What happened to this photo?

[AnnieHuley]

This only happened on about 8/1500 photos but it still scares me... What is this?

Sorry if there are similar threads, I tried to search but couldn't figure out how to describe what happened to this pic.

 

[Onerider]

I had that happen awhile back. I changed the memory card and it has never happened again.

 

[Overread]

Data corruption.

Do you format your cards in the camera when you wipe the data? Regular formatting can help avoid this. Otherwise if it happens a few times with the same card its a sign to chuck it and get a replacement since its likely the card has developed a fault. Formatting can sometimes help clear these faults

 

[AnnieHuley]

I do format from the card, but on this day I was deleting many individual photos on the camera, if eyes were closed or something to save room... Would that be a factor?

 

[AnnieHuley]

I had that happen awhile back. I changed the memory card and it has never happened again.

Okay... I guess as long as its not the camera I will live! I will purchase a new CF card ASAP I suppose.

 

[480sparky]

I do format from the card, but on this day I was deleting many individual photos on the camera, if eyes were closed or something to save room... Would that be a factor?

It's possible it is. I never delete anything in-camera while out in the field.

It's also possible that some step of your image ingestion is the culprit as well.

 

[Overread]

Personally I avoid deleting in the field - its very easy to delete the wrong thing and then suddenly that whole card is out of action till you can get it to a computer or restore the deleted data or you have to reshoot. It's also very hard to judge things properly on the LCD and you'll spend far longer trying to review in-camera than you will on the computer.

If you've run out of space then yes try to cull some obvious blunders to keep shooting - if that happens more than once or twice then consider getting more card space. If you are getting a LOT of duds as well consider revising your shooting method.

 

[KmH]

I do format from the card, but on this day I was deleting many individual photos on the camera, if eyes were closed or something to save room... Would that be a factor?

Yes, and this is why.

The file size of a digital image is dependent on the scene photographed. In other words, each image has a somewhat different file size. A photo of a plain white wall will have smaller file size than a photo of a seascape.
When the camera tries to re-use the memory space previously assigned to the now deleted image, the space may not be big enough for the new image.

So, rather than delete images in the camera, it is better to have one or more additional, empty, already formatted in that camera, memory cards.

 

[AnnieHuley]

I do format from the card, but on this day I was deleting many individual photos on the camera, if eyes were closed or something to save room... Would that be a factor?

Yes, and this is why.

The file size of a digital image is dependent on the scene photographed. In other words, each image has a somewhat different file size. A photo of a plain white wall will have smaller file size than a photo of a seascape.
When the camera tries to re-use the memory space previously assigned to the now deleted image, the space may not be big enough for the new image.

So, rather than delete images in the camera, it is better to have one or more additional, empty, already formatted in that camera, memory cards.

Oh, great to know this information!! Thank you!

 

[dsm.iv.tr]

When the camera tries to re-use the memory space previously assigned to the now deleted image, the space may not be big enough for the new image.

If I might weigh in on a technical aspect of this discussion: the above is absolutely true, but it doesn't explain anything about why deletion might be part of this puzzle. Files (at least for FAT filesystems) can be and are very often written in non-continuous blocks (this is called writing over clusters). It doesn't make sense to me that this can result in image corruption, because for the most part, filesystems know how to get all the pieces (or clusters) of the file they're looking for. See this link for a quick summary: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File_Allocation_Table#File_Allocation_Table

Formatting can help prevent corruption because it writes out a new allocation table, and may force the card to safety-check itself for where it's safe to put data. There is no reason I can see why deleting an image - equivalent to simply telling the filesystem it's ok to free up those clusters again - should create a risk of corruption.

If I were you, I'd replace my storage media. If this happens when I'm copying images to my desktop computer, I'd check for bad RAM in that box.

Cheers.

 

[bratkinson]

I'm guilty of both 'bad practices' mentioned above...individually deleting pictures while out shooting (I was on vacation, and didn't think about buying another memory card), and not carrying formatted spares with me. Believe it or not, that was just a month ago when I figured I'd have all the room in the world for one evening of shooting. Yep, ran out of space! Fortunately, home ia a little more than a mile away and 5 minutes later, I was back shooting with a fresh memory card.

As the price of memory cards keeps getting lower (except since January, they've gone up slightly), carrying a spare or two is always a requirement. I had to learn it the hard way...no surprise there! Some photographers, especially event photographers, carry several smaller cards and change them out often to lessen the 'disaster' if one of them goes bad, as did the OPs memory card.

 

[Steve5D]

I've had that happen to me once, but it had nothing to do with my card. My G12 had a sensor give up the ghost. The entire frame was affected...

 

[gsgary]

The underexposure is a bigger problem