Camera Deleting Photos from CF Card

[noel1]

I was in Savannah recently and took 1000 photos with my Mark II using a 32GB Transcend CF card. I was able to review the images throughout the shoot. Then suddenly I started getting ERR messages and a frozen camera. Removed battery. Waited a minute and powered on. Then came the Format Card messages. From this point I was unable to view any of the images on the card with the camera. The card would not mount on my Mac via cable or media reader. Tried several data recovery software, but none recognized the card.

Next day. I switched to a 32GB Maxell CF card. Took about 100 photos. Reviewed them periodically over the hour I was shooting. Half an hour later, using the camera, I went to review the images. They had disappeared! Gone! I was able to mount the card, though, and do a recovery.

What’s going on? Any ideas why my Mark II is recording then, seemingly, deleting/erasing my photos, and making my CF card unmountable?

More information: My Mark II is about 6 years old. It gets a LOT of use. The backup battery is original. I’ve been using the 32GB Transcend card for the same amount of time and never had a problem. The 3GB Maxell CF card is 1 year old. I occasionally camera format the card, but usually camera delete the images.

[ebiggs1]

5D Mk II ? Right?

I always format the CF card before each important shoot.  And only with the camera, never with the computer.

If you shoot a lot, a year is pretty long in the tooth for a CF card.  Of course not so if you don't use it big time.

You may need to have the camera looked at but I would buy a brand new, high quality CF card from a big time retailer, like B&H or Adorama.  Get a 16GB and format it solely in the camera.  Make sure you don't use any other machine to format it.  Also make sure you aren't turning the camera on or off if it is busy.

Still giving you trouble, get the camera looked at.