corrupted digital images

November 24, 2007 5:00 PM

Sometimes photos from my digital camera end up corrupted once they're uploaded to my computer. What's going on and how do I make it stop?

When I upload photographs from my camera (canon xti) to my computer, a bunch of them randomly turn out all corrupted, like this.
It's happened on different memory cards, so I don't think it's a problem with that. I shoot in RAW, if that matters.

posted by logic vs love to Computers & Internet (8 answers total)

This seems to be a common problem is google is any indicator. Many people have tracked the problem to off-brand or outright fake CF cards and their write rate not being fast enough, overflowing the buffer in the camera.

In any case I haven't found a solution yet. I had this problem once in a Nikon, and tracked it down to me formatting the card on my PC as opposed to doing it in camera. Formatted it in camera, and no more problems.
posted by sanka at 5:23 PM on November 24, 2007

I've had this problem if my camera battery is low.
posted by TochterAusElysium at 6:21 PM on November 24, 2007

this is a cool effect. how can I make my pictures come out like this?
posted by univac at 7:15 PM on November 24, 2007

univac, try using the greasemonky script "glitchmonky". (You'll have to install greasemonkey on firefox first.)
or
glitchbrowser
which will make your browsing session look like
this.

Here's a bit more glitch art:
http://www.flickr.com/groups/glitches/
posted by sebastienbailard at 8:14 PM on November 24, 2007

causes of memory card corruption.

One of my photography teachers was particularly adament about reformatting the card (in camera) every time you upload to prevent this.

There have also been some reviews that have mentioned problems also with certain models (not the XTi) that allow power to be disrupted while a write operation is in progress or pending.
posted by nakedcodemonkey at 10:12 PM on November 24, 2007

Do you upload them from the camera directly, or use a card reader?
posted by Caviar at 7:48 AM on November 26, 2007

Thanks for the answers! I always format in-camera and upload from the camera directly. I think it might by a too-slow write-rate or too-low battery since I don't always fully charge it, so I'll see if changing things helps.
posted by logic vs love at 12:51 PM on November 26, 2007

For what it's worth, really fast cards are not that expensive these days. I'm quite fond of the Sandisk Extreme III and IV. As pro-level cards, they come with nice utilities for card recovery (which I've never had to use, but still...) and lifetime warranties.
posted by Caviar at 4:26 PM on November 26, 2007