Chris...

it cracks me up more than bother me.... I get a kick out of it actually. thanks for providing comic relief while securing and cementing us firmly in your hardcore believe about said issue.

it's still appreciated.

- travis

gee whiz - what did we ever do before digital and our multiple slots, huh?

i for one used to travel with a trailer - complete with dark room. uh, sure i got high on the dektol fumes, but it was worth it!

no professional goes on the job without redundant backup. ever. amen.

ksmahgrts wrote:

no professional goes on the job without redundant backup. ever. amen.

Careful, you may get laughed at for offering such sound advice.

Chris Miller
www.imagineimagery.com

ChrisDM wrote:
What's wrong with pointing out the utility of dual card slots every time one of this or one of the previous 14 card failure/lost card threads has come up? Seriously, what about that bothers you, and why?

Nothing wrong with it but all pros have their own backup solutions and most don't involve dual cards .. me I prefer shooting with two bodies and frequent chimping to keep an eye on what's ending up on my cards. That and totally anal security and backup after the cards are full.

Regardless of the method used I'm sure that real wedding pros don't lose their files under any conditions except acts of God .. and I'm equally sure less than 20% of them use dual card bodies. All pros are aware of dual card bodies and most choose not to go that route .. so as a security method it's not very popular.

More importantly 99% of these "I lost half the wedding files, what should I do?" threads are started by amateurs or uncle bob's who are not going to make the investment in dual card bodies anyways.

So if you think about it your sermon about dual cards largely falls on deaf ears. Not saying it's wrong, but it's just one (and not a very cost effective) method to keep data secure.

Mike Mahoney wrote:
So if you think about it your sermon about dual cards largely falls on deaf ears. Not saying it's wrong, but it's just one (and not a very cost effective) method to keep data secure.


Not very cost effective? 1D2 and 1D3 bodies are just as affordable as many of the "prosumer" and some of the consumer bodies many wedding photographers use, with many more features (namely better low light/AF performance) as an added bonus... What's not cost effective about that?

Chris Miller
www.imagineimagery.com

Linda Browne and Newton A--what programs are these that allow recovery of a file that has been written over? My understanding was that if a file was written over, you can't recover any other info, such as previously written files. And how does this work?

I tested my hyperdrive colorspace recovery tools and was amazed that it was pulling back everything after being formatted twice and fully written over at least once (the other usage may have been full or part, I don't remember).
www.hyperdrive.com

There have been several programs mentioned in other threads that have worked for others. If at first you don't succeed, keep trying other methods! I don't know how it works, and I wouldn't rely on it, but I wouldn't give up too quickly on image recovery if they were important.

I think the guy is full of Carp (yeah fish) I shot a wedding this year and broke from routine. I pulled a card and stuffed it in my pocket thinking I would retrieve it right after I shot the cake cutting.... two days later my wife pulls a card from the laundry. Actually the dryer to be exact. It went through the entire wash cycle then on to the dryer where tempratures reach in excess of 120 degrees and I almost fainted. Ughhhhh some of the most important pics were on that card!!! (I don't view my work until a few days after the wedding) Well it turns out San Disk Extreme is just that EXTREME!!! All my pics were intact and not a single problem. Although the whites looked a lot whiter !

I'm with everyone that this sounds fishy. I will say, however, that I had one fully corrupted 2GB card. We tried EVERYTHING to bring pictures back from that card, but nothing worked. Fortunately this was well before my wedding photography days, so all I lost were some really, really sweet pictures of my trip to Haiti. We lost the best pictures of the trip -- something that personally hurt, but nothing that would cause a lawsuit. The card wasn't even recognized as a card and there were no programs that could pull information from it. I don't buy Kingston cards any more. There's so little information in this story that it really is hard ot tell if the guy is truly having a problem or made a mistake and is trying to cover it up. He shoudl have collected all the money before the event and then informed the couple of the issues far sooner than he did.

Linda--OK, a drive, I can see, but I was thinking a CF card? Again--if the card has been formatted, one can recover files from areas not written over. But files that have been written over are gone (so I understood). I've just never heard of being able to recover files that were written over--that is why I'm asking.

fotorelic - people have been saying it all along.

People having been saying you can recover files that have been WRITTEN OVER? Formatted but not written over, yes, but not written over. Again--with what software and how does it work? The one and only time I had files that were written over that I wanted recover, I found nothing about being able to do that. Do you have the software names and theory?

see lindabrownes post

Sergio--as I said above--a hard drive or portable hard drive I can see, but I'm talking about a CF card. I did a bit of searching. Even recent posts say the same thing.

http://www.fredmiranda.com/forum/topic/648908/0?keyword=recover,files,written#5772029

It was a cf card I recovered images from, twice formatted/written over. The Hyperdrive units have media card slots. Plug the media card in and the hyperdrive can back up images to it's hard drive, but it can also recover images and repair cards. Quite sweet!

There've been several threads where others have reported success from other recovery software/tools.

OK I read the user manual and it says it cannot recover files from spots on the card where the files have been written over. From a reformatted card, from spots where the files have not been written over, yes. Spots where the files have been written over, no.

"The Recover function CANNOT recover:
--deleted photos on cards you have since overwritten with newer data
--photo data that are fragmented
--photos on the hard drive
--photos in non-supported formats
--the memory card's folder structure"

I'm not trying to be argumentative here--just want to understand how recovering files from overwritten spots on a card is possible, and which software/hardware can do it. I tried searching for the said threads talking about this but all I found were ones similar to what I posted above.

fotorelic wrote:
OK I read the user manual


We don't allow no manual readin' round these parts, people gets to thinkin' too much, maybe they gits a little too smart.

I shure likes the idea of being careless with my pictures and then pressin' my mouse to have 'em come back when I loses 'em. So don't go bringing me down with silly talk of manuals & facts.

OK, then, pardner--I guess I best be gettin' out of town 'cause the answers ain't here.

Everyone, thanks for your replies to my thread. It's interesting that the discussions digressed into how to recover and even the merits to dual card slots. I started the thread to get a feel from professionals on the following question - would you financially refund your client if you did not deliver half of the images that you took, including all of the formal family portraits. Sorry that I didn't tighten the focus of the thread a bit. The comments that I am getting back generally show that most of you would tend to offer money back. I will update as we continue working with this photographer.