Corrupted images

[daveza]

A client asked for help and I haven't a clue ..

They have a new Canon Powershot cam and took lots of pics over the hols.

I showed then how to transfer the images to the pc and viewed the thumbnails in explorer. Thumbnails are perfect.

However, when you open or preview the pics they are trashed - horizontal lines and very weird colours.

At a guess the memory card is faulty although I can't explain why the thumbnail views are ok.

Any ideas ?

 

[DeadCore]

did u tell em to download the images to the PC again,tis a common problem.

 

[daveza]

I did that myself and still the same.

I've never come across this before. Is it just a common problem with Canon ?

 

[RSkeens]

Is it possible to view the images directly on the computer from the camera, without the transfer?

 

[daveza]

Yes - no problem there....perhaps because they are just thumbnail size ?

 

[DeadCore]

try using another program to upload them to the PC

 

[daveza]

I tried drag and drop and the windows image transfer thingy...

 

[DeadCore]

can u maybe show a pic or something how the photo looks like,it would make the problem much easier to solve.

 

[daveza]

http://mybroadband.co.za/photos/showphoto.php?photo=8927&cat=500

 

[RSkeens]

Are the filesizes the same on each end when you copy them over?

 

[daveza]

They are yes.

 

[ld13]

I get this sometimes. Thumbnails are perfect but the opened images are corrupt. My solution usually is to re-insert the memory card into the reader/device and to try and open them again. Works every time.

 

[bwana]

Ouch - are you using a card reader or reading the images directly from the camera?

 

[daveza]

Copied directly from the cam.

 

[BigAl-sa]

AFAIK, there's a thumbnail embedded in the jpeg and this is probably what you are viewing. As this is Ok, I suggest either the card is vrot (which I don't believe, as everything would then be vrot), or something in the camera is broken. If the camera uses CF cards, check for bent pins for starters.

 

[ld13]

AFAIK, there's a thumbnail embedded in the jpeg and this is probably what you are viewing.

Not embedded no, windows creates a Thumbs.db file alongside the pictures that caches thumbnails to speed up viewing. Afaik windows creates this only once by default so the thumbnails could theoretically still look fine while the images went corrupt in the mean while. Not 100% sure about this last part.

But my images usually reads fine when I re-insert the memory card.

 

[bwana]

Not embedded no, windows creates a Thumbs.db file alongside the pictures that caches thumbnails to speed up viewing. Afaik windows creates this only once by default so the thumbnails could theoretically still look fine while the images went corrupt in the mean while. Not 100% sure about this last part.

But my images usually reads fine when I re-insert the memory card.

There is a thumbnail within the jpeg's EXIF data.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exchangeable_image_file_format

 

[ld13]

There is a thumbnail within the jpeg's EXIF data.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exchangeable_image_file_format

Hmm, never too old to learn something new! So does windows dump the thumbnail from the EXIF to the thumb.db file then?

 

[koffiejunkie]

Can you try to use another program to view the images? Irfanview, for example. Windows might be giving you BS. If you can view the images OK on the camera, they should be fine - the camera won't show you the thumbnail, especially not if you can zoom in on it.

 

[daveza]

I've tried to open in Paint.net, Photoshop, Picasa - all give the same result.

Client is going to supplier to query it. If I have news I'll pass it on.