MAJOR DILEMMA: LR destroying images?

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T.D.

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I went shooting today and took about 8'' shots on 2 separate CF cards (all with the same 4'D and same lens). I loaded the images. And all of the previews rendered just fine. I edited one image and loaded it up to my smugmug page. Still everything's good.

I went back to edit another image and suddenly, when I double clicked on the preview, the image turned into this:

249572835-L.jpg


As I browsed through the library, several more images started doing the same thing (not exactly like this, but various version in various quadrants of the images).

I optimized my catalog and rendered previews. Still not fixed.

HELP!! Please!!!
 
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Did you shoot RAW? If so, can you see the problem raws with another application, eg. ACR, XnView, DpMagic, etc?

I feel certain that LR hasn't damaged the actual RAW files.

Have you tried removing a problem image or two from the database and re-importing?

To be honest, the only time I've seen something like that in the last 5 years or so, was when I was using one of those little 1" hard-drive CF cards, which went bad one day (never was very good).



.....brad s
 
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Brad Snyder said:
You don't really say anything about your system or versions, etc, which may help in resolving the problem.

Did you shoot RAW? If so, can you see the problem raws with another application, eg. ACR, XnView, DpMagic, etc?

I feel certain that LR hasn't damaged the actual RAW files.

Have you tried removing a problem image or two from the database and re-importing?

To be honest, the only time I've seen something like that in the last 5 years or so, was when I was using one of those little 1" hard-drive CF cards, which went bad one day (never was very good).

Let us know a little more about your situation by creating a signature block with your tech specs; click User CP in the Task Bar upper left.

.....brad s
Click to expand...

Thanks for the reply.

My system information is listed in my signature line. (do you have signatures turned off?) Yes, I shoot in Raw.

I'm pretty sure you're right about the raw image. Why is it doing this to the previews?
 
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How did you download the files; Canon's EOS utility from the camera, card reader or Lightroom from the camera or card reader?

The first thing to do is check the RAW files are not physically damaged. If the 4'D came with Canon's DPP, how do the photos look in that? If they are OK, so far so good; back them up if you haven't already. If some are damaged, do you have them still on the card(s)?

Next we need to isolate the cause. If some of the RAW files are damaged, are they from one card or both? If they are still on the card(s), will EOS utility download them intact if you try it again?

It may seem totally unrelated but ... have you recalibrated your monitor recently? It could be a bad profile. Have you had a Windows update of the graphics card drivers? I've know those to be faulty sometimes. Have you installed any other software recently? These questions are just food for thought and not intended to remove blame from Lightroom if it is at fault.

So long as the RAW files downloaded intact, create a fresh catalog and import them into that, rendering 1:1 previews. Does that work? Can you step though the photos in Library grid and loupe and in Develop with them displaying correctly? If so, the Lightroom preview cache on the original catalog could be corrupt at which point I would trash the previews folder and let Lightroom rebuild it scratch. If you have a large amount of photos in the catalog, that could take some time.
 
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Thanks for the response.

I used LR to download the files from a SanDisk card reader.

I have since downloaded them again on this PC as well as my laptop. I tried opening them in DPP and got the same result. What's weird is that the initial preview in DPP is fine then it turns to the above.

I sent a fresh copy to a friend and he gets the same thing.

I'm 98% convinced that this is a camera/card issue and not a LR issue. I bought this 4'D a month ago and bought the Extreme III cards at the same time. I'm going to pursue that angle. I understand SanDisk may replace the cards. I'll have to check into that.

Thanks again for your help. I appreciate it.
 
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Check your card reader - I've seen this far more often from a dodgy card reader or cable than anything else.

And the reason the initial preview is fine is likely that it's initially showing you the embedded jpeg preview, which is only a small part of the file and therefore often gets away without being corrupted.
 
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Victoria Bampton;716' said:
Check your card reader - I've seen this far more often from a dodgy card reader or cable than anything else.

And the reason the initial preview is fine is likely that it's initially showing you the embedded jpeg preview, which is only a small part of the file and therefore often gets away without being corrupted.
Click to expand...

Thanks Victoria. I'll give that a shot.
 
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T.D. said:
Thanks for the response.

I'm 98% convinced that this is a camera/card issue and not a LR issue. I bought this 4'D a month ago and bought the Extreme III cards at the same time.
Click to expand...

Extreme III are from SanDisk and always come with a little disk conttaining a Recovery software. Did you gave their recovery software a try? If your images are still on the card(s) of course...
 
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Denis Pagé said:
Extreme III are from SanDisk and always come with a little disk conttaining a Recovery software. Did you gave their recovery software a try? If your images are still on the card(s) of course...
Click to expand...

Hmm. Good suggestion. Didn't think of that. Unfortunately, I formatted the cards a few hours ago.:roll:
 
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T.D. said:
Hmm. Good suggestion. Didn't think of that. Unfortunately, I formatted the cards a few hours ago.:roll:
Click to expand...

Shouldn't recovery still work on formated cards if they haven't been written over? .........
 
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T.D. said:
Unfortunately, I formatted the cards a few hours ago.:roll:
Click to expand...

That is unfortunate. I truly believe somehow the files were slightly fubar'd in the write or copy phases. In the bad old days of slow dial up modems, and floppy disks, your sample screen capture was an extremely common failure mode of raster files. The only time I've seen it in the compact flash era, I ended up scrapping the card rather than trusting it any further.

I'd give the cards, reader and maybe camera a good thashing before relying on them again. But, I'm sure you've already drawn that conclusion.
 
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