Tekforums
Chat => Photography => Topic started by: zpyder on September 06, 2010, 21:59:30 PM
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Had a random error on the 40D earlier whilst taking a crapload of microscope shots. Id taken a few hundred already and gone to swap the beetles over for the next lot, when I came back and turned live view back on I was presented with an error about the card not being formatted. Not good. Turning off & on did nothing, but I managed to get it all working again by taking the card out and putting it back in. I doubt itd have been loose, so am left hoping that it is just the fact it is one of the cheapest 16gb CF cards you can get and is as a result a bit dodgy, and not the camera!
I guess Ill have to keep my eye on it, and if necessary invest in some more 4-8 gb cards instead, at least theyll be faster.
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ouch, might be a one off though
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Hopefully. At least Ill soon find out as Ill be taking at least a few thousand photos a week for a while now! I did 964 this evening, took an hour to transfer off of the camera!
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giving that a proper hammering arent you!
Im tempted to sell most of my kit and get a different body and new lens
edit: did you pop the battery out of the camera at all when you had the issue or just the card?
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How are you transferring from the camera? Usb or do you have a card reader? Just that may be quicker using a card reader?
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Using USB as Im too much of a cheapskate to pay money for a decent card reader which will be any faster than transferring it by USB. Its no biggy really as tbh once the first 30-50 photos are done I can start processing the first image which will take the computer 20 mins or so, that or I can go and watch a TV programme :D
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Youll be able to get a reader for a few quid, you dont need to spend a lot :P
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giving that a proper hammering arent you!
Im tempted to sell most of my kit and get a different body and new lens
edit: did you pop the battery out of the camera at all when you had the issue or just the card?
Dont think I did. Its terrible but I cant remember!
I was allowed to play with the new toys theyve got at uni, 2 new 500Ds with kit lenses, theyve also got the 50mm and that nasty Sigma. Ive been asked by my friend in the stores if I could take some shots with the cameras to "show what they can do" as these are for the lecturers only, and she doubts theyll ever get used. Brilliant excuse to go out at the weekend though and take a load of photos with em.
Its strange how quickly you get used to a camera too. To start with I missed the 400Ds shutter noise, and now I prefer the 40Ds to the 500Ds.
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Youll be able to get a reader for a few quid, you dont need to spend a lot :P
Yeah, but will they be any good? I think I actually have 2 lying around somewhere, both of which are so cheap and nasty I dont like using them as I get the feeling theyll burst into flames at some point!
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yeah i much prefer the shutter sound on the XXD to my XXXD series heh
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how are you clearing the photos off when youve downloaded them?
Cards tend to get finicky if they havent been formatted in a camera for a while, preferably the camera theyll be used in. For this reason I never just delete the photos off my cards, I always use the cameras "format card" option to clear them off.
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Yeah, I read that somewhere else last night. Id been using the delete all function, so Ive given it a format too now. I dont know why I bother with the delete all function, it takes longer and is just as many button presses, and I dont make use of locking images etc.
I also read that if you full format it on PC it helps to map out the bad/corrupt sectors on the memory, and that the cameras dont?
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Ive not heard that one before, but could be?
Ive always formatted my cards in the camera theyre used with and never had a problem. The only card problem Ive ever had was similar to your problem above with a 1GB card in my Panasonic Lumix when I first got it and was using the "delete all" function a lot. Since then Ive always used "format".
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Yeah, where I read it was a forum post somewhere when I was googling the problem. I wouldnt trust it that much given the guy that said it was basically ranting about why it doesnt matter AT ALL whether you format in PC or Camera, but at the same time trying to convince everyone to format in PC. Kinda self contradicting so take it with a pinch of salt ;)
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now that I think more about it, Im reasonably sure that load ballancing is the job of the flash controler on the card, so if theres any bad sector mapping to be done itll be the card itself which does it.
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Well theres now 2 files (that I know of) that appear to be corrupt :/
I think Ill need to fill the card again and see if it happens. Will have to try and remember who I bought it from to see if they will replace it ><
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Have filled up the memory card twice now, no issues. Maybe it was the "delete all" rather than format option.
On another note, the camera is actually faster at transferring than the memory card reader I found under my bed 0.o
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Have you tried joining your camera to the computer and using that to take the photos? Might be able to automate the process a bit more and save time. You can download the results at the same time too.
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Itd be more hassle than its worth.
If I had a fancy electronic microscope that would be controllable from the computer too it would work, but as it is all id be doing is stretching a usb cable from the camera on the scope to the computer, so thatll get in the way, Ill then need to move between the camera and computer every time I take a photo, unless I place the microscope next to the computer, in which case I will still need to move more to press a key or the mouse.
As it is I have the remote in one hand, and the other on the focus adjuster on the scope. I twist the adjuster by a fraction, let go, press shutter button on remote, and repeat. If I am careful, and am pressed for time, I can take 20-25 shots in less than 30 seconds, I doubt Id get anywhere close to this with it connected to the computer.
I think uni has software and a microscope or two that can be set up when you literally get the initial focus done, and then the program automatically adjusts the scope and stage on it and will take multiple photos covering the whole sample at all focal depths. Costs about 10x as much as my set up though!
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So whats the deal with memory card readers being faster? Thinking my old reader was just USB 1 I got a USB 2.0 reader, and its still at most only half the speed of transferring straight from the camera...windows is predicting 20 hours to transfer all the images.
Is there some buried windows gubbins that helps speed up transfers, like a setting to prevent something from accessing the drive and slowing it down etc? I know its a slow card, but I also know that the camera will copy across one image every few seconds, this is taking maybe 10 seconds to copy 1 across and is saying a write speed of ~750kbps
EDIT:
Sussed it...it may be a USB 2.0 reader but plugging it into a USB 1.0 hub is counter productive. Its now only going to take ~12 mins.
Mind you...the camera gets connected to the hub and is still faster.