K20D bracket problem, 3 identical JPEGs instead of RAW as expected

[manko]

I had a photoshoot today which I managed to fail, thanks to K20D.

After I tried bracket shooting, something went haywire inside and for the rest of the day, camera was recording 3 exactly same JPEGS in a row instead of single RAW file (single shutter exposure!). I never shoot JPEG and today I would have really needed the RAW files as the conditions were really cumbersome (several lightsources with different WB etc.) As the memory card was filling in the usual fashion, I never checked the file settings... ok it did fill up faster than usual, because I got 3x10MB JPEG instead of 20MB RAW.

So the photos are mostly wasted, but what on earth did happen? When I noticed the memory card contents weren't what I had expected, I checked the camera settings. The format was indeed JPEG. When I set it to RAW, the camera is only recording one file per shot. I cannot reproduce the problem anymore, no matter what I set in bracket options.

 

[Nass]

Do you not think it might have been user error rather than the camera?

 

[tdwesbo]

When you say exactly the same, do you mean the exif is exactly the same? Can you post three of them?

 

[Roland Mabo]

Perhaps the RAW-button, at the side of the lens mount, was pressed accidentally?
This switches from RAW to JPEG.

--
Take care
R
http://www.flickr.com/photos/raphaelmabo

 

[Stephenhampshire]

Had you somehow engaged extended bracketing?

"You can save pictures with three different white balance, saturation, hue,
sharpness and contrast levels.
Unlike exposure bracketing, three pictures are saved with each shot.

Select [Extended Bracket] in the
[A Rec. Mode] menu and press
the four-way controller"

Changes in sharpness hue or contrast would not be easy to spot in JPEG. Presumably using PhotoMe or other programm giving full exif info could show the differences between the three frames.

Just a thought.

Sorry for the wasted photos, similar thing happened to me yesterday and I have spent a day trying to re-shoot a photo I overexposed.

--
Everything changes

 

[richardplondon]

Extended bracket was my thought too. It would explain why only one Raw shot was taken, but three JPGs. Whatever was bracketed (say, contrast or WB) might be relatively subtle but there should be some difference (though not an exposure difference) between the JPGs.

RP

 

[manko]

Earlier, I had checked only the EXIF datas using exiftool. All the fields looked identical, except for filename and date.

Now I checked the card again on the camera, looks I had indeed shot +-1 extended bracketing for hue. Problem is, I can't recall pressing OK for the extended bracket menu. Especially not for hue. I recall looking at the menu, but I was under impression that I pressed menu (cancel).

To me, this is a bit too much of user error that I can handle, I never shoot JPEG and it's not obvious when you select extended bracket that the format will be JPEG for all the following shots.

Sure, it's user error but it came on the worst possible moment, as the shoot was really once in a lifetime chance Luckily, I managed to get few dozens on OK shots from the JPEG files. Sorry, can't publish them as I (yet) don't have a permission for that...

 

[Tan68]

i have never used extended bracketing.
makes sense for the three shots to be saved as JPG.
not much reason to save three different RAW, i guess.

Had you somehow engaged extended bracketing?

"You can save pictures with three different white balance, saturation, hue,
sharpness and contrast levels.
Unlike exposure bracketing, three pictures are saved with each shot.

Select [Extended Bracket] in the
[A Rec. Mode] menu and press
the four-way controller"

Changes in sharpness hue or contrast would not be easy to spot in JPEG. Presumably using PhotoMe or other programm giving full exif info could show the differences between the three frames.

Just a thought.

Sorry for the wasted photos, similar thing happened to me yesterday and I have spent a day trying to re-shoot a photo I overexposed.

--
Everything changes

 

[Stephenhampshire]

I suppose that sharpening, wb etc do not apply to Raw, so the camera can only bracket those in JPG....

Sometimes the excitement of the shoot means we can make mistakes. I now use "user" mode as a failsafe, I know exactly what is in there so spinning the dial to that gives me an instant reset - eg RAW+, auto WB etc

Glad you managed to salvage somethiing
--
Everything changes