Only half of image viewable, card or camera issue?

Hey all,

Took about 600 shots over the weekend of different things. Three of my photos (i think it was three anyway) look like this;







Just wondering if it's a problem with the camera or the card? The card is a generic MyMemory 8GB card, but it has never given me any issue or problem at all in the year or so I've had it. The camera is a Canon 1D Mark II, so not exactly cutting edge technology.



Just a bit confused.

mrboswell

Format your card and try it again.

Happens the odd time.

zerohamster

It's most likely a memory card fault, especially if its a generic one. The lifetimes can vary a good bit in generic cards (if it is consistant) and also shots like this usually creep up when the camera is shooting burst, the card cant keep up and doesn't write properly so I sincerely doubt it is your camera. As mentioned above, try formatting the card (low level if possible) and see if it happens again.

There can also be buffer errors in the camera but its usually just the card not being able to keep up with write times. Were the shots part of a burst or just shooting quickly?
You could try taking a long burst of shots and try to get the same fault to occur, then try a faster card in the same situation and if it occurs again it could point to the camera.

PureRGB

I presume its not a flash sync issue?

Cheers for the replies.

As I say, I've had no issues with the card in the past, but the shots that were taken that had problems like the above, were taken in burst mode, and as it was a finish of a race I was at, there were a lot of shots going in continuously (I took about 300 photographs in less than 20 minutes, I'd say).

So I'd say you're fairly spot on Zerohamster.

I think flash sync issues usually leave a fade-to-black type result, and not an instant off-colour cut off. There was no flash on the camera at the time, anyway, so it'd rule that out.


I just bought another card online incase this one dies (i already have back ups, but they're much smaller cards (1GB, 512MB, etc.)


Thank you gentlemen

zerohamster

Also just to add flash sync and shutter error would be ruled out by the grey rather than just flat black or severely underexposed from sync or shutter problems.
Definitely a write error but as suspected it seems like it was on the card's side.
Good luck with the new card, hope you didn't lose and great shots from the bunch!

zerohamster

zerohamster wrote: »

Good luck with the new card, hope you didn't lose and great shots from the bunch!

I'd have to take great shots before I could lose them! :P

Ah seriously though, it only affected a tiny amount of images, and there was bit of mayhem at the finish line with lots of people taking photos and cheering and stuff, so i got a fair few out of focus shots. To keep myself happy, I'll just assume that the ones I lost wouldn't have been usable anyway :pac:

Borderfox

Can you see the shot like this on the camera, I have had the odd shot like this on the computer but it had more to do with the transfer.

AnCatDubh

Had something similar on a branded card (Sandisk bought in high street shop). Had being using the card for a long while with no problems. But for my shoot, I was shooting in RAW+JPG. One was corrupt and unrecoverable, the other was perfectly usable - can't remember whether it was the RAW or JPG which was corrupt. I reformatted the card and have been using it since with no problems. I guess the lessons learned from it for me are twofold -

a) regularly format or better still change the SDHC cards often (if you can afford it)

and

b) Shoot RAW + JPG all the time - if you have minor corruption on your memory card, then you may still get a usable image in the second format file.