Weird jpg image from camera

[Hayaku]

Has this happened to anyone before? This is part of an image I took directly from the cam. I shot both raw and jpg and part of the jpg result is below. Raw image was ok though.

Anyone know why this happened? Is this an issue with the SD card or something?

Someone told me he thinks its an issue with the sd card.

For reference this was taken with a 60d, transcend class 4 card

101296

[arthurking83]

yep could be something like card corruption, or even just a random anomalous singular image corruption event.

Take the hit if it ever happens to a really important file, but be sure to have the card checked .. format, files system check, etc.

Easy to do on most computers(which OS do you have?).

I think that there are even some dedicated programs that can do all these things for you too, but they're not absolutely necessary.

I've had a couple of cards go south on me over these past few years, and I tend to use CCleaner's 'destroy' function, that totally wipes a drive, then do more checking .. writing some random files to the card a few times, taking a few random images .. etc.

it's better to be sure that the card has come up good again from the comfort of your sumptuous arm chair, rather then out in the field when you expect it to just work.

brand of card is irrelevant. I've had one Sandisk CF card go AWOL on me, and I've had one (unknown)SD card, and two micro SD's ... one Sandisk and one Samsung all go belly up on me.

[Hayaku]

I do most of my work on a mac OSX Lion.

Regarding formatting the card, do you think I should do it in camera or through a computer/laptop.

[arthurking83]

to be sure do it firstly on the Mac .. wipe the card, re wipe it if you need too. But above all make sure it's cleared out good and proper, and then format it in camera if you need too.
Camera will automagically format an unformatted card anyhow.


I don't know how you'd feed a card to a Lion .. I only know how it should be treated when placed into a Windows.

[ricktas]

Other thing it could be..turned the camera off to soon after taking the photo, and it had written the RAW to the card, but was turned off as it was still writing the jpg. Not so much of an issue these days but in the past when write speeds and card speeds were slower, it was. But if you turned the camera off straight after taking the photo, it could well do this.

[A J Alderson]

I had the same problem with my Nikon D90. Occasionally a Jpeg file would turn out like yours.

The solution was to buy a new sd card.

[Gonk0]

I have that happen to me once on random photos I had taken, but I was only shooting RAW files, for me it was a random event, as I still use the SD card it happened with
and it hasn't missed a beat since.

[Hayaku]

Thanks for the replies.

Lol guess I know have a reason to get a new SD card. Been thinking of getting a class 10 anyway.

[Dazz1]

Thanks for the replies.

Lol guess I know have a reason to get a new SD card. Been thinking of getting a class 10 anyway.

If you try formatting the card, make sure you do a low level format. My camera has a tick box for that, so you don't even have to use a computer.

[rackham]

Other thing it could be..turned the camera off to soon after taking the photo, and it had written the RAW to the card, but was turned off as it was still writing the jpg. Not so much of an issue these days but in the past when write speeds and card speeds were slower, it was. But if you turned the camera off straight after taking the photo, it could well do this.

Maybe, my 60D will keep writing after I turn it off, although I've never "tried" with a C4 card.

(Yes, I sometimes dabble in being stupid)

[arthurking83]

Actually, in the old days switching off the camera was one way to get truly raw raw files from the camera, before the raw file could be diluted by in camera processing.

Astro folks figured this out a while back .. in the D70/D100 days.

But nowadays, that I've noticed(well since 2008 anyhow) .... if you switch the camera off, there will be a small light indicator showing that the camera is still writing to the card. This can or will stay on even if the camera is turned off.
For me this happens on the D300 and D800.

if you don't want corrupted image files tho, never remove the memory card whilst that writing light is still on.

[cupic]

I regards to wipe formatting the card i keep having to put my SD card in a reader as it wont read off the card reader in Computer
and always asking to format when I saved the raw files I do format or try to but wont
either NTSC of Fat32 does this matter


cheers

[arthurking83]

I've also had this issue cupic.

It usually points to probable future card issues.

Lost a pile of data off my (smart)phone card recently with exactly the same issues.
First the PC wouldn't recognise the card whilst still in the phone(USB tethered) and then taking the card out and directly in the card reader didn't help.

Formatted the bejeezuz out of it many times, and then one day recently, whilst still in the phone, the phone then stopped recognising it too.
Formatting, scanning, error checking ... nothing. Just didn't want to work as a form of media again.
luckily I kept all those files backed up on a cloud service as well as on the PC, but I lost a week of (easy)data entry on my invoicing spreadsheet.

A new card has helped heaps since then.

Funnily, this is my second Sandisk card failure(1 CF and now 1 microSD) so that makes for 2 Sandisk and 1 no name branded card failures over a lot of years and many cards.

Cards do fail, and it's usually best to have a backup plan for this event. They're cheap nowadays, so there's no excuse for having one fail completely on 'ya.

[cupic]

But its a brand new 16gb class 10 SD sandisk card X2


cheers

[arthurking83]

Could be a reader issue then.

I remember a couple of times, I've resorted to using a temporary Linux distribution to format a card ... just to see if it were recoverable.

If it's brand new, at least you have the option to return to store for them to either check it, or a refund.

I'd also try another PC tho, these things sometimes happen.

I've seen a few weirdy anomalous card problems myself.

My most curious anomaly is the fast card I purchased for my D300 a few years back. Found I hit the buffer clearing bottleneck one time, so a fast card was pursued. Found a cheap enough 8G Patriot brand CF card, popped it into the D300 .. and bob's yer uncle .. buffer clearing issues gone. Card has blistering performance both on the D300 and on the PC(in terms of read and write speeds.

BUT!!!(and there's always a BUTT! :D) .. I can't get to work via the card slot I purchased for my PC(multipurpose card/fan/accessories bay) .. no way José .. it works fine via the USB2 card reader I've had for a couple of centuries, but not the newer accessories bay.
So along comes the D800 .. first thought was to use the faster card I have in this camera(due to massive file sizes) .. but no dice. D800 will not recognize the Patriot card under any cirumstances. Card is fine, confirmed again in the D300, formatted a zillion times, photos checked, D800 photos transferred to card via PC .. nothing. Faster Patriot card simply will not work in the D800 for absolutely no good reason! Works in my D300, D70s, D700(friend's) and D5100(brother's) .. but not the D800 .. go figure.

The Patriot card is apparently a 600x rated card, so is kind'a fast enough, yet the supposedly faster Lexar 32G 800x CF card I now have for the D800 is about 10Mb/s slower in write speeds, and about on par in read speeds .. via a Lexar USB3 card reader.

[Dazz1]

Ny coincidence I just struck a weird SDcard problem too. I have a Sandisk 8GB class 6 I have been using for a while, but the other day it kept failing when just copying data to the pc using a card reader. It would be fine for small transfers, but when trying to copy over 3GB of RAW images, it failed 4 times - the error causing the drive to unmount. Unplugging the reader and putting it back in allowed me to copy the rest of the files (until the next error). In each case the files that caused the error were actually fine and could be copied selectively.

Using my camera instead of the reader worked fine, no errors, but seemed a little slower. Seems that SDcards have some funny quirks at times.