camera;

[amezri]

So. One thing I've discovered in researching my new camera is that there seem to be a siginificant amount of people getting the dreaded "Memory Card Error" display, which results in either total loss of card data or other weirdness.

This is what I've come up with:

- The cards are all generally over 1GB in size (mostly the 4GB HC SD cards, though also a lot of 2GB SD cards)
- brands seem to be mostly Kingston and SanDisk (larger market share?)
- cards were not formatted on camera before use
- cards were usually high speed, high capacity which does not exactly meet SD card file standrads? Or something...

There are still a large enough number of people who have used to S3 with no memory card issues, so I think the key will be to just have many cards of smaller capacity rather than getting one giant card and stuffing everything on there.

I've been fiddling with the camera setting some more and have figured out the Shutter Speed priority thingo and played with manual focus and super macro settings. I'm going to try some sunset shots tonight, but it's super cloudy, so I probably won't be able to. Would also like to try out suggested methods of photographing the moon, but there won't be a full moon for another week or two, I believe.

Also going to buying a ProStrap (review here) because I absolutely hate neckstraps and after using it for a couple days, my opinion hasn't changed.

Okay, off to do some knitting!

Comments

[larissa-j.livejournal.com]

So. One thing I've discovered in researching my new camera is that there seem to be a siginificant amount of people getting the dreaded "Memory Card Error" display, which results in either total loss of card data or other weirdness.

*coughs*

#1 How technical were the people in question? Non technical people tend to scream "OMG the hardware done broked my stuff," when in fact, it's stupid user error.

#2 Were they leaving the cards in the camera all the time, including PTP/computer connection or were they removing the cards and placing them in a SD reader?

i.e.
pics in the camera
remove
place in reader
REMOVE WITHOUT SAFELY EJECTING
placing the SD card back in camera yields ERROR?

This is the number one cause of corrupt cards and people are generally too stupid to realize it. They blame the cards or the camera because the camera yields the error.

#3 Cards should always, always be formatted in the camera. (sounds like you know this)

Cards moved from mp3 players to cameras don't usually do well without a format.

People treat their SD cards like crap. Dirty/bent pins can also cause read errors.

#4 A card with a corrupt image will sometimes show this message. If you can place the card in an SD reader and find the image, you might be able to salvage the card. You'll usually see this happen if you run the batteries down and the camera dies in the middle of a CCD dump.

If Canon doesn't have a specific help article on this, I blame the user.

Would also like to try out suggested methods of photographing the moon, but there won't be a full moon for another week or two, I believe.

Do you have aperture priority mode as well?

[amezri.livejournal.com]

Non technical people tend to scream "OMG the hardware done broked my stuff," when in fact, it's stupid user error.

Well. This is the reason I haven't really freaked out about it too much, but in general the people seemed to have a fair bit of technical knowledge.

There seems to be a rash of memory card issues with Canon cameras, as reported here.

Errors seem to appear out of nowhere -- ie: Taking good photos. Turn camera off. Turn camera on and next photo results in error. Sometimes taking the card out and putting it back in resolves problem, sometimes not. Sometimes data is intact, sometimes you need to muscle it out.

However, the Google results are low enough that I'm not really going to think about it too much until my card craps out on me. Then I will call my friend at Canon and yell at him XD

(FYI, I've used the same CF card in my Nikon 3100 for 4 years with no problems at all. Use a card reader to read and reformat in camera when I want to delete all images.)


Do you have aperture priority mode as well?

Yes, I do! :D


By the way, can I say how cool it is to have another techie person on my flist that I can either ask questions or just bounce ideas off? Yay for geeky friends! :D

[larissa-j.livejournal.com]

Errors seem to appear out of nowhere -- ie: Taking good photos. Turn camera off. Turn camera on and next photo results in error. Sometimes taking the card out and putting it back in resolves problem, sometimes not. Sometimes data is intact, sometimes you need to muscle it out.

I'm going to take a guess by looking at the dates of the post and say it's a firmware problem with the kingston and sandisk UII cards. They've probably rev'd the card's FW since 2005 and Canon has probably patched their FW as well.

Sandisk had to rev their FW several times when they were developing the SD format. It wouldn't suprise me if they had to do it again for UII since they were working on the R/W speeds and increased capacity.

Then I will call my friend at Canon and yell at him XD

Isn't it nice to have someone to yell at? Yah, I yell a whole lot on some days! NVIDIA is my favorite!

Do you have aperture priority mode as well?

Yes, I do! :D

You'll probably want to stop all the way down (high fstop number) and set the exposure to automatic. I'm not sure if you can do this. My SLR will do this and so I'm pretty sure you can. It will leave the shutter open for however long the camera determines is necessary. If you are unsure if about the exposure time, try forcing bracketing by adjusting your ISO settings (100,200,400).

stopping down to f16 (or whatever your camera will do) will keep the shutter open, keep the moon in focus (critical) and give you better depth of field.

If you want additional effects later on, try looking into some filters. Although, with photoshop, this really isn't necessary but since I'm old school, I still think filters :D and composing TTL.

By the way, can I say how cool it is to have another techie person on my flist that I can either ask questions or just bounce ideas off? Yay for geeky friends! :D

Heee! Yay for geekiness! *points to icon*

[amezri.livejournal.com]

They've probably rev'd the card's FW since 2005 and Canon has probably patched their FW as well.

Hoping so! But I'd seen a few posts at other forums that were dated like.. uh.. yesterday. Still! I have hope that taking good care of the cards and not being an idiot when handling them will keep that from happening.

I've been looking at some of the tips on this forum, and even though I don't have the additional telephoto lens, I think I can do some of those things.

stopping down to f16 (or whatever your camera will do) will keep the shutter open, keep the moon in focus (critical) and give you better depth of field.

This is all stuff I need to learn because with my old camera, I just fakes my way through it by adjusting the E/V (which is basically all I could really tweak besides WB). Is very confusing to me. I will pester you with questions ;)

[larissa-j.livejournal.com]

This is all stuff I need to learn because with my old camera, I just fakes my way through it by adjusting the E/V (which is basically all I could really tweak besides WB). Is very confusing to me. I will pester you with questions ;)

That's okay. I'm assuming you're using a tripod for the nightime shots? Otherwise don't attempt to handhold below 1/30th (shutter speed). You won't be able to do it. Not even pros can do this.

Also, don't use Digital Zoom. Only use optical. Digital just magnifies an area on the CCD. You can essentially do the same thing in photoshop once you have the image on the PC.

[amezri.livejournal.com]

Yep, will have a tripod. I want to get one of the gorillapods, actually, but that will probably have to wait a few paychecks as I want to buy a bag this weekend.

OMG DIGITAL ZOOM!! I've only used it a few times out of sheer desperation (and after I'd gotten a ton of shots with my puny 3x zoom), but yes, I know, digital zoom is essentially just blowing up the image.

Actually, PS might do a better job of it if you know what you're doing ;)