Cheezed Off!

[Bruce A]

Ist really nice day for weeks. We're up at 5am, grab the camera bag and head down to the beach. There's a wild surf thrashing over the rocks at one of the small headlands, and waves crashing up to the dunes. It's high tide and our beaches are suffering once again from erosion by the big seas. Many images shot - great stuff! On the beachfront path, many young ladies jogging either solo or with dogs or racing prams with future speedsters tucked firmly inside, bronzed, sweaty runners coming and going - many images shot. Wonderful, finally a great morning shooting - and I'm happy

Get home, take out the CF card slip it into the reader then into the notebook usb.

Nothing happens. I search for the usb drive - nup!

Take the card out, slip it back in the camera ------------- "Format Card"

The whole morning's shoot is gone!

The reader had bent pins. The CF card is still okay after reformatting and from now on I won't be so lazy and I'll download via the usb cable.

GRRRRRRRRR!!!!!!!!!!!

Any similar tales?

[Optikal iLLusion]

That happened to my micro card in my phone once. Had lots of pics on there i wanted to keep and went to transfer them to the computer and GONE! Not as tragic as your story but still happened lol.

[FlyingKiwiGirl]

What a bummer Bruce! that would really peeve me off. Sounds like you had some fab shots too(just to make you feel worse ) Bent pins hasn't happened to me yet or any malfunction of camera or card *touch wood*, I was lucky the other day that my camera locked up at the END of the airshow. I've only had a malfunction of the brain, I once formatted my card when I though I'd downloaded my 1001 photos from a trip into the countryside you never do it again, I always check the last shot now.

[andrewdt]

I've trashed a card this way - in and out seems too rough on CF cards. As much as possible now I just download from camera over USB and format in camera, unless I have to use multiple cards when shooting a lot.

Sorry you lost your day. At least you got some sunshine

[Doug Sundseth]

I love the speed of CF cards, but I hate their mating technology. I've had damage to cameras that required motherboard replacement, and I've had cards damaged by bent pins. I've been fortunate enough not to have lost anything important, though.

My commiserations.

[Bruce A]

Originally Posted by Optikal iLLusion

That happened to my micro card in my phone once. Had lots of pics on there i wanted to keep and went to transfer them to the computer and GONE! Not as tragic as your story but still happened lol.

Yeah - it's not fun!

Originally Posted by FlyingKiwiGirl

What a bummer Bruce! that would really peeve me off. Sounds like you had some fab shots too(just to make you feel worse ) Bent pins hasn't happened to me yet or any malfunction of camera or card *touch wood*, I was lucky the other day that my camera locked up at the END of the airshow. I've only had a malfunction of the brain, I once formatted my card when I though I'd downloaded my 1001 photos from a trip into the countryside you never do it again, I always check the last shot now.

You are lucky Shellie as you got many fabulous shots.

Originally Posted by andrewdt

I've trashed a card this way - in and out seems too rough on CF cards. As much as possible now I just download from camera over USB and format in camera, unless I have to use multiple cards when shooting a lot.

Sorry you lost your day. At least you got some sunshine

Thnaks Andrew - you're right, it was nice to have a fine day for a change.

Originally Posted by Doug Sundseth

I love the speed of CF cards, but I hate their mating technology. I've had damage to cameras that required motherboard replacement, and I've had cards damaged by bent pins. I've been fortunate enough not to have lost anything important, though.

My commiserations.

Thanks Doug. I freaked at first thinking it could have been tha camera until I twigged.

[SwissJon]

My wife lost a whole art project on a sh*t SD card. She'd been spending weeks on a project and took photos of things as they progressed.. Didn't think to save the pictures off the card until the project had been finished. Same "format card" error. Lost the whole lot. Same thing happened to me with a USB key last week. Lost a whole bunch of important stuff for work.. Luckily I had everything backed up.

I'm of the opinion that once this happens, it's quite likely to happen again with that card, which makes the card unreliable. Most cards come with a warranty so you can swap them out.

Speaks volumes for having lots of small cards instead of one large one. At least then you only lose a smaller number of photos. Bloody annoying though.

[NgaiHill]

Thats a whole lot of bad luck Bruce. I'd have been p'd off too!
I use the card reader to download my shots to the computer rather than the camera usb - its just quicker & easier. Just before Christmas I noticed that a small bit of plastic across the end of the card was broken, made it a bit tricky to put back in the camera. Rather than risk damage to my camera, and the possibility of losing my photos I bought another card. Still have the other card & it still works OK but it is consigned to the 'back-up' pocket of my camera bag now.

[Bruce A]

The card is fine. It was the first time I used it (after testing), it's an Sandisk 8g Extreme and I have the 8g Ultra for a spare. It's the reader that's stuffed and I doubt I'll be trusting them again and stick to using the cable. I would think the SD card readers are safer with less pins than the CF cards to foul up.

[Jim Poor]

STOP doing anything with the card!

Get a new reader.

Download PhotoRescue.

Recover the photos.