[bonitap]

Of course it was while on vacation that a big problem made me remember the value of mental pictures — even to photographers.

By an evening fire I passed around my K20D for all to see on its LCD the last days' shots of a pair of Bald Eagles and 100 other wonders of Nature from the Endless Mountains of north-central Pennsylvania. Before crawling into my sleeping bag, I deleted one poor shot. Instead of the quick flash of the orange light indicator of a deletion, the light continued flashing and the camera showed repeated DELETING — not typical of getting rid of one image. The oddness of it made me try to stop it, but I could not interrupt it. The dysfunction emptied the 8GB card.

The next day as I carefully rechecked every shot, another new problem developed: Though all images showed for a moment on the LCD after being shot, when I reviewed them later, some came up with error message "CAMERA CANNOT DISPLAY IMAGE." It probably was silly to attempt to delete any of those error files: The camera showed a repeating DELETING, and the result was another emptied card.

First Lesson: Do not repeat any function that now has twice caused a big problem.

I was very careful the rest of the trip. And anxious. We all know how awful it is to not have full trust in our equipment.

When I returned home and downloaded my carefully guarded cards, those with that error CAMERA CANNOT DISPLAY IMAGE showed up on my Mac as 0MB — empty files.

I experimented to be sure that I had not somehow set a multiple delete function. (I had not.) And I could not figure out how I'd get empty files of images that had shown on the LCD after shooting.

I do not understand what caused either situation, but I seemed to have made it stop:
1) I removed the battery (and fully recharged it overnight while I was at it) as the manual suggests for trying to eliminate funky functions. However, the next day I still got several files the K20D could not display. But when I deleted an image, the camera did delete only one yet still churned away as if deleting more than a few.
2) So, it seemed to be time for a standard RESET of all USER SETTINGS — back to factory settings.

Since then, no more problems. I've made sure that each image appears on the LCD after the shutter release. Then I look at the image after the camera's orange light on the back has stopped flashing while saving. Whenever I delete a test image, now it does not take more than a second to trash only the one image I meant to delete.

I'm curious if anyone else has experienced this or has insights about either issue.

And perhaps my experience can be useful for anyone who encounters it — and can fix it before losing more photo memories.

Second Lesson: Don't forget to remember to make mental images of what inspires us to capture it in a physical format with a camera.

[interested_observer]

If you have not done anything else to the SD card - like using it to take more pictures, you can probably recover all the shots that were accidentally deleted. There are software utilities for this.

• Recover Photos from Memory Card -- Formatted Memory / SD Card? Picture Recovery, Images from Formatted SD Card
• How to recover deleted photos from your SD card | ZDNet
• How to recover pictures from defective SD memory card - CNET Digital cameras Forums

[mtansley]

If you have not done anything else to the SD card - like using it to take more pictures, you can probably recover all the shots that were accidentally deleted. There are software utilities for this.

I'll just comment here and say that even IF you have taken some new photos on the SD card, the deleted photos that are AFTER the new files may still be recoverable using the software utilities.

Try out some of these utilities, you may be surprised to find that quite a few of your lost photos are there.

I always carry several cards, if one gives me an error message I remove it and mark it to not be used until I've tried the recovery software.

Although in your case it seems like the camera itself malfunctioned until you reset it, however, some of those photos may still be available.

[bonitap]

After several weeks of perfect functioning, my K20D once again is not saving images to the card. The only difference is that this again has happened after recharging the battery — coincidentally or not. Here's the progression, if this is of any help in narrowing down the issue:

1. I shoot.
2. Image shows on LCD.
3. Orange light glows even after image seems to be saved (LCD goes dark).
4. But orange light still glows, then stops and LCD error says Camera cannot save image.

This time it didn't help to remove the battery and reset functions to default.

• Thanks to forum readers recommending programs to try to recover images, but no data is being saved to the cards.

• Request for Opinions: Can the cost of sending a 3 year old K20D for repairs be justified when newer models are available?

Thanks,
Bonnie

[bymy141]

Hi there,

Try recuva.
Works fine for me.
The link is here: Recuva - Slim

If you search for dng files, Recuva will recognize them as TIF files.
Recover the files, then later change the .tif file type to .dng (make sure your windows explorer is set to display file extentions)

Bert

[mysticcowboy]

After several weeks of perfect functioning, my K20D once again is not saving images to the card. The only difference is that this again has happened after recharging the battery — coincidentally or not. Here's the progression, if this is of any help in narrowing down the issue:

• Thanks to forum readers recommending programs to try to recover images, but no data is being saved to the cards.

• Request for Opinions: Can the cost of sending a 3 year old K20D for repairs be justified when newer models are available?

Thanks,
Bonnie

If you're otherwise happy with the camera, get it fixed. The K20D is generally a reliable and solid camera that takes nice photos. BTW, have you tried a different card? I had a similar problem a couple of years ago and it was the card, not the camera.

I just got my K20D repaired at Advance Camera in Portland Oregon, a certified Pentax repair center. They replaced 2 parts and completely cleaned the camera and sensor. Total cost was just over $200, including shipping. Sending the camera directly to Pentax in Arizona would have cost half again as much.

I'm going to put the K20D for sale next week. I should get more than twice what I spent fixing the camera. Selling it broken, and being honest about the problem, wouldn't have netted much at all. And, now I feel good about selling it because it's been thoroughly looked over.

[westy]

Hello,

Don't know if bonitap still has the K20d and the SD card problem since I found this thread now over a year old. If so, have you gone to the Pentax Ricoh website and gotten the latest firmware update? It is simple to get and apply and may well correct your error storing/reading pictures from many SD cards. May be worth a try. The latest version for the K20d is 1.04, you can tell your camera's firmware version by holding down the menu button while at the same time turning on the camera. Version 1.04 was written to fix SD card problems.

Love to hear if it works.

Paul

[meg252]

I've had this problem too. I got a store in Australia to recover all the pics the first time. Second time not so lucky. images were never saved. They suggested it might be the camera rather than the card.

The card was bought in central asia where memory cards are not highly available so I hoped it was just the card. I then shot and saved photos on a few memory cards with no problems. But it has happened again, this time on a SanDisk card.

I've updated the firmware and shall see how it goes. If the problem recurs, I think it might be time for a professional service of the camera...

[Rick in Ohio]

I would try using a new high quality card first before sending in the camera for service.

Rick