Photoclubalpha

All of a sudden I am noticing very erratic behavior with my A900.
The display takes about 2-3 secs after the click (in jpeg mode). The
flash started acting up (goes into pulse mode) and it suddenly says
my card is no longer usable (it fails to write a file completely) and am
forced to change the card. I had to take my card and do a scan/fix on
my desktop. It froze for the first time where I had to remove the battery
and put it back in. It worked perfectly on my recent trip to Costa Rica
and a visit to local airshow. I have not used the camera for couple of weeks
when I saw this behavior on last Thursday.
It has about 58000+ clicks on it. Any insight?

Sury

I hope it's a passing glitch, Sury. Sounds like a lose connection or damp?

I hope so too. When I first noticed it, the battery was real low. I am hoping against hope that it was the root cause. Now I have freshly charged batteries and am going through cycles. Initially there was an issue with flash symbol not coming on. I suspect(ed) loose
contact. Tried putting it back few times and eventually the symbol came on.
Since i came back from CR (where it was damp), the camera worked fine the next day when I went to airshow. That's why I am somewhat concerned.

Unfortunately, missus thinks I am setting her up for new gear purchase since our wedding anniversary is approaching in 6 weeks.

sury wrote:Unfortunately, missus thinks I am setting her up for new gear purchase since our wedding anniversary is approaching in 6 weeks.

Well, in that case I think your A900 has been hosed so you have no choice but to get something new.

Seriously though, I hope it sorts itself out. The only time I have ever come close to having a dead or broken camera was in 1995. I was wading in the ocean offshore of a tiny uninhabited island north of New Guinea -- you could walk all around it in about 10 minutes. Spent the night there sleeping on the beach. Anyway, I was wading out into the water with my Minolta Alpha 707si. I was trying to time waves so that I could squat down with the lens just barely above the water and get a wide angle shot looking back at the island. While I was squatting down a rogue wave washed over me and I was underwater. I quickly raised the camera over my head while I was still under, but it still had been submerged for a couple of seconds, I guess. I got out of the water and the camera was dead. Fortunately, the next day was the end of my month in Irian Jaya aka West Papua New Guinea. I had no fresh water or anything to clean the camera with so I just dried the outside with a t-shirt and figured my camera was a goner. The next day I turned it on just to check and it seemed to work fine! I used that camera for the next few years and never had a single problem with it. I still have it. I hope your A900 will start working again too.

Oh, here is the island as we approached on the outrigger:



And me on the beach at sunset (by this time my 707si was dead):

Thank you Henry. I hope it is just a glitch and I get few more years out of it.
The second image is just fabulous.

Sury

Two things for me:

* retry with a fully charged battery
* try a different card

I have had an issue with a third party battery which caused strange effects. I got rid of it and it never happened again.
Also had a card which occasionally lost the plot and showed zero images left when it was nearly empty. Binned that as well.
Touch wood, no issues since then.

Mike

Thanks Mike.I removed the battery and let it stay for a day or so and put in the new battery yesterday.
Let me try with a new card that I have. The other card is almost 5 years old and has seen quite a few
insertions and read/write/erase cycles.

With best regards,
Sury

Well, I put in a fresh battery and new card and tested the camera.
I took about 100 random shots and it behaved as expected. Looks
like I may have dodged the bullet for now. Thank you all for your
suggestions and support for my quest for new gear.
I am quite pleased.

Sury

Sury, try the old card in with the new battery.

Also do you just delete the old files or do you format the card?
After download and backup I always format the card.

Mike

Mike,
I normally just delete the files. I never did format the cards after the first time in-camera
formatting. I did not have issues with the cards in the past. Should I always format
after each download?

With best regards,
Sury

I was advised to do a format rather than delete but as the cards are either 16 or 32 GB I don't do it very often, maybe once a month or so.
Not sure if it makes a difference but I imagine it would clear out any corrupt files and correct the folder structure if there were any issues which I would hope would minimise any issues.

Anyone else care to comment on the practice of formatting versus deleting files.

Mike

mikeriach wrote:Anyone else care to comment on the practice of formatting versus deleting files.

I have been formatting rather than deleting since I first started using digital cameras. I read many years ago that it was best to format since it would ensure the card's file system was in good shape.

Sury, glad you got it working. Maybe I've just been lucky but I've never formatted any card other than the first time it was used. I just delete still pictures via computer and delete the video via the camera.


btw Henry, who wears a white V-neck t-shirt to the beach?

the_hefay wrote:btw Henry, who wears a white V-neck t-shirt to the beach?

That photo was taken at the end of a month in Irian Jaya/West Papua New Guinea in 1995. I wrote a trip report about it along with photos:

Irian Jaya/West Papua New Guinea Trip Report

http://www.bakubo.com/Irian%20Jaya/ij-report.htm

Yeah, I sure was white where my shirt had been and sure was brown where it wasn't.

Just like my feet in Malawi in 1993:



My apologies to Sury for getting off topic.

I had the same thing happen to my feet in Mexico many years ago. Unfortunately, or perhaps fortunately, I have no pictures to prove it.