nikon D80 memory card problem?

Images recently were non-readable on the computer, corrupted files.

The long version: Newly purchased D80 w/kit lens 18-55 (I know, I need to
add!!). Several shooting outings successfully downloaded via sandisk usb
card reader, including shots using my old nikor lenses in manual mode.
Yesterday, shot a series of test images using kit lens, my older 35-105 f3.5
nikor zoom and an f5.6 300 mm tele. I judged exposures on the latter using
the histograms in camera play mode, so I KNOW many if not all the images were
there on card before leaving the field. Got home, placed card in reader,
copied fine, but mac OSX only generated thumbnail for icon on first image.
Photoshop CS2 and graphic converter refused to open jpegs and CS2 wouldnt
open the NEFs, saying unknown file type. The file sizes looked right, about
3M for the jpgs and 7 for the raws... (camera set to record jpg fine and
raw). So I thought 'transfer problem', trashed the folder and attempted to
re-copy, and mac OSX reported an error, couldn't copy files. Placed card
back in camera and camera played only the first image, for the rest displayed
"no image data". I shot a pic in my study which displayed fine in the cam
and copied ok to the mac. I thought it possible that I would have turned
the camera off while last image was still writing (doubt it, but...), but why
should that have left 1 file (pair of files) unaffected?

So any thoughts on any testing that should be done, should I just assume its
a card problem(new Lexar 2 GB) and format it (I had formatted just before
heading out), switch to sandisk or other brand cards... just wait and see if
it happens again????? would hate to lose a whole day's real shooting!


.... mac G5 1.5 gig ram, usb sandisk card reader, photoshop CS2, lexar 2GB
card...


thanks in adavance, peter

 

If you cannot read the images on the card in the camera they may not be
there.
There are image recover utilities you can try to see if there is data on the
card.
If you have not upgraded the Adobe Converter in CS2 recently you may not
have the update that includes the ability to read D80 nef files. All Nikon
raw files say NEF but there are different formats from different cameras. So
if those NEF files are on your computer you may simply need to upgrade the
Adobe converter.

 

It does sound like you did something to interrupt a write to the card,
but the card may be physically defective. Personally, I would attempt
to use a file recovery utility like Photorescue on it. The odds are
good that you could recover all the files.

Then I would re-format the card and test it thoroughly before using it
for any more serious work.

 

that would certainly be a good idea but I have opened lots of nefs
already with CS2 so.... I might try photorescue

 

great idea - I was sure the data was there by the file sizes....
photorescue DID show thumbnails of many of the missing images, but I
haven't gotten it to save yet - I think I used expert mode not yet
registered or something... will figure it out....

Interestingly a prior days' shots were recovered as well, which should
have disappeared with the formating of the card!

Gonna go buy sandisk cards, as I noticed the lexar is NOT on the
approved list at nikon's website...

Also I wonder about deleting the files on a card using mac OSX, dragging
to trash and emptying trash... good idea or bad??


Thanks!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Peter

 

What software are you using to take the images off the card? I would
suggest Apple's Image Capture which comes with your computer's OS. Just
be sure you don't have it set to erase images after downloading (for
now).

 

I use mac OSX (finder) to drag the image files to a folder on my hard
drive, then use either graphic converter to quick slide show full screen
all the jpegs and/or use adobe bridge to view all files including the
nefs.

 

Why use a card reader???
The D80 has VERY fast USB2 tranfer rates, I bet better than your reader.

 

Try Image Capture. Set it's preferences to open when camera is attached.
It creates thumbnails also. I use a Lexar Card with a D80 with no
problems.

 

True, but I had to send my camera in for repair after the electrical
connection got messed up from plugging in all the time.

My USB 2.0 card reader is a lot slower but it saves wear and tear on the
camera.

 

Photorescue has recovered files on some of my cards that were more than
two years old; they had been re-formatted several times in the interim.
But you have to register the product to actually save the recovered
files. The Nikons do not actually reformat the cards. They just erase
the pictures. They will format a card that has not yet been formatted.

I like the Sandisk Extreme IV cards. The camera does not write to them
any faster, but they transfer to the Mac a *lot* faster. As far as
Lexar not being approved, I have never had any trouble with them. There
are a lot of Nikon users out there with Lexar cards.

Deleting the files on the card and emptying the trash is pretty much
what the camera does. I just find it more convenient to reformat. The
one thing you do not want to do is to use the Disk Utility on the Mac
to format the card unless you really know what you are doing. It is
real easy to format the card into something unusable by the camera.

I experimented formatting the card into different formats, removing
partitions and creating new ones, etc., with Disk Utility. After I was
done, Photorescue still managed to recover old files on the card.
Photorescue will recover files out of secure folders for which you have
forgotten the password. It will recover files from physically damaged
cards. However, it will not do the impossible, and some files may be
incomplete. It can also do funny things to the color balance of some
damaged NEF files -- glowing green sky, for example. But hey, it tries.

 

The D80 is faster than most readers, but not all. Some readers (such as
the Sandisk Extreme readers) are as fast or faster and they don't run
down the battery. A Sandisk Extreme FireWire reader will transfer files
at 38.4 megabytes/second or faster -- much faster than any USB 2.0
reader. (USB 2.0 is supposed to be faster -- in theory -- than FireWire
400. In practice, however, few USB 2.0 devices live up to anywhere near
their performance claims, and even the best are much slower than
FireWire 800.) Even the Delkin ExpressCard 34 Compact Flash reader only
transfers data at 20 Mb/sec.

 

Not very surprising. Formatting only writes a new file system and an empty
top level directoy. It doesn't affect any other data on the drive. Therefore
your pictures are still there, just inaccessible. Like you lost the index in
a huge library and to make matters worse someone tore the pages out of the
books.
File restore tools simply look at each page try to guess which pages belong
to which book. Sometimes they find whole books still intact with just the
cover missing (for photos on a memory card that is probably quite common)
and then restore is easy.

Well, depends on which definition of formatting you use.
Low-level formatting which in case of HDs rewrites trackes and sectors is
not available in consumer tools for good reasons.
High-level formatting just puts some basic file system information into a
few sectors and recreating the root directory. Therefore it appears as if
all it does is removing files while actually it doesn't care about the old
files at all. It simple creates a new blank root directory from scratch.

jue

 

Because it is much easier to just plug in the card than to fumble around
with a cable that I can't find when I need it and remember to turn on the
camera and where the heck is that tiny plug and .... No, it is just so much
easier to use the card as a virtual HD and copy files as needed.

Doubt that, but who knows.

jue

 

Yes, but I have several old low level formatting programs that
were used for formatting several types of hard drives (MFM, RLL,
ESDI, etc.) that were widely used before the advent of IDE drives.

That's a "quick" high level format. Some high level format
programs only do a "full" format, and they overwrite all sectors of
the hard drive's partition that's being formatted. These can take a
*long* time before the format completes. Other high level format
programs allow you to select whether a quick or a full format is
used. IIRC, some cameras also give you both format options.

 

DPReview tested the USB transfer rate with these results :

http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/nikond80/page12.asp


Note: These tests were done using a 2GB Sandisk Extreme III SD card.
The Sandisk Extreme IV USB reader is capable of much higher speeds.
The fastest transfer rate uses their Extreme IV CF cards in their
Extreme IV reader using a Firewire port, nearly 40 MB/sec. The USB
2.0 version is slower, but still faster than 30MB/sec, IIRC. I hope
I'm not misreporting something, because as far as I was aware, the
Sandisk Extreme IV readers only accepted CF cards. Maybe that's the
version that has the Firewire port. In any case, when used in the
normal mode as a mass storage device, where the D80 appears to the
computer as a disk drive, files are transferred *very* quickly.

 

THANK YOU ALL
for the suggestions... photorescue was great...
haven't used the ??bad card?? again yet since i have another


got some great shots at a show using available light and my old nikkor
35-105 in manual mode, hand held 1/40 to 1/60 at f4.5 iso 1600...
gonna keep experimenting!