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16 GB Memory Stick PRODUO Mark 2 writing issues?

Posted: Sat May 29, 2010 7:30 pm
by aster
Hi,

Today for the first time I tried my 16 gb memory stick with the adaptor on my A100 while the CZ 16-80mm was the attached lens. I went to shoot the tallships that recently docked at Istanbul Port.

While shooting, the 888 files that I shot all looked fine on the LCD screen after the frame was registered but when I came home and transfered the files to my computer, the first 444 photos the RAW+JPEGs were fine and the next had weird colours and signs of truncation all over them.

1. Is the memory stick faulty?
2. Did the camera and sensor get too warm and things went bad?
3. Is this supposed to happen on the A100 but not on the more advanced Alphas like A350, A700, A900 or A850?
4. Did the memory card have writing issues?

This is a first for me on the A100. All other 2, 4, 8 GB memory sticks work excellently on te A100, not a single corruption with them yet.

Thanks in advance,
Yildiz

Here are some sample truncated files:
DSC04995-1.jpg
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DSC04983-1.jpg
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Re: 16 GB Memory Stick PRODUO Mark 2 writing issues?

Posted: Sat May 29, 2010 7:47 pm
by KevinBarrett
Wow, I'm sorry for your lost images, and for your peace of mind while using what is probably your most expensive and favored memory card. I've got a very precious 16 GB MS Pro HG Duo HX (Sony needs new nomenclature, btw) and I don't think I'd be quite as calm as you if it gave me these kinds of results.

Re: 16 GB Memory Stick PRODUO Mark 2 writing issues?

Posted: Sat May 29, 2010 8:27 pm
by aster
Hi Kevin,

The fact is I bought two 16 GB memory sticks at the same time and now I'm a little worried that the second may cause the same issues while I shoot and I don't see it during the shooting because the LCD images look good.

I thought of formatting the cards and then try using them but none of my memor sticks ever needed formatting for their first-time usage.

Thanks for the empathy. :) I can't afford to make myself go sick over this but there are some very dear photos that a couple of kind sailors contributed to with their genuine smiles and help and I certainly would want those photos for keeps. Somethings and some moments in time will matter a lot in about 10 years from today and I sure want to look back and remember...

Yildiz

Re: 16 GB Memory Stick PRODUO Mark 2 writing issues?

Posted: Sat May 29, 2010 11:53 pm
by Dr. Harout
Yildiz are you sure those cards are genuine?
My guess would go for faulty ones. I had a similar issue once (with fake CF cards).
I know pretty well how you feel.

Re: 16 GB Memory Stick PRODUO Mark 2 writing issues?

Posted: Sun May 30, 2010 1:46 am
by David Kilpatrick
I have never seen a 16GB MS Duo Pro - even Sony only have had 8GB ones around at events. Those would be very expensive cards here. Writing to a card through an adaptor is always a risk. I can provide you with a download code for Lexar's Rescue Pro, I think I have a spare activation.

David

Re: 16 GB Memory Stick PRODUO Mark 2 writing issues?

Posted: Sun May 30, 2010 5:48 am
by aster
Hi Kevin; Dr. Harout and David,

Thank you for your kind responses. I waited for the morning to give more information and take some blank shots with the other 16 GB memorystick PRODUO that was in the bag. I've shot a whole bunch with no truncation so far with the other one but it does write rather slowly compared to my other memory sticks of different volumes.

I actually have to wait between the shots sometimes until the buffer is free. The adaptor may be the reason for this but the 8 gb card is really fast, therefore I can't blame the adaptor for the problems of slowness or the truncation that I saw with the other 16 gb.

These shots of my memory sticks are shot with the second 16 gb.

Kevin, can you remember all the material that came out of the 16 GB MS Pro HG Duo HX packaging? All the cards I bought from a genuine Sony Center have one tiny booklet, guarantee, a memory stick adaptor to use with different cameras.

No booklet is inside these 16 gb cards' packages, which leads me to believe that Dr. Harout may have a point as to the genuineness of the cards. I'll contact the retailer who sold these to me today, for further info.

Everything on the cards look genuine fromm the outside though (?)

David, I would appreciate any kind of help to save those files...Thank you.

Yildiz
2-4-8-16 gb front.jpg
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2-4-8-16 gb pins.jpg
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Re: 16 GB Memory Stick PRODUO Mark 2 writing issues?

Posted: Sun May 30, 2010 3:32 pm
by KevinBarrett
My card is a Pro HG Duo HX and came with a multilingual instruction page folded up twenty times over. It has graphics of both the card and the adapter.

Re: 16 GB Memory Stick PRODUO Mark 2 writing issues?

Posted: Sun May 30, 2010 11:39 pm
by David Kilpatrick
It's hard to tell from the pictures though the 16GB looks very similar, there are also differences between the others.

I had a problem today. I put a 16GB SD card - one which had been slightly damaged to the casing, but has worked all the time in my A550 - in my Nikon D5000. When I came to use the camera, it said No SD Card inserted - and nothing I could do would make it work. I bought a 4GB card for £5 in Tesco. Back home, the faulty one tested perfectly in a card reader. Anyway, it will be retired, it can go into the ASUS EeePC I'm selling as a bonus 16GB memory.

Shows that there can be issues with cards which are specific to a connector/slot.

David

Re: 16 GB Memory Stick PRODUO Mark 2 writing issues?

Posted: Mon May 31, 2010 12:47 am
by Birma
Hi Yildiz - really sorry to hear about the problem you have had - it must be awful to have seen the shots on the back of the camera and then to have them corrupted. I wondered if there could be something in the A100 that can not cope properley with the 16Gb cards? (The manual says it is rated up to 2Gb on MS Pro Duo.) I wonder if the 16 Gb card works ok in your cam-corder? I guess you could film some long clips and see if the cards handles these o.k.

Re: 16 GB Memory Stick PRODUO Mark 2 writing issues?

Posted: Mon May 31, 2010 4:40 am
by aster
KevinBarrett wrote:My card is a Pro HG Duo HX and came with a multilingual instruction page folded up twenty times over. It has graphics of both the card and the adapter.
Hi Kevin,

Yes, that sounds like genuine packaging. Mine have similar instruction pages in many different languages.
Thanks for checking this out for me.


David Kilpatrick wrote:It's hard to tell from the pictures though the 16GB looks very similar, there are also differences between the others.

I had a problem today. I put a 16GB SD card - one which had been slightly damaged to the casing, but has worked all the time in my A550 - in my Nikon D5000. When I came to use the camera, it said No SD Card inserted - and nothing I could do would make it work. I bought a 4GB card for £5 in Tesco. Back home, the faulty one tested perfectly in a card reader. Anyway, it will be retired, it can go into the ASUS EeePC I'm selling as a bonus 16GB memory.

Shows that there can be issues with cards which are specific to a connector/slot.

David

Hi David,

Sorry to hear of the inconvenience. Mine have absolutely no damaged external parts but I can try the card on a card reader to see if my problems are repeating there also.

Thanks
Birma wrote:Hi Yildiz - really sorry to hear about the problem you have had - it must be awful to have seen the shots on the back of the camera and then to have them corrupted. I wondered if there could be something in the A100 that can not cope properley with the 16Gb cards? (The manual says it is rated up to 2Gb on MS Pro Duo.) I wonder if the 16 Gb card works ok in your cam-corder? I guess you could film some long clips and see if the cards handles these o.k.
Hi Birma,

I ran a test on the A100 yesterday; I inserted my second 16GB Memory Stick that I bought at exact time as the other, into the CF adaptor, then into the card slot of A100, formatted it on the camera and shot 1300 photos, all RAW+JPEGs. And the result was good; they all transfered without a problem. And all files, unexeptionally, are in perfect condition.

Conclusively, A100 can handle cards with such big volumes, even if all of them are shot within an hour or two. So, don't be afraid to use these cards on the A100 if you still have an A100.

I still have to check the 16GB card on the camcorder though.

Thanks

Yildiz

Re: 16 GB Memory Stick PRODUO Mark 2 writing issues?

Posted: Mon May 31, 2010 11:26 am
by David Kilpatrick
Aster, if you would like to download Image Rescue 4 from:

www.lexar.com/imagerescue4

and send me a pm, I will let you have my spare promotional unlock code.

Basic procedures to try:
a) if you have a Sony Alpha with an MS Duo Pro slot, try reading the card from this camera instead of from the Alpha 100 with the adaptor
b) Try reading from the Alpha 100 using the adaptor
c) Try reading using the CF adaptor, through a CF card reader which you know will accept large cards
d) Try reading using a card reader compatible with large MS Duo Pro cards

Do not use automatic copying utilities like Lightroom, or MS Windows pop-up card downloader. Transfer the contents of the card manually to your computer.

As far as I know, the original Sony MS adaptor to CF slot supplied with the Alpha 100 pre-dates cards of a certain size. I have several card readers which can not handle any card over 2GB. When using the Duo Pro card in the 100, you are using two adaptors - plenty of scope for errors.

David

Re: 16 GB Memory Stick PRODUO Mark 2 writing issues?

Posted: Mon May 31, 2010 8:40 pm
by aster
Hi David,

First of all, thanks for letting me try out Image Rescue 4 on my corrupted files. I truly appreciate it. Unfortunately, although the software marked some files as corrupted, it wasn't able to fix any of my initial problems. The truncated files look no different than before nor can IDC or Photoshop open them. I get warnings which say "the file is either truncated or incomplete".

Here's a look of my truncated files as thumbnails after I scanned and recovered them with the software. I believe that many of the essential data is lost for any recovery to take place.

Thanks,
Yildiz
no recovery.jpg
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Re: 16 GB Memory Stick PRODUO Mark 2 writing issues?

Posted: Mon May 31, 2010 9:28 pm
by bossel
Too bad!! We also have a 4GB MS that doesn't work in my wifes T900 (for which we bought it). Luckily, it directly says there is no card so we didn't loose any pics! The same card is recognized by my A700 and seems to work fine. Go figure! Maybe the MS specifications are very tight and even small variations can make it fail?

Re: 16 GB Memory Stick PRODUO Mark 2 writing issues?

Posted: Tue Jun 01, 2010 6:51 am
by aster
bossel wrote:Too bad!! We also have a 4GB MS that doesn't work in my wifes T900 (for which we bought it). Luckily, it directly says there is no card so we didn't loose any pics! The same card is recognized by my A700 and seems to work fine. Go figure! Maybe the MS specifications are very tight and even small variations can make it fail?
Yes, it's hard to figure indeed, especially as the other 16 GB card has no problems at all. Never had any problems with any of my Memory Sticks before though. They certainly aren't apples or oranges where you see which has gone bad or has the signs of while purchasing. :)

Yildiz

Re: 16 GB Memory Stick PRODUO Mark 2 writing issues?

Posted: Tue Jun 01, 2010 5:53 pm
by Lonnie Utah
Did you keep the camera on the whole time or were you turning it on and off? Sound's like to me you get an imcomplete file write which threw off all the other files....