# 5D Mark III File Issues



## bcharrold (Apr 5, 2012)

Has anybody had any issues with their files on their 5D Mark III? Both yesterday and today I had the same issue: After shooting around 200 images, the last 20 or so are not recognized by LR or the DNG converter. LR says it cannot load preview. They appear to be fine when reviewed in camera so I dont know what the deal is, but its making me very sad.


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## wickidwombat (Apr 5, 2012)

do you have the beta updates ACR6.7 and lightroom 4.1 beta update installed?


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## bcharrold (Apr 5, 2012)

I have LR4 and I donloaded the updated DNG converter, but I can't update ACR because I have CS4. It worked fine since it came out until last night and it works for almost all the pics except the last handfuls.


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## bcharrold (Apr 5, 2012)

I shot 200 files and last 47 cannot be read on the computer - LR can't load the preview and doesnt import them, DNG converter doesnt convert them and I can't even just copy them off the card to a folder with finder, but they all play back fine in camera.


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## bcharrold (Apr 5, 2012)

DPP doesnt recognize them either


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## bcharrold (Apr 5, 2012)

I just tried a new card freshly formatted several times and it has done the same thing every time. It seems to be stopping around 160 files before the images are no good anymore, which, when calculated out, equals around 4GBs of images. This leads me to believe its a FAT32 issue limiting it. Anybody have any thoughts?


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## bcharrold (Apr 5, 2012)

Okay... for those still reading me work through my issues, after much panic and many attempts at different fixes, I noticed that when I opened disk utility, the card was reading as a 4.11gb card when in actuality, my cards that were experiencing the problem are 16 and 32. I formatted them again and replugged in and saw the same numbers. Then I read somewhere that it could be an issue with the reader. I unplugged the reader and switched the firewire 800 cable (sandisk fw800 reader), put the card back in and it sees all the images that were missing before and also reads the right size in disk utility. *sigh of relief*

I hope this helps someone in the future.


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## wickidwombat (Apr 5, 2012)

are you making sure you are formating the cards in camera?
SD allow you to do a low level format. not sure why the option isnt available for the CF
tried both CF and or SD?


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## bcharrold (Apr 5, 2012)

yes, always have formatted in camera and the only issue was on the CF cards. Had a Mark II for 3 years and numerous cameras before that without any issues. It was the reader/cable that was the issue though.


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## liberace (Apr 5, 2012)

There is zero advantage in formatting the CF or any other card in camera. As a former Software Engineer this pains me greatly when I read people saying this.


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## awinphoto (Apr 5, 2012)

Some quick thoughts... I dont use lightroom so bear with me... but when you pull the card from the camera into a card reader, do you physically see all the extra files? Are the file size roughly identical to the prior ones? If the files are dead/bad/corrupt, you may be able to see a file size noticeable difference of maybe half the size or even no size. It may be a bug with lightroom being able to handle extra files from that much. Also are you OPENING ALL the files at once or just storing in a catalog/library? If so it may be your computer is maxing out on memory and not able to open the files... If it's just transferring files from the card to the computer, nothing else nothing more, then I'd be worried. Lastly, try dragging the files from your card to your computer... if there's a problem, the computer may either not copy or copy with no info... Give that a try and let us know.


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## bcharrold (Apr 5, 2012)

liberace said:


> There is zero advantage in formatting the CF or any other card in camera. As a former Software Engineer this pains me greatly when I read people saying this.


Then what do you suggest, just to erase them every time? Doesn't that leave all the folders. I can tell you I have had more issues with just deleting/trashing images than with formatting in camera ever. This time was a fluke and the issue had to do with the reader, not the card. From a software engineer on another photo website: "Formatting the card is faster than erasing all images on the card. And if you only clear your CF card using erase all, you may see a performance degradation." All the consensus I've seen has been to format.



awinphoto said:


> Some quick thoughts... I dont use lightroom so bear with me... but when you pull the card from the camera into a card reader, do you physically see all the extra files? Are the file size roughly identical to the prior ones? If the files are dead/bad/corrupt, you may be able to see a file size noticeable difference of maybe half the size or even no size. It may be a bug with lightroom being able to handle extra files from that much. Also are you OPENING ALL the files at once or just storing in a catalog/library? If so it may be your computer is maxing out on memory and not able to open the files... If it's just transferring files from the card to the computer, nothing else nothing more, then I'd be worried. Lastly, try dragging the files from your card to your computer... if there's a problem, the computer may either not copy or copy with no info... Give that a try and let us know.


If you read my posts, I figured it out. The issue was with the firewire cable attached to my card reader. The cable wasn't connecting properly to the reading, so the card was for some reason reading that it was only 4.11gb on my mac and therefore could not read the images that were beyond that size. In other words, the computer could only read the first 4.11gb worth of images (approximately 160 or so) and the rest of the images were there, but could not be read or copied. Fixing the cable fixed the problem.


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## Mt Spokane Photography (Apr 6, 2012)

liberace said:


> There is zero advantage in formatting the CF or any other card in camera. As a former Software Engineer this pains me greatly when I read people saying this.


 
Partly true, formatting CF Cards in camera will not clear any issues with damaged sectors in the card, a full erase or format in a computer will fix them or mark them as unusable. However, a follow up formatting in camera assures that you get the correct file format after you erase a card. The 5D MK III switches to a different format depending on the size of your CF card, and your computer might not be able to do that. The 5D MK III uses exFat for 128gb and larger cards and Fat for smaller ones. 

You can do a low level format in camera for SD type cards, so formatting in camera of SD cards is the right thing to do.


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## iangrantphoto (Apr 13, 2012)

I'm actually seeing the same thing with my cards, already had a number of corrupt files [spit out as pink gibberish on the LCD]. Very odd. I probably got a good hundred thousand shots on my 5dm2 and very rarely ever saw one. On 2 8gb cards today saw at least 5. Formatted each card as usual in camera before shooting. -Ian


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## adamr (Jun 30, 2012)

I got my 5D3 last Friday and took few hundred photos with no issues. Today I took ~200 photos and 3 of them in a row were corrupted. Lightroom 4.1 could read 2 of the 3 but chunks of the photos were missing. It wouldn't read the 3rd. 

DPP could read them but they were blocky/pixellated (like they had been reduced to a small size and then blown up). It could not export them to jpg. 

This was with firmware v1.1.3 

Attached is an example of the jpg output from Lightroom 4.1 and a crop of what Canon DPP shows me for the same file.


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## Mt Spokane Photography (Jun 30, 2012)

adamr said:


> I got my 5D3 last Friday and took few hundred photos with no issues. Today I took ~200 photos and 3 of them in a row were corrupted. Lightroom 4.1 could read 2 of the 3 but chunks of the photos were missing. It wouldn't read the 3rd.
> 
> DPP could read them but they were blocky/pixellated (like they had been reduced to a small size and then blown up). It could not export them to jpg.
> 
> ...


 
It sounds like corrupted download, did you use a card reader? Try downloading them from the camera.

The image is blocky because DPP is showing the tiny jpeg thumbnail that is embeded in every raw image, but the main image is corrupted.

The usual cause of this is a bad card or a error in downloading using a card reader.

Try it from the camera, do a chkdisk on the card to check for bad sectors, try a different card reader or at least a different USB cable.

good Luck!


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## sanderW (Jul 5, 2012)

I recognize this problem. I had the same issue with my initial 5D mark III. After a few 100 photos or so, I had these corrupt raw files. Pure randomly, with the same pattern as your example. (jpeg preview in the raw file was fine, raw data was corrupt. Mostly the lower right corner of the photo).

Tests I did were:
- use other CF cards
- try different readers
- reformat the cards
- firmware update

In the end I came to the conclusion that it must be the camera. I brought it back to the shop and they gave me a new 5DIII. That solved the problem.



adamr said:


> I got my 5D3 last Friday and took few hundred photos with no issues. Today I took ~200 photos and 3 of them in a row were corrupted. Lightroom 4.1 could read 2 of the 3 but chunks of the photos were missing. It wouldn't read the 3rd.
> 
> DPP could read them but they were blocky/pixellated (like they had been reduced to a small size and then blown up). It could not export them to jpg.
> 
> ...


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## Deb (Apr 6, 2013)

I just bought a Mark III 5d and up to this point, I have been shooting JPEGs. I have a big shoot tomorrow and will be shooting in RAW. I tried shooting a few RAW images tonight and I too am having problems importing to Lightroom. I cannot import to Photoshop Elements 10 either. I am wondering if there's a camera setting that I need to adjust?


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## rolsskk (Apr 7, 2013)

bcharrold said:


> I just tried a new card freshly formatted several times and it has done the same thing every time. It seems to be stopping around 160 files before the images are no good anymore, which, when calculated out, equals around 4GBs of images. This leads me to believe its a FAT32 issue limiting it. Anybody have any thoughts?


My thoughts - you're completely wrong about FAT32 being related to it, as you're not producing any files of signifigant size. FAT32 comes into play when you want transfer *one* file of a large size, but not multiple files that amount to a large file size.


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## Mt Spokane Photography (Apr 7, 2013)

Deb said:


> I just bought a Mark III 5d and up to this point, I have been shooting JPEGs. I have a big shoot tomorrow and will be shooting in RAW. I tried shooting a few RAW images tonight and I too am having problems importing to Lightroom. I cannot import to Photoshop Elements 10 either. I am wondering if there's a camera setting that I need to adjust?


Dep, you need to have editing software that supports the 5D MK III. The latest version of lightroom 4 will, you might need to install updates for Elements 10.

You have excellent editing software that came with the camera, DPP. It can open the images and send them to older Lightroom versions as tiff files where you can edit them using familiar tools.


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## simon (Apr 10, 2014)

I have experienced the same issues twice now, on both CF and SD cards... The only way to recover these corrupt images are to copy the images in camera onto a fresh card. When the copies are created in camera they are completely readable and editable... This is not a software issue, its a camera issue, rectified by taking it back to when you've purchased it for a new replacements... Seems only to be when shooting RAW files...

Not a good experience for me after switching from Nikon :-(


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## tron (Feb 21, 2016)

Mt Spokane Photography said:


> liberace said:
> 
> 
> > There is zero advantage in formatting the CF or any other card in camera. As a former Software Engineer this pains me greatly when I read people saying this.
> ...


Allow me to use your post as an excuse to ask a technical question about 5DMkIII instead of opening a new thread:

You mentioned: The 5D MK III uses exFat for 128gb and larger cards and Fat for smaller ones. 

Actually the manual of 5DIII (with firmware 1.2.0 and later) page 54 says: Cards with 128GB or lower capacity will be formatted in FAT format. Cards with a capacity over 128GB will be formatted in exFAT format. HOWEVER, I am not writing this to contradict you. I understand that the second version of the manual is late. I just observed something even different in my case. Both of my 5D3 cameras (firmware 1.2.3) format a 64GB CF card in FAT32 and a 64GB SD card in exFAT !!!! 

Have you observed anything similar? I would prefer FAT32 for backing them to my hyperdrive which cannot understand FAT32 even with latest firmware (I have 2 hyperdrive models, they are enough and I do not intend to get the latst which understands them).

I have access to a utility that format's cards in FAT32 and I can create the file structure manually. But I prefer to format cards in camera. I also use MagicLantern and I wouldn't like to complicate things.


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## kaihp (Feb 21, 2016)

tron said:


> I just observed something even different in my case. Both of my 5D3 cameras (firmware 1.2.3) format a 64GB CF card in FAT32 and a 64GB SD card in exFAT !!!!
> 
> Have you observed anything similar?



I can confirm that my 64GB SDXC card was formatted with exFAT in 5D3.
I don't have a 64GB CF card, so I am unable to test this.


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## tron (Feb 21, 2016)

kaihp said:


> tron said:
> 
> 
> > I just observed something even different in my case. Both of my 5D3 cameras (firmware 1.2.3) format a 64GB CF card in FAT32 and a 64GB SD card in exFAT !!!!
> ...


Thanks for answering. I guess I will have to use the CF for backups in my hyperdrive.


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