My S2 is in Germany getting the hot-shoe replaced, and a few other niggling fixes.
Leica graciously loaned me an S2 for an important shoot that I did yesterday.
(As a note, this loaner worked for a few other recent smaller jobs.)
Yesterday, I shot in the AM and the S2 files were fine. I then finished the job in the afternoon after swapping out cards and changing the S2 battery for a 100% recharged one. Reformatted both cards in camera which was set for parallel capture (as always).
While shooting, the LCD showed images as I progressed through the afternoon shoot. No indication of any issues. I shot about 70 to 80 or so images if even that, so the 32 gig card was not anywhere near full.
Upon returning from yesterday’s afternoon portion of the shoot I discovered that the Sandisk 32 gig Extreme Pro CF card is unreadable. It won’t even show up on the desktop. I went to the back-up 32 gig SDHC, and while it would boot to the desktop, there was nothing there.
The card reader is fine and loaded images from other cameras before and after this issue, as well as the S2 shots from the AM. However, I tried another card reader … wouldn’t boot, then another card reader, this time using my laptop … wouldn’t boot.I set the CF card aside at that point, and tried running a recovery program on the SD card … nothing but some old files from a few months ago. Not files from the S2’s afternoon shoot.
I did place the CF card back into the camera, and now it won’t display anything … the red light just blinks and nothing shows on the LCD, plus the light wouldn’t stop blinking even when turned off the camera … I had to remove the battery to extract the CF card in question.
Of all the shots I did yesterday with the S2 and my Sony A99/A7R, none could possibly be more ruinous than losing these key S2 shots. They were formal family shots of people that came from all over the US to be here yesterday, and some are leaving to return home this morning.
Does ANYONE have any thoughts or suggestions? It blows my mind that a dual capture camera has placed me in this situation.
Thank you for any help you may suggest,
– Marc
P.S., (Here’s a wierd coincidence sure to delight the superstitious … the morning shoot’s file count from all cameras totaled … 666).
Marc. I have the same problem. I bought the S last october and since then every Sandisc Extreme Pro 64 Gb CF has been ok for only about 500 photos (and about 4-5 loadings to my computer). After that the catastrophe exactly as You wrote.
My vendor changes the card free, but I of course lose all the photos in the card.
I have now my sixth card and every time I go to photograph I am afraid what happens and could I get the photos out from the card.
Excellent camera but these faulty cards spoil the whole enjoyment of photography. And I have lost money also, because I can’t deliver the photos ordered from me.
– vintola –
You could not recover any of the photos Vintola?
I’m looking for experiences where such a thing has happened, and there was some way to recover them.
This was a 32 gig Sandisk card purchased from B&H, so highly unlikely a counterfeit.
Frankly, hearing that Sandisk cards have failed on you like this is surprising and doesn’t inspire much confidence in using this camera for paying work where there are no second chances.
One reason I didn’t worry about it was the dual card parallel capture.
That both cards failed makes me wonder how this camera captures the redundant jpg file to the SD card. Is it generated from the DNG CF capture, or is it a separate dual feed?
The files I was shooting WERE showing up on the LCD, so how the heck could I have known it was malfunctioning?
Depressing to say the least.
Over 500 images captured during the 10 hours, and these 50 or so will ruin the entire shoot no matter how good the others are.
– Marc
fotografz;8414 wrote: You could not recover any of the photos Vintola?
I’m looking for experiences where such a thing has happened, and there was some way to recover them.
This was a 32 gig Sandisk card purchased from B&H, so highly unlikely a counterfeit.
Frankly, hearing that Sandisk cards have failed on you like this is surprising and doesn’t inspire much confidence in using this camera for paying work where there are no second chances.
One reason I didn’t worry about it was the dual card parallel capture.
That both cards failed makes me wonder how this camera captures the redundant jpg file to the SD card. Is it generated from the DNG CF capture, or is it a separate dual feed?
The files I was shooting WERE showing up on the LCD, so how the heck could I have known it was malfunctioning?
Depressing to say the least.
Over 500 images captured during the 10 hours, and these 50 or so will ruin the entire shoot no matter how good the others are.
– Marc
Marc,
I imagine that nothing is more distressing than losing pictures for a client…unless it is for family that you will see FOREVER….
Had similar issues years back as the CD–>DVD formats evolved.
There is one program that will recover files from seemingly nothing….it saved some 2000 scans of mine that were unreadable on three separate archives.
ISOBUSTER is a bit rough but that is why it works so well….
Here is a link…
http://www.isobuster.com/linux-mac.php
Runs on PCs but I still use it on Parallels within OS X.
If they exist it will find them….even if they were fragmented. Many times the files are there but the small DB file that links them has been corrupted…ISOBUSTER ignores this and looks for patterns and data it can interpret without the pointers.
BTW nothing is close to Sandisk in my book…will not even consider another due to bad experiences years ago…as long as they are not knockoffs.
Loaner camera body….not a good consumer relation point for Leica.
Hope this is of help.
Regards,
Bob
Marc,
As I had in my S also the SD card, the photos were there as JPG’s. Not good.There was also one curiosity. While photographing there came suddenly an announcement in the back LCD that there is no CF card inside and that parallel is changed to sequential. This has happened every time also in my earlier CF cards.
So my old SD card, which I bought several years ago for my earlier M9, worked storing JPG’s.
– vintola –
Up-Date:
LC Technologies was able to recover all the missing files.
While other recovery programs may have been able to do it, I just could not chance it … so I opted to send it off to the professionals and pay for the recovery in case it was a more difficult issue than I could deal with. They have the ability to crack open the CF card and get to the memory chips if they have to.
Thanks to all who commented.
Now the question is how did it happen in the first place? It could have been a power issue, or the card just failed, or I may have done something wrong in all the hubbub of this hectic shoot … or a combination.
I’d still like to know how the S2 generates the redundant jpeg for the SD card.
– Marc
fotografz;8430 wrote: I’d still like to know how the S2 generates the redundant jpeg for the SD card.
My guess would be both the DNG and JPG are derived from the image in the buffer. It makes no sense to first write the DNG to the card, then read it again, let the image processor chew on it, and only then write the JPG.
Whether the DNG/CF or the JPG/SD are written simultaneously or one by one, I don’t know. But it seems logical, given the processing power of the S2 that the internal pipeline handels only one file at a time.
I’m very happy for you that your important photos could be saved.
Marc,
I’m very glad it worked out. I’m sure that was a huge sigh of relief. I haven’t had that scenario with my S or previous S2 since I rarely shoot to cards – only tethered, but it’s a good thing you found a solution. I’ve had that pit-in-the-stomach feeling once or twice and it’s not been a pleasant thing. It’s good to know there’s this potential issue with Sandisk Extreme Pro cards. Are you considering testing with another mfr. at this point to see if it’s a camera isssue?Richard
rsmphoto;8447 wrote: Marc,
I’m very glad it worked out. I’m sure that was a huge sigh of relief. I haven’t had that scenario with my S or previous S2 since I rarely shoot to cards – only tethered, but it’s a good thing you found a solution. I’ve had that pit-in-the-stomach feeling once or twice and it’s not been a pleasant thing. It’s good to know there’s this potential issue with Sandisk Extreme Pro cards. Are you considering testing with another mfr. at this point to see if it’s a camera isssue?Richard
Thank you Richard. The job is now complete and images sent to the client … all intact.
The camera I was using was a loaner while my S2P was having a spa vacation in Germany for an unrelated issue. Mine is now on its way back to me, and the loaner will be returned with a note of caution attached to check it over before loaning it out again.
When I initially got the loaner is was DOA, and didn’t work at all. Removing the battery overnight to reset the internal battery solved that issue … but it does make one wonder if it was somehow related … power issues being the most likely cause of the CF issue, and not writing to the SD card at all.
The Sandisk card was returned to the manufacturer for replacement … Not knowing the real cause of this issue, I would not trust that card again anyway.
Who knows? I had a similar issue with a Hasselblad H4D/60 and a Sandisk card. Never figured that one out either, but it wasn’t critical images so I didn’t pursue it. Never happened again.
– Marc
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