# 5D Mark III and green RAw!!!



## vasya4kin (Aug 5, 2012)

hello, yestarday i was on the wedding and shoot photo for grandma 
but 1 photo was green(i shoot in raw) 
picture is




only raw convertor FsViewer.

Canon what it is????
Bride ask me, is it bag only one picture? 
what i must to say????

iso auto
bw auto
Av
+2/3
135 2.0
multisegment
write on 2 card on sd and cf.


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## nightbreath (Aug 5, 2012)

How does camera show this picture on its LCD?


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## Viggo (Aug 5, 2012)

This happened to me also! Only one frame out of the 15.000 I have shot with the 5d3, but still...






It became a bit different once imported to Lr, and then again different out of Photoshop, but both raw, jpeg preview on screen was faulty and green.

I can CLEARLY say this isn't a settings problem, it is a bug. This was the only shot out of 6 in a row of my sone on his tricycle that this happened to, and haven't happened since. I just wrote it off as a bug since I haven't seen it either before nor after.


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## Mt Spokane Photography (Aug 5, 2012)

Something like this is usually a corrupted file while writing to the memory card, or transferring to the computer.
It the file green on both of your cards?


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## vasya4kin (Aug 5, 2012)

Lcd show like this.
yeas on both cards picture is green


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## Mt Spokane Photography (Aug 5, 2012)

I never saw it happen, but if it happens frequently, I'd be concerned.


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## Wideopen (Aug 6, 2012)

Ive had 1 or 2 of these green pix..reformatted my cards...not sure if it helped but havent seen it reoccur since.


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## tron (Aug 6, 2012)

Even if it is very rare it's UNACCEPTABLE! 

It may ruin an once in a lifetime shot. If someone cannot count on their equipment then the equipment is not worthy.
It would seem that as more modern and capable cameras are made reliability would improve and this is clearly not happening.
This (or anything similar) has never happened on my 5DMkII.


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## marekjoz (Aug 6, 2012)

tron said:


> Even if it is very rare it's UNACCEPTABLE!
> 
> It may ruin an once in a lifetime shot. If someone cannot count on their equipment then the equipment is not worthy.
> It would seem that as more modern and capable cameras are made reliability would improve and this is clearly not happening.
> This (or anything similar) has never happened on my 5DMkII.



I too need think it's desperately! Oh wait I don't have a 5d3... 

But seriously speaking it's like WB set on Martians mode. S..t, it was not seriously either.


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## heptagon (Aug 6, 2012)

OMG Canons white balance is SO OFF i didn't even notice this in the past to full extent and people complained about a green tint in Nicon pictures...


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## awinphoto (Aug 6, 2012)

Call it an artist favorite art piece and charge 10,000 for a wall print... case solved. ermmm.... i'd vote on the side of corrupted file... I haven't seen it happen to me, but depending on the card used, last time since a format (not just deleting pictures), and other factors... 1 out of thousands of images, i wouldn't lose sleep... every image... then rise hell.


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## marekjoz (Aug 6, 2012)

awinphoto said:


> Call it an artist favorite art piece and charge 10,000 for a wall print... case solved. ermmm.... i'd vote on the side of corrupted file... I haven't seen it happen to me, but depending on the card used, last time since a format (not just deleting pictures), and other factors... 1 out of thousands of images, i wouldn't lose sleep... every image... then rise hell.



If it was shot in RAW, then the JPEG thumbnail should at least partially answer the question:
- if it's the same, then it's camera (CMOS or other electronics error, like voltage fluctuation)
- if it's ok, then the RAW is corrupted

BTW I'm not sure and haven't found and answer, if cr2 file provides at least checksum parity check. If it doesn't then it's really strange (as for cr2, not the photo).

Maybe the photo was made at some nuclear plant and you were lucky to catch some high speed particle, which changed one bit somewhere in the green colour factor multiplier I've read somewhere, that the most often reason for damaging computer memory modules was cosmic radiation. Just landed vehicle on Mars has the very slow processor for the same reason - to avoid cosmic radiation, which might damage it. There is a modified version of Power PC 750, which is like 70 times slower than processors in modern mobile phones but it's resistant to cosmic radiation. One bad photo is not the reason for changing the camera. If the second one occurs, then change the camera, or place where you make photos


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## Chris Burch (Aug 6, 2012)

I've had a few 5D2 images show up with very blue images like not all of the color channels recorded or something. It would literally be one file out of a thousand that I shot in one day, but it's happened several times. It didn't look anything like the one posted though. On mine the exposure was fine...it would just be a randomly a super-strong color cast that wasn't white balance related. I don't think I've seen it yet on the 5D3, though.


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## awinphoto (Aug 6, 2012)

marekjoz said:


> awinphoto said:
> 
> 
> > Call it an artist favorite art piece and charge 10,000 for a wall print... case solved. ermmm.... i'd vote on the side of corrupted file... I haven't seen it happen to me, but depending on the card used, last time since a format (not just deleting pictures), and other factors... 1 out of thousands of images, i wouldn't lose sleep... every image... then rise hell.
> ...



Not necessarily... if the sector of card that the camera was writing to is screwy, it could be the whole lot, raw and thumbnail... or one or both.. Of course it would be assumed if there was 1 corrupt raw file, there would be many more if that was the case, but if a card hasn't been formatted in a while, it can happen I suppose... It's just hard to recreate a scenario that happens one out of few thousand images... Just like an image with missed focus... Just one of those things... call it an artist favorite and charge the moon for it... =)


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## marekjoz (Aug 6, 2012)

awinphoto said:


> marekjoz said:
> 
> 
> > awinphoto said:
> ...



But I think, that the thumbnail is created in the memory of the camera before writing RAW to the card, and after the thumbnail is created, it is added to the RAW and one file is written - RAW, containing a JPEG thumbnail. This is how I understand this process. If this is correct, then I can't even imagine the probability, that both - JPEG and RAW are affected the same way, especially that they store the information differently.


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## neuroanatomist (Aug 6, 2012)

marekjoz said:


> I've read somewhere, that the most often reason for damaging computer memory modules was cosmic radiation.



I once received a box of Kodak BioMax MS (ultrasensitive autoradiography film), a sealed package of 100 sheets, and after developing the first one (following a 5 day exposure to a radioactive sample), I noticed a ~6mm diameter black spot on the film that didn't come from my sample, and could not be attributed to a light leak in the film cassette. I pulled a few more sheets from the pack and developed them immediately, they had the same spot - stacking the whole pack together after developing showed that the spots formed a complete column passing through the stack at a slight angle, and I suspect the pack was hit by a cosmic ray during shipping. 

RE the green RAW wedding photo, I suggest you contact all the guests and a random sample of individuals nearby the locale but not present at the event. Check your watch, the watches of the guests, and the watches of the people not actually at the event. I suspect you'll find a small temporal difference between those there and those not there, indicating that the entire wedding party and all the guests, and you, were abducted by aliens. Your shot was taken just as the matter transmitter beam was collecting you all for transport, and while the aliens eliminated most other traces of their presence, they missed your 5DIII. I would not report this to Canon, but to the National Enquirer, instead.


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## Mt Spokane Photography (Aug 6, 2012)

tron said:


> Even if it is very rare it's UNACCEPTABLE!
> 
> It may ruin an once in a lifetime shot. If someone cannot count on their equipment then the equipment is not worthy.
> It would seem that as more modern and capable cameras are made reliability would improve and this is clearly not happening.
> This (or anything similar) has never happened on my 5DMkII.


So,Most photographers are very happy to have 50% of their images become keepers. You must not be willing to accept one of 15,000 that are not perfect. 
What are you going to do if one day the photographer goofs and you have a poor image? Send him back to the factory?
This could be easily caused by opening the battery door before the camera finished writing. If so, send the photographer back, one of 15,000 is unacceptable.


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## marekjoz (Aug 6, 2012)

neuroanatomist said:


> marekjoz said:
> 
> 
> > I've read somewhere, that the most often reason for damaging computer memory modules was cosmic radiation.
> ...



@neuro - You'd be surprised, if that was the case with the aliens  
BTW, 6mm diameter is quite a lot for a single proton hit  

Seriously speaking, here is a whitepaper about memory soft errors (so not critical for the hardware): http://www.tezzaron.com/about/papers/soft_errors_1_1_secure.pdf. Assuming the numbers given on page 2 (of 7 so not so long) such a case as shown on the picture of OP is not impossible and might occur quite often, regarding the number of people shooting multiplied by number of files multiplied by the size of each file. 
So next time people - don't underestimate the influence of the cosmic rays in your real life on this planet


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## tron (Aug 6, 2012)

Freelancer said:


> tron said:
> 
> 
> > Even if it is very rare it's UNACCEPTABLE!
> ...


But the 3500-3600 dollars/pounds/euro that Canon / dealer would get would be perfect!
I do not think they would accept e, hmm for example 3400 plus a piece of paper saying sorry can you please imagine this piece of paper as being the rest 100-200 missing (to gether with buyer's gratitude ;D )


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## marekjoz (Aug 6, 2012)

tron said:


> Freelancer said:
> 
> 
> > tron said:
> ...



Wrong proportions: if it costs 3500$ and it's life is 150 000 photos, then 1 broken photo in it's life is worth 2 cents. I think you'd get such a rebate...


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## helpful (Aug 6, 2012)

I am 99% sure I know the cause of this. When the AWB reading is somehow saturated by an extra bright light source at the time when the AWB is set, then the WB reading is way green. It's happened to me with many other cameras, but actually, with my 5D Mark III it hasn't happened yet. The same thing can happen if you try to set manual white balance from a very overexposed shot, with at least one of the color channels completely saturated.

A picture turning green can't possibly have anything to do with a memory card error, unless the card error somehow has an intelligence of its own and knows how to change the picture's color rather than randomly corrupting some bits.


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## marekjoz (Aug 6, 2012)

helpful said:


> A picture turning green can't possibly have anything to do with a memory card error, unless the card error somehow has an intelligence of its own and knows how to change the picture's color rather than randomly corrupting some bits.



It might be a bit changed in a green channel value, affecting the whole image. I think that raws store the initial information and operations + values applied, but without changing the values of the pixels -take a look in xmp file.


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## junkstarr (Aug 6, 2012)

Got a green frame today. First out of the 1200 frames I've shot. But its there none the less. Most likely a bug in firmware.


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## tron (Aug 6, 2012)

Freelancer said:


> tron said:
> 
> 
> > But the 3500-3600 dollars/pounds/euro that Canon / dealer would get would be perfect!
> ...


Except that you compare software bugs with something that is not 100% verified that it is indeed a software bug. I wish it is but we do not know yet.
What is more certain is your desire to try to insult


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## And-Rew (Aug 6, 2012)

My initial thoughts on seeing this picture was "white balance issue".

I'm curious how it looked after you imported the RAW file into the computer and adjusted the white balance?
Did it then return to being an acceptable picture?

If so - then white balance setting is the cause - but what upset the WB setting is another issue altogether ???
Forgive my not asking - but it doesn't look too bad in B&W


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## NotABunny (Aug 6, 2012)

Viggo said:


>



The Matrix is starting to unravel, eh?


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## marekjoz (Aug 6, 2012)

NotABunny said:


> Viggo said:
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> ...



Geomagnetic reversal began


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## bp (Aug 6, 2012)

neuroanatomist said:


> marekjoz said:
> 
> 
> > I've read somewhere, that the most often reason for damaging computer memory modules was cosmic radiation.
> ...



Now see.... THIS is why I frequently skip ahead in a thread, and just look for a post with Neuro's avatar

Don't ever change your avatar bud


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## RLPhoto (Aug 6, 2012)

vasya4kin said:


> hello, yestarday i was on the wedding and shoot photo for grandma
> but 1 photo was green(i shoot in raw)
> picture is
> 
> ...



You could probably save this photo in a B&W.

Is it possible a faulty card corrupted the Image?


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## DArora (Aug 6, 2012)

This is most likely a firmware bug. To my understanding, red and blue channel information were missed while writing the data on the card. Since the image is similar on both the cards, I believe the loss of information took place even before writing.


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## nomad85 (Mar 6, 2013)

I had exactly the same problem. On closer inspection whitebalance was saved wrong inside the whitebalance.
Instead of 6300k and 0 tint, it had 2000k and -150 tint (lightroom). The photo itself was not destroyed, and could be corrected. Scared me good, but ended just fine


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## Chris Burch (Mar 7, 2013)

I've had this sort of thing happen a few times on my 5D2. I think I might have had it once on my 5D3, too. From what I recall mine were always really blue. It's not a white balance issue at all...it's an error in the camera. I would be shooting a series of shots and the middle one would randomly come out with nothing but blue, like not all of the color channels weren't recorded. I've heard other people report it as memory errors, but nothing really definitive. Conversion to B&W usually did produce acceptable results, too. I'll did through my library and see if I can find a sample to post.


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## nomad85 (Mar 7, 2013)

Chris Burch said:


> I've had this sort of thing happen a few times on my 5D2. I think I might have had it once on my 5D3, too. From what I recall mine were always really blue. It's not a white balance issue at all...it's an error in the camera. I would be shooting a series of shots and the middle one would randomly come out with nothing but blue, like not all of the color channels weren't recorded. I've heard other people report it as memory errors, but nothing really definitive. Conversion to B&W usually did produce acceptable results, too. I'll did through my library and see if I can find a sample to post.



Same here, 200 normal photo's then one extremely green, like no other channel has recorded anything. The first few green shots I didnt give a second look, just gave up on them.
A few days ago I had a green photo that I wanted to use and opened him anyway in photoshop. Where I noticed that in my case it was just a WB + tint problem on that photo. Opening the older green photo's and I noticed they all had the WB + tint problem. 2000k WB with -150 Tint.
So in my case the photo's were not corrupt.


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## Area256 (Mar 8, 2013)

helpful said:


> A picture turning green can't possibly have anything to do with a memory card error, unless the card error somehow has an intelligence of its own and knows how to change the picture's color rather than randomly corrupting some bits.



Actually it could. It depends on how the RAW files are compressed. If some important bits get corrupted, it's possible an entire color channel could be lost, or for every value in a color channel to be effected when the data is uncompressed. I don't know the details of CR2, but for JPEG this is very possible since it uses discrete cosine transforms (which are similar in nature to discrete Fourier transforms) to store data in the frequency domain with separate luminescence and chrominance channels, and even uses Huffman encoding tables to save space! To display the data you have to do everything in reverse, including of course inverse discrete cosine transforms.

If the data was stored as a boring flat array of radiance values for each color, then yes, random errors wouldn't do this, however I suspect that's not the case with most image storage systems, including ones with lossless compression.



tron said:


> Even if it is very rare it's UNACCEPTABLE!



Well it may have nothing to do with the Camera, and just be a random memory card error, in which case you should spend lots of money on error correcting memory cards if that's not acceptable to you. If it's the camera's "fault", it could be a flipped bit in the buffer, which is just fairly standard RAM (which corrupts data from time to time). If you wanted to spend a ton of money, I'm sure they could build cameras with error correcting RAM, it exists for servers but costs far more than normal RAM.

So yes we could likely make these things 1 in 1,000,000,000 events, but it would cost more than reasonable person is going to pay.

Of course they could also save parity information with the file to try and correct bit corruptions, but then our files would be a lot larger, and people would complain about that


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## acrosca (Apr 18, 2015)

Hello. I have some problem when I import my pictures into Lightroom 5. When I check on my camera, picture was fine (Raw & Jpeg for backup).


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