Where did my photos go?!!

[M.M.]

Has anybody taken a sequence of photos only to find them missing from the memory card?  At least, when you chimp the images a minute later they aren't there?

I had this happen twice yesterday with my D200.  The first time I figured it might be a card issue so I put a new one in.  A few hours later it happened again.  I took a few test shots which also failed to write.  Turning the power off and on and re-inserting the card seemed to get things working again.  In neither case did once-in-a-lifetime photos vanish, but I'm still POed -- and mystified.

The first incident involved a Sandisk Ultra 2 CF card that was under 1/4 full.  The second time it was a half-full Extreme III.  Both cards had been formatted in the camera before use.  I haven't yet downloaded the cards or tried to recover their contents, so I guess it's possible the images are there but unreadable by the camera...

Is this a freak occurrence or something others have experienced/heard of?

And how could you ever prove it happened if you sent the camera in for service? 

-M.M.

[Roger]

You should check the card first to see if there is anything on there (outside of the camera).  With Canon, the camera uses a jpg thumbnail for chimping, alongside the RAW file (at least in my old cameras, not sure if it still works like that with the later generations).  It could be that those jpg thumbnails are corrupted, but the RAW file is still intact.

Roger

[CAVU Mark]

Never had a problem with 36k thousand D200 activations with Sandisk II cards or Delkin 2G cards.  Maybe you can google for some diagnostic software for the cards?  Or if there was a temperature extreme issue?

[thenewarea51]

Did you format the card in the camera before using?

[M.M.]

Did you format the card in the camera before using?

Always.

I tried Sandisk's recover software on the card, and while I was impressed that the program found pictures that had been overwritten four or five times, it didn't find the shots I was looking for.  My conclusion is that the camera failed to write them to the card.

I no longer have the camera involved and I only use that CF card as a last resort, so I don't expect the situation to recur -- but you'll all hear about it if it does!

-M.M.