I have a confusing situation that I cannot for the life of me figure out so I am seeking some help.
I photographed a wedding and my two main cameras are a D3 and a D700. I have each camera set to do its own unique file naming so for illustrative purposes lets say D700.NEF and D3.NEF.
I do most of my shooting on the D3 and after a card was almost full I reviewed the images during some downtime at the reception. So in other words I specifically remember viewing these pictures on the back of the camera.
When I got home I loaded the cards onto my computer and this one card in particular was corrupt. I was still able to ingest them using photo mechanic and the first image was completely fine, the second only showed the file size but was pure black and accompanied by a "non supported image file warning". The rest of the images were also receiving that error but were showing as 0kb in size.
After my heart sunk and I was fighting off the panic of losing images I decided to put them back in the camera to see if I could view them there and perhaps find out what this card in particular contained.
Here is where stuff gets really weird.....
I popped it in the D3 to view since the exif data on the first image was showing it was shot on the D3 and it also listed the lens I only ever use on the D3. When I tried to view the images on the D3 it said folder is empty. This from my experience seems to happen when a card is shot on a different camera and it can't display the photos (or it is truly empty). So I pop it in the D700 to check and I can view the first image and all the others have red "x's" through them.
Now I am starting to wonder which camera I shot these on and I search further. The camera generated folder on the card containing the images says "D700" and all the files follow my D700's naming conventions (D700_1.NEF, D700_2.NEF,D700_3.NEF...)
I ran Rescue Pro and was able to recover the images. I am 100% sure they were shot on the D3 and not the D700 despite what everything else tells me...
I was able to find a series of photographs my assistant took of me when I was doing a particular shot with a fish eye (something really obvious you can't forget doing) and I could confirm I was using the D3 and those fisheye shots were on this card and no other.. but a picture doesn't lie and one would assume either does the exif data as well...right?
So why the conflicting information? I have all my cameras set up to name in continuous sequence.. so in theory the same filenames would never duplicate on the D700 (at least in one day). The D3 card has the exact same file names as another card shot on the D700 that day but the images are clearly different.
I have a few theories on the matter, but they all seem so far fetched:
- Some sort of preference file getting stuck on the card from a previous shoot making the D3 name files like the D700
- During ingest photo-mechanic got confused and somehow altered my card while scanning it?
- Human error (but the why the conflicting information between file name, exif data..)
I format all my cards in the D3 before even leaving the house and never format on the job. I am using Sandisk Extreme III's.
I know people will probably think user error (and I am fine to admit that if it goes that way) or this is impossible but I just can't figure this one out...
Hi Rexspangle. Welcome to FM. I'm a Canon shooter, so I can't help you with this one. I suggest you re-post the thread on the "Nikon-mount SLRs" forum to get the most responses.
