Memory card problem

[Diane Zartman]

Hi there. I am new to the forums here. I have a very specific question regarding my memory card.

I own a Panasonic Lumix FZ-20. I normally take photos as jpegs, but was told by a photographer that it was better to take them either RAW, which my camera won't do, or as tiffs, which my camera will do. I now start out with jpegs and switch over to tiff if I have something I think is worth entering in a contest or something.

For Christmas, my friend gave me a 2GB SD card, and I went out and took a ton of pictures and quite a few tiffs. On my camera, the tiffs looked fine, but when I uploaded them to my PC, they looked all screwey. A section from the right was cut off and sort of pasted on the left - like looking at a negative that is misaligned - and the whole thing had a purplish hue. Has anyone encountered this and does anyone know whether I can fix it or whether the card is defective? It was brand new in the package, but bought online.

Thanks so much for any help you can give.

Deina

 

[StuartRae]

Diane,

Don't forget that every camera shoots RAW; it's just that yours doesn't save files in RAW format. Both the TIFF and JPEG images from your camera will have been converted from RAW by the in-camera firmware, and so will have the same pre-defined manufacturer's setting applied to them.
I doubt that there's really much advantage in shooting TIFF unless you want to do a lot of editing on the image. The very slight advantage in image quality is more than offset by the vastly increased file size.

The big advantage in saving as RAW is that you then have a choice of third-party Raw Converters, and have the final say in how you want your image to look. You're not tied down to the manufacturer's decisions.

The TIFFs look OK in the camera because what you're viewing is the embedded JPEG thumbnail, not the TIFF image itself.

I don't really know why the TIFFs should come out screwed, but have you tried formatting the card in the camera before using it?

Regards,

Stuart

 

[Michael Fontana]

>A section from the right was cut off and sort of pasted on the left - like looking at a negative that is misaligned <

I had, a good while ago, smilar symptoms - with a Sandisk-CF-card that was'nt running fine, suddenly...
it just broke down, without a alert..

Maybe the Lumix doesn't supports card bigger than 1 GB? - just a thought...

 

[Diane Zartman]

That would be too bad. I don't think my friend can get her money back, and it's something I asked for.

 

[Diane Zartman]

Ah, gotcha. Well, when you look at the size of the TIFF, it's a lot bigger - less compressed - than a JPEG. The dimensions are exactly the same, but the size is much greater. I went to a lecture where this photographer was talking about that being very important for printing.

 

[Marian Howell]

stuart, even though you are now a senior member <wink> i must correct you here. this camera only does tiff and jpg, no raw. i agree 100% though with your thinking on the topic of shooting tiff v. jpg. and with the suggestion of reformatting the card in the camera.
my question for diane is: are only the thumbnails screwy on the pc or are the full-sized ones screwy as well? i don't have the same camera, but sometimes my thumbs are messed up in a similar way but when i view them full screen in the same viewer they are ok. and sometimes one viewing program doesn't like them but another one does. always worth a try. and you could also try re-downloading them from the card in case that is where the corruption occured. or downloading to another computer.

 

[StuartRae]

i must correct you here. this camera only does tiff and jpg, no raw.

Marian,

I may have phrased my statement badly. All cameras shoot in RAW. Some don't save RAW. The TIFFs and JPEGs are produced by an in-camera conversion of the RAW data from the sensor.

Sorry to be pedantic ;-)

Regards,

Stuart

 

[Michael Fontana]

That would be too bad. I don't think my friend can get her money back, and it's something I asked for.

Just give it back, there should be some warranty on it.
I had my bad CF-card replaced...

 

[Diane Fields]

Ah, gotcha. Well, when you look at the size of the TIFF, it's a lot bigger - less compressed - than a JPEG. The dimensions are exactly the same, but the size is much greater. I went to a lecture where this photographer was talking about that being very important for printing.

Its not the 'size of the file', but the fact that the jpeg is a compressed file with artifacts already present because of the compression (which could rear their ugly heads LOL--or, depending upon the file, you might not be much aware of them). They are already present when you upload and save in tiff. If you shoot in tiff originally (and if RAW is available, preferably that, converted to tiff for post processing), there are no compression artifacts to deal witth. The other thing that would be important would be to turn sharpening off in the camera---or as little as possible. You would do this sharpening at the time of printing or saving for the web---keep your file at native size, then resize/sharpen as needed.

Since printing came up--I'll add this. Depending upon the printer, you would want your resolution to match what prints best wth each. The Epsons do the very best with 360ppi--whereas I've become aware that the new HPs and Canon (pigment at least) do best with 600ppi. Its been discussed quite a lot on other forums. You may have to resample/resize in your graphics app to handle this---or, if you aren't aware of Qimage, try the demo for printing. It handles all those things for you (after you set it up).

Diane

 

[Diane Fields]

>A section from the right was cut off and sort of pasted on the left - like looking at a negative that is misaligned <

I had, a good while ago, smilar symptoms - with a Sandisk-CF-card that was'nt running fine, suddenly...
it just broke down, without a alert..

Maybe the Lumix doesn't supports card bigger than 1 GB? - just a thought...

That's a thought---pulling up several reviews quickly I saw they were recommending 256MB cards--nothing about 'large' cards---so it may not have the capacity to use a 2GB card.

Diane

 

[Ray West]

Hi Diane,

You could try reading the manual which came with the camera. It will give the sd card requirements wrt. speed and size. It will probably tell you to format it in the camera, as others have mentioned. It may not format it as a 2GB card, but there again it may.

Then fill it with jpegs. Just point the camera at something and keep pressing the button. (pretend you are a sport's photographer...) Download them all to your pc, see if any are messed up. re format the card in camera, then fill it with tiffs. see if they are screwed up. It may be, but not so likely, a software/firmware problem. check out the pano site, other fora.

Finally, there are a lot of fake cards out there - they look good, but do not work, at least not for long.

The card may work good enough in an mp3 player, say.

Best wishes,

Ray

 

[Marian Howell]

Marian,

I may have phrased my statement badly. All cameras shoot in RAW. Some don't save RAW. The TIFFs and JPEGs are produced by an in-camera conversion of the RAW data from the sensor.

Sorry to be pedantic ;-)

Regards,

Stuart

Stuart, i stand corrected

 

[Jeff Donovan]

The FZ30 certainly supports 2GB cards.

I have been having a different issue with mine. I think repeated removals of the card (to switch cards, to download, etc) has worn down the connections to the point where they sometimes have trouble getting read.

So when I put one of my 2GB cards into my FZ30 it sometimes tells me "card not readable."

Has anyone else had this issue?

 

[Eric Michelson]

Hi Diane,

I think your camera should easily support 2GB SD cards. Probably at least up to 4GB. Beyond that may be iffy if the camera doesn't support FAT32 formatted cards.

One way to test if the camera sees all storage is to see how much storage the camera reports after you format it.

Troubleshooting has to be logically done, one variable at a time. Variables are
The CF Card
The CF Card reader
Computer
Camera

You have to duplicate the error then change each variable one at a time. It takes time but you will figure it out.

Cheers!
Eric Michelson
www.pixelleadership.com

 

[Asher Kelman]

I second Eric's approach!

Just get another SD card, any, can be even 100 MB! Format it in the camera.

Take a few pics. If the problem is still present, take the two cards to the camera store and have them look at the images. If they are both screwed up then the camera is no good. If they are both fine, you need a new card reader, if the new card is fine, then the first card is likely bad and should be sent back!

Asher