[mavali]

Today I took several pictures with my new K30 but could not view all of them on my camera nor find them on my SD card. Only the first and the latest pictures......Something wrong with the card?? (16GB SDHC type)

[Medium FormatPro]

With some of the Pentax cameras in general (including the K30); one item that would also be a factor is if one had the camera set for maximum resolution settings, such as: largest mp, finest setting in addition to that, also perhaps raw+jpeg, and another major one - if it might be set up for more than one exposure at a time. Another minor consideration; would be based upon exactly how one uses the memory card - even if it might be the best memory card on the market.

Case in point with the memory card... If one continually fills it up and then uses the in camera options to delete selective ones. Then continuing the process a number of times - will in fact add to the write times for the camera. Think of it as a version of "needing to defrag".

Getting back to the first options... That under some circumstances one might experience longer write times even under ideal situations. One will also note the write lite on the back of most of the Pentax camera bodies. IF one would happen to (persa) turn the camera off during those write times; then one might lose at least one pic. Also noting, did you format the card in the camera initially??

Of note generally... If one happens to notice a lost image in time; that it might be possible to recover it - if one would remove the memory card from the camera before accidently writing over it. One of the items I've always missed with most all of the Pentax cameras is the fact that there is not the option to have a second memory card slot added into the body. Although companies such as Sony do in fact sell memory cards that do have built in automatic mirroring - similar to a fully functioning mirrored RAID.

[Kerrowdown]

Missing pictures

Daft question, the cards not full is it?

[patrick9]

Did you formatt it with the K-30?

[mavali]

Daft question, the cards not full is it?

@kerrowdwn: no, the card was not full...

[mavali]

With some of the Pentax cameras in general (including the K30); one item that would also be a factor is if one had the camera set for maximum resolution settings, such as: largest mp, finest setting in addition to that, also perhaps raw+jpeg, and another major one - if it might be set up for more than one exposure at a time. Another minor consideration; would be based upon exactly how one uses the memory card - even if it might be the best memory card on the market.

Case in point with the memory card... If one continually fills it up and then uses the in camera options to delete selective ones. Then continuing the process a number of times - will in fact add to the write times for the camera. Think of it as a version of "needing to defrag".

Getting back to the first options... That under some circumstances one might experience longer write times even under ideal situations. One will also note the write lite on the back of most of the Pentax camera bodies. IF one would happen to (persa) turn the camera off during those write times; then one might lose at least one pic. Also noting, did you format the card in the camera initially??

Of note generally... If one happens to notice a lost image in time; that it might be possible to recover it - if one would remove the memory card from the camera before accidently writing over it. One of the items I've always missed with most all of the Pentax cameras is the fact that there is not the option to have a second memory card slot added into the body. Although companies such as Sony do in fact sell memory cards that do have built in automatic mirroring - similar to a fully functioning mirrored RAID.

hum...it seems patrick9 has a correct answer, I was not aware I had to format the card to my K30...(page 264 in the manuel and a short indication around introducing the card...) Poor me, I'll never put any question here before reading my manual completely!

[Kerrowdown]

patrick9 has a correct answer

Great news that's it sorted now, back to the photography.

[mavali]

Did you formatt it with the K-30?

Hi Patrick! Later on, after formatting my card to my K30, I took some pictures: the first were OK but then I had a screenmessage" could not register the picture to the card"..;then I switched out and in again and had a message:"could not find the card"....and it went so on and on...Now i' m allmost sure the card is failling (sorry for my bad English...) Anyway thank you for reply, it learns me that I have to read carrefully the manual! Wish you good shoots!

[scratchpaddy]

I had a problem a while ago with pictures disappearing on a new PNG 16GB card. I'd take a picture, it would show up in instant review, but when I came back later, it was gone. Sometimes it would "forget" random pictures, and sometimes it would refuse to save anything at all for a few hours. I never got any error messages. They were just gone.

Some time later, I found a folder titled "LOST" on my memory card, and all the pictures which had been lost were in there! I found out later that my Android tablet had created the LOST folder and moved any broken files it found there. Very handy. I stopped using that memory card right away, though. Some of them are just bad. I'd say you're right to get a new memory card.

[Schraubstock]

I'd take a picture, it would show up in instant review, but when I came back later, it was gone.

HI
As far as I am aware the instant review that is displayed immediately on screen after the shot was taken is generated from the camera's internal memory and is not read back from the SD Card. So if the card is faulty it may not have written correctly to it in the first place and therefore it will not display even though you may think it has because you saw it displayed briefly

Greetings.

[patrick9]

Hi Patrick! Later on, after formatting my card to my K30, I took some pictures: the first were OK but then I had a screenmessage" could not register the picture to the card"..;then I switched out and in again and had a message:"could not find the card"....and it went so on and on...Now i' m allmost sure the card is failling (sorry for my bad English...) Anyway thank you for reply, it learns me that I have to read carrefully the manual! Wish you good shoots!

Sorry about your problems It does sound like the card may have issues. Even after formatting my card to the K-30 when I went to open it in my computer I had two folders on for my DL and one for my K-30. I reformatt any time I take my card out of the camera and reinstall it. just to be on the safe side. after a couple of reformatts I only have the K-30 folder on the card now. I hope a new card fixes the problem for you.

[lskeenan]

The photos were on the SD card. When viewing through the camera..... some disappeared.... reappeared..... disappeared. Got home from vacation.... and the card appeared totally empty. I bought a file retrieval program which was able to find all the photos. So the images were written to the SD card, but somehow they must have lost all their identifying info. Totally weird. I had not formatted the card through the camera, but I never have and have not had a problem before.

[RKKS08]

If one continually fills it up and then uses the in camera options to delete selective ones. Then continuing the process a number of times - will in fact add to the write times for the camera. Think of it as a version of "needing to defrag".

Despite the fact that SD cards are used with a FAT (File Allocation Table) file system, the defrag problem has no meaning for SD cards, USB sticks and SSD drives.

These read/write devices offer a limited number of writing processes to the same cells, before these cells fail.
To maximize the time till the first failings, their built-in controller is mapping the real FAT to a virtual one. The mapping is based on a histogram of the usage of the cells. With every writing process, it will choose randomly from locations with the fewest usage. The operating system will be shown a "faked" (= virtual) FAT.

So defragmentation or formatting has not the same effect as it would have with a hard disk, as any writing will be redirected to a unknown location. Even formatting is just starting a special routine of the chip controller.
However, formatting may of course help if the FAT mapping got corrupted by write failings, power brake down, or bugs in the camera ROM, or any other disruption of a writing process (the weak point of all FAT based systems).

EDIT:

I've not tested it, but if continuing selective deleting and writing really slows down the handling by the camera, the reason could be a non-existing re-organisation of the card diretory the camera holds - no "garbage collection".

If this is the case, removing the card and inserting it again should force the camera to read the (virtual) structure from the card again, and then there should be a "clean" sheet.