Corrupted data on CF card

[bubba622]

On 2 occasions (months apart) i have encountered "corrupted data" , both when the photography jobs were a paid gig, separate cards were involved, both times i have been able to recover the lost photos, is corrupted data more of a CF card problem or a problem with the camera itself? would purchasing a more expensive card rectify the situation ? is it possible to have my camera (rebel xt) checked for problems?

[Bob Atkins]

In my experience, card failure and corrupted data is normally a card issue, not a camera issue. I'm not sure the cost of the card is a reliable guide, but the manufacturer may be.

If you stick with major name brands like Sandisk or Lexar you have a better chance than with "no-name" brands. Actually they are probably all made in China anyway! There have in the past been a bunch of fake cards on the market with reputable brand names on them. Mostly they've been sold via eBay rather than reputable dealers.

I've had good luck with Sandisk Extreme III cards. I've also had good luck with Kingston cards.

I have had failures with "Patriot" and "Ultra" brand cards (note "Ultra is a card maker. I'm not talking about the SanDisk Ultra series cards, which have all been fine).

[KeithB]

While this might be more urban-legendish, I keep two rules in mind to prevent this:
1.  Always format the card in the camera.  (I don't erase images from full cards, I re-format)
2.  Try not to delete images in-camera.

Not deleting images in-camera is important for another reason.  It is difficult to tell on the LCD whether the image is really a keeper or not.  It is much better to wait for a decent viewing environement to make decisions like this.

For example, check out this new book that shows contact sheets of the photos taken at the same time as famous photos:
http://theonlinephotographer.typepad.com/the_online_photographer/2010/01/the-contact-sheet-from-ammo-books.html

Which ones were the keepers?

Also, LL has an article about an image that went from mundane to provacative with a bit of cropping:
http://www.luminous-landscape.com/essays/excludes.shtml