the "Storage & Media"
forum where I recall reading several times that you should never
erase from the PC and always erase/reformat from the camera only.

Click to expand...

Not to interupt on this, but I am new to this stuff, and I would like to know what is the differance with a RAW pic instead of shooting JPEGS???

Why do you shot with the RAW format???

thanks,

Bob

James with S30 said:

1. PowerShot S30 for about 7 months.
2. Have tried 3 different CF cards (one Sandisk 192MB, one Lexar
128MB and the Canon 16MB).
3. Each and every time after I download photos to my PC I always
erase ALL photos and then FORMAT the card before I re-use it.
4. I take photos in RAW and in RAW only.
5. So far I have had more than 10 times when one or two RAW photos
on a CF card became corrupted, the last time happened about a week
ago. By the way so far I have taken about 3600 photos
6. I updated my S30's firmware from 1.0.0.0 to 1.1.0.0 but the
update did not solve this RAW corruption problem.
7. Whenever a RAW photo took too long (about 8 to 10 seconds)
writing to the CF card (before the LCD became lit again ready to
take next photo) I knew it would be a corrupted one and it ALWAYS
was!
8. All of the corrupted RAW files after downloaded to my PC have a
size smaller than a good RAW file. In the case of my S30, a
corrupted RAW file is always around 1.9MB and a good RAW file is
usually around 2.0MB to 2.7MB, for example.
9. I have never deleted any photo in camera. I simply ALWAYS
download all photos I take to my PC and then delete whatever I
don't like from the PC (not from the CF card inside the camera).

Now do you still believe Zoran's explanation is correct? At least I
don't.

James

Frank said:

I believe this is happening when the CF card gets fragmented. Zoran
mentioned this issue about a month ago and believed he got the
problem after he had deleted several files rather than formated the
card. I usually format the card after each download and rarely see
the problem. However I remember once this problem occurred that I
had deleted a few files to free up space. Based on this I bet
Zoran’s explanation is correct.

• Frank

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

Why do I shot with the RAW format? Because with the RAW format I get whatever the camera's CCD/lens sees so it is a RAW data. If I shot with the JPEG format, I get a compressed data with some information lost. And with the RAW format, I can adjust (if necessary or desired) white balance and exposure, etc after a photo is taken, which you can not do with the JPEG format.

James

Robert Thomas said:

Why do you shot with the RAW format???

thanks,

Bob

James with S30 said:

1. PowerShot S30 for about 7 months.
2. Have tried 3 different CF cards (one Sandisk 192MB, one Lexar
128MB and the Canon 16MB).
3. Each and every time after I download photos to my PC I always
erase ALL photos and then FORMAT the card before I re-use it.
4. I take photos in RAW and in RAW only.
5. So far I have had more than 10 times when one or two RAW photos
on a CF card became corrupted, the last time happened about a week
ago. By the way so far I have taken about 3600 photos
6. I updated my S30's firmware from 1.0.0.0 to 1.1.0.0 but the
update did not solve this RAW corruption problem.
7. Whenever a RAW photo took too long (about 8 to 10 seconds)
writing to the CF card (before the LCD became lit again ready to
take next photo) I knew it would be a corrupted one and it ALWAYS
was!
8. All of the corrupted RAW files after downloaded to my PC have a
size smaller than a good RAW file. In the case of my S30, a
corrupted RAW file is always around 1.9MB and a good RAW file is
usually around 2.0MB to 2.7MB, for example.
9. I have never deleted any photo in camera. I simply ALWAYS
download all photos I take to my PC and then delete whatever I
don't like from the PC (not from the CF card inside the camera).

Now do you still believe Zoran's explanation is correct? At least I
don't.

James

Frank said:

I believe this is happening when the CF card gets fragmented. Zoran
mentioned this issue about a month ago and believed he got the
problem after he had deleted several files rather than formated the
card. I usually format the card after each download and rarely see
the problem. However I remember once this problem occurred that I
had deleted a few files to free up space. Based on this I bet
Zoran’s explanation is correct.

• Frank

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

Sorry, I didn't mean to upset you...I must have misunderstood your #9 point to mean that you deleted your cf from the PC.

-----------------------

James_with_C_5050 said:

9. I have never deleted any photo in camera. I simply ALWAYS download all photos I take to my PC and then delete whatever I don't like from the PC (not from the CF card inside the camera).

Click to expand...

I experienced the same problem when I used a CF reader to download my pics. When I did the downloading strictly from camera-computer via USB and Imagebrowser, no problem.

That's ok. When I said "I have never deleted any photo in camera..." I meant that I didn't do something like taking a photo and then immediately deleting it from the camera (probably because I didn't like what I got?) but instead I always waited until after I downloaded all photos from the CF card to the PC and THEN I would erase and format the card IN CAMERA. If there was any photo I didn't like, I would delete it (which had been downloaded into the PC) from the PC...

James

Grain-to-Pixel said:

1. 9 point to mean that you deleted your cf from the PC.

-----------------------

Grain-to-Pixel said:

9. I have never deleted any photo in camera. I simply ALWAYS download all photos I take to my PC and then delete whatever I don't like from the PC (not from the CF card inside the camera).

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

NO, I didn't have a card reader at all so I have never taken a CF card out of the camera to transfer photos to a PC in any way. I simply kept the CF card in the camera and then connected the camera to the PC via the Canon-provided USB cable to download photos into Zoombrowser or BreezeDownloader. And no, this is not a problem about how photos are transferred to the PC, this is a RAW corruption problem happened the moment the RAW is being written to the CF card in camera, so a PC or a CF card reader has no effect here at all. I have said many time here that:

1. A corrupted RAW happended whenever it took too long (about 8 to 10 seconds) to write to the CF card in camera;
2. A corrupted RAW was always smaller in size than a good RAW;

3. A corrupted RAW could be viewed in camera (actually the THM file) but couldn't be converted into TIF or JPEG with ZoomBrowser or BreezeBrowser;

3. Each and every time after I downloaded photos to the PC, I would always erase and format the CF card in camera (not through a card reader and/or PC), and

4. I have never deleted a photo in camera right after it was taken even if I didn't like the photo as I could always delete it from the PC after it was downloaded to the PC.

I am just not sure why I have not made myself clearly understood so far, maybe because of my poor English?

James

Harv said:

I experienced the same problem when I used a CF reader to download
my pics. When I did the downloading strictly from camera-computer
via USB and Imagebrowser, no problem.

Click to expand...