How much you are willing to pay ?

[ShantDotMe]

for recovering ~500 wedding photos, from your "dead" card.

Keep in mind.-
- Win Xp / 7 was asking to format the card, when you insert it.
- You tried all the apps that came with the card(s), no good.
- You tried other recovery apps that you used to use, no luck there too.

Ladies n gents, make your bids

[BigFuzzy]

Originally Posted by ShantDotMe

for recovering ~500 wedding photos, from your "dead" card.

Keep in mind.-
- Win Xp / 7 was asking to format the card, when you insert it.
- You tried all the apps that came with the card(s), no good.
- You tried other recovery apps that you used to use, no luck there too.

Ladies n gents, make your bids

Have you tried other apps that you've not used before? There are lots of freebies out there (and no, I can't think of them all right now at work). Also, some of the nicer ones have trial versions.
Until I feel I've exhausted all my options, the price would be 0..

List the software you've used so maybe we can give you suggestions on other ones.

[candleman]

Originally Posted by ShantDotMe

for recovering ~500 wedding photos, from your "dead" card.

Keep in mind.-
- Win Xp / 7 was asking to format the card, when you insert it.
- You tried all the apps that came with the card(s), no good.
- You tried other recovery apps that you used to use, no luck there too.

Ladies n gents, make your bids

what happened to the card that it died?

[ShantDotMe]

I'm on the other side.

I recovered the card of a Photographe here. He did try every trick/app he used to use with no luck at all.

He said that he used the card in 40D then 5D, the files/filenames on the card were scrambled. I'm assuming that he got his card near a very strong electro/megnatic field or something.

He even wasn't able to copy those files to his PC - This is before it started to give "must format".

I took it as a challange at first & was able to recover all but three photos.

I did it without expecting anything in return, he is a good fellow & he as done some favors/offers for me, it was time to return a favor.

He is now back with the card of another photographer & things are different now. I'll surely charge the photographer for recovering his files - which he is glad too do.

I know how much it costs to recover HDD here, but no idea about the cards & was wondering how much photographers are willing to pay to recover their files.

@BigFuzzy, what if you tried everything and it didn't work
@candleman, I guess I already answered your Q

[WooD]

What you need to find out, is what the images are worth to the photographer.

If I was shooting a wedding, and a card died, I wouldn't have a problem paying $500 for 500 images. Depending on the wedding maybe up to $1,000.

This would be after I had exhausted all other options. It would be nearly impossible to re shoot a wedding.

[jerome.oneil]

I'll pay nothing since most of us can recover the data ourselves with freeware or shareware. If I get into a bind, by that I mean I had no success recovering the data, and really need the photos than I'd pay what I think the photos are worth. Some images we catch are priceless but I guess there has to be a maximum I'd pay.

I think I would charge an hourly rate with a minimum of an hour charge. I do side computer jobs in which I charge 50-75 an hour depending on what needs to be done (that's almost half what someone in business would charge for the same tasks). I don't charge for time that it might take the software to install or recover. If I'm using recovery software and it runs for three hours without user intervention then I only charge one hour, unless I'm on site. I try to be fair, as those 3 hours I'm doing something else (and not watching the progress bar).

This is quite timely as I lost 3.7 GBs of data on my CF card yesterday. I was panicky, but I was able to recover using a freeware app. It took three hours to recover my pictures.

Hope this helps.

Jerome

[ShantDotMe]

Originally Posted by WooD

What you need to find out, is what the images are worth to the photographer.

If I was shooting a wedding, and a card died, I wouldn't have a problem paying $500 for 500 images. Depending on the wedding maybe up to $1,000.

This would be after I had exhausted all other options. It would be nearly impossible to re shoot a wedding.

That's exactly what I'm trying to find out. How much a 4GB (500ish) wedding photos are worth for photographers here on DPS.

Originally Posted by jerome.oneil

I'll pay nothing since most of us can recover the data ourselves with freeware or shareware. If I get into a bind, by that I mean I had no success recovering the data, and really need the photos than I'd pay what I think the photos are worth. Some images we catch are priceless but I guess there has to be a maximum I'd pay.

I think I would charge an hourly rate with a minimum of an hour charge. I do side computer jobs in which I charge 50-75 an hour depending on what needs to be done (that's almost half what someone in business would charge for the same tasks). I don't charge for time that it might take the software to install or recover. If I'm using recovery software and it runs for three hours without user intervention then I only charge one hour, unless I'm on site. I try to be fair, as those 3 hours I'm doing something else (and not watching the progress bar).

This is quite timely as I lost 3.7 GBs of data on my CF card yesterday. I was panicky, but I was able to recover using a freeware app. It took three hours to recover my pictures.

Hope this helps.

Jerome

You are totally right, most of us can do so!! In the past the photographer has recovered other cards n paid nothing, but this time it failed & didn't work out for him.

As you said there has to be a max, and I'm asking what is that max for you?

Thnx for the input/comments, keep them rolling

cheers

[jerome.oneil]

Originally Posted by ShantDotMe

As you said there has to be a max, and I'm asking what is that max for you?

Thnx for the input/comments, keep them rolling

cheers

Say it was my son's wedding, I'd pay onwards of thousands of dollars or if I were a pro wedding photographer, I'd pay as much as I'm liable for, then some and take a loss to have happy clients. However, you can get your flash media recovered for no more than $500 I wouldn't need to pay Thousands.

In reality, you could send the flash drive to a data recovery service and spend no more than $300-$500. Some companies do charge an evaluation fee (a local recovery service's evaluation fee is $150 for flash).

I think it fair to charge 75 or 100 for an evaluation, and an hourly or megabyte fee for recovery.

Jerome

[sk66]

Originally Posted by jerome.oneil

if I were a pro wedding photographer, I'd pay as much as I'm liable for, then some and take a loss to have happy clients.

This is a realistic answer...most are not going to loose a lot of money in order to recover files...a non-pro will probably not be willing to loose any money.

[candleman]

I dont really understand this..

Did you offer to help him out, or did he hand the cards over to you knowing you were going to charge him for recovery???

i think if you were to hold him ransom after you were doing him a favour, you would be in for some very bad ju-ju.