I had a very strange thing happen with my Z7ii and I thought I would post it here to see if anyone had some idea or thoughts on what might of happened. I normally shoot RAW plus JPEG, with the 2nd card slot as a backup, and import both RAW and JPEG into Lightroom. Yesterday I shot 58 photos at a family event. That night I put the XQD card in the card reader and imported to Lightroom. In Lightroom I noticed that there were 10 files that were JPEG only and without the corresponding RAW files. I then looked at the XQD car directly on my computer and sure enough there were 10 JPEG files without the corresponding RAW files. I then put the backup SD card in the card reader and looked at it. On this card both the 10 JPEG files as well as the RAW file were missing. These 10 photos were taken in the middle of the shoot, there are photos before and after that do not have any problem. Fortunately, this was not a paid shoot and the JPEG's are somewhat usable. But I really cannot think of why this would happen and of course I am concerned it will happen again. I did some test shots today and there was no problem. Anyone have any thoughts? Thanks!
Missing RAW's
- Thread starter Hua Ming
- Start date
Only between Aperture Priority and Manual. Did not do anything in the menus.
All digital cameras are susceptible to electronic charges such as static electricity. The strange behavior of your camera makes me wonder if something of that sort happened. I've had situations that are otherwise not explainable happen only twice in my nearly 20 years of using digital cameras, though neither of my situations was as serious as yours. My two situations happened 10 years apart.
I'm not ruling out Mike's electrostatic glitches but is there any correspondence between the mode and the missing NEFs? That is, were the missing NEF's the all shot in Manual mode and the rest of the night in AP (or vice versa)? Or were you switching in and out of modes all night?
Did you shoot a few pictures in quick succession and the turn the camera off? If so, the smaller jpgs were written to disc, but not the larger Nefs.
Thanks everyone! I don't think it is a card reader or cable problem. When I put the card in the camera and review the files on the back of the camera the 10 RAW files are still missing. I don't remember taking a lot of pictures quickly but I am not sure. Most of the time I was shooting manual with auto iso, and that is how these were shot. What really confuses me is that the 10 RAW files are missing from the primary XQD card and both the JPEG and RAW files are missing from the backup SD card. So much for thinking that a 2nd card slot will save you! I did more test shots today without any issues. I am a NPS member and I would send it back to Nikon to check but since it seems to be working correctly now I don't think they would find anything wrong. But it is really making me nervous.
Had the camera since March. About 2500 clicks. I do most of my paid work with my Z6. Just FYI, it was mentioned that I may have turned the camera off while it was still writing to the card. As an experiment, I just took 50 photos in rapid succession and turned the camera off while it was still writing to the card (green light still on). The camera did not turn off and stayed on until the green light went out and then turned off automatically. I down loaded the files and they were all good.
I assume you're formatting your memory cards in-camera. If not, definitely always do so in the future.
They'll give a quick check and send it right back to you. I'd wait and see if it does it again and for now use your Z6 for $$$ jobs.
Always reformat when I put the card in the camera. I am very careful with my cards, inserting and taking out carefully, and when not in use they sit in their Pelican case. I buy good quality and rotate them out on a regular basis. I have been shooting digital since 2003 and and this is the first time something like this has happened to me. My Z7ii is the first camera I have owned with 2 card slots and I thought it would add extra protection but not this time. I think I will continue to use the camera and just keep an eye on it. If it does it again it will be back to Nikon. Thanks everyone for you thoughts and comments!
Statistically, that means it will be a long time before it happens to you again. It took nearly twenty years for it to happen the first time, so I'll keep my fingers crossed that it'll be at least another twenty years before it happens again.
I like it when you talk statistics.
?
I like it when you talk statistics.
I really enjoy talking statistics. That's because I know absolutely nothing about statistics. When I think I know at least a little bit about something, that's when talking about it gets really scary even for me.
I don't think that explains why the backup JPEGs were missing from the SD memory card.
Even so, the camera is supposed to embed the HDR indication in the file's metadata. Hua could check the metadata to confirm whether the pertinent files were processed in-camera as HDR composites.
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The other thought I had was whether Hua had inadvertently pushed the mode dial past M over to U3 - and U3 was in some jpeg only mode without the SD backup flagged. But honestly he sounds like a careful operator. That why I asked about the modes.
Well, I thought I would let everyone know that I figured it out, and I must say I am embarrassed! Thanks to MNglass for pointing me in the right direction. When doing casual shooting I normally use Aperture Priority but some of the angles were very back lit so I was switching back and forth between Manual and Aperture Priority. As MNglass said, turning the dual one click the wrong way from Manual would be U3. Normally I never use the the U settings. So I decided to check the U3 settings and sure enough they were set to JPEG only and the 2nd card slot set to overflow. So that explains everything. I am very relieved now that I know the answer, but pretty embarrassing! Thank all of you for all your help.
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