"Corrupt" Images - Likely Cause?

scuby

scuby

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David
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Hi all,

My Panasonic LX5 has started to give me some corrupt (for want of a better description) images. It is very intermittent though (i.e. from ~1200 images, about 20 are affected, as far as I've noticed at least), one picture can be fine and the next will be badly affected, with no apparent pattern. Just wondering if anyone has seen something similar before, and if it's likely to be the camera itself (which I'm guessing will be expensive to fix!) or whether it could be just corruption on the memory card (which is much much cheaper). Unfortunately the intermittent nature means I can't easily recreate it with other memory cards so can't rule them out.

I've included a cropped sample of one image below. And some links to a full size image (note that these were RAW, but i've converted to JPG for illustration here).

Any thoughts / experiences before I try sending it back to Panasonic would be appreciated.

David

web.jpg


Full Size Sample
 
Do you format the card before each shooting session or just delete pictures as required?
 
Think it probably was formatted before this trip, yeah.

(Though couldn't say for certain...)
 
It's possible there are some bad sectors on the card. You can get round this by performing a full format on a PC using a card reader. This will find any bad sectors and mark them as unusable. Use FAT, not FAT32 when asked.
 
Yeah good suggestion, I do quick formats in-camera fairly regularly, but will try a full one to see if it picks anything bad up.

That said, I think i'm moving away from thinking that the memory card is the cause, just becuase the corruption seems too "regular", ie the way it is a repeating vertical pattern starting in one corner and fading away from that corner. Note also that whioe i've only shown one sample image, the others exhibit almost identical effects, ie the pinky stripes from that same corner.

David
 
Was that pink tinge meant to be there?? If not I think it is more likely to be a sensor issue. Card issues tend to create pixellation or unreadable images. Your problem looks more like a strange colour shift and a processing issue.

I'd try a completely new card just in case. They're so cheap it isn't worth soldiering on with a potentially faulty one.
 
Yep - looks like a sensor problem to me.
 
Nope, the strange stripey vertical pink lines are definitely not supposed to be there. I bought it from a reasonably local shop so might try dropping it in next week to see what they can do - though, as i'm struggling to recreate it on demand, I always worry that it'll come back "not faulty", they'll charge me for checking, and then 2 days later it'll happen again! But maybe i'm just a pessimist, hehe.

David
 
I'd take it back and show them that image. There's obviously something wrong. How old is the camera and was it new when you bought it?
 
Ah that's a good point, I'll just copy the RAW files back onto a memory card so I can show them a range of the photos that have had the problem.

Was bought new in April 2011, so still well within warranty etc.

Cheers,

David
 
I'd be asking for a brand new replacement. It's only a few months old. It's not a cheap camera either so I'd expect it to be perfect for longer than a few months!
 
I'd try a different card and see if the problem reoccurs. You may have a problem with the data controller in the card that only manifests itself under certain conditions. If you still have the problem with a new card then it may be something within the camera, not necessarily sensor but possibly a component in the imagining chain.
 
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