D300 not recording images to CF card in correct sequence?

[mike_metcalfe1]

<p>Hi all - apologies if this is a repeat question.<br>

I recently just finished shooting an action sports festival here in austin, and upon downloading my files off the camera (shooting raw only) I've discovered that the files appear to be out of order, i.e. in a sequence of 8 shots, 2 or 3 of them will be out of sequence within the burst. Its not really a huge show stopping issue, more of an annoyance, but upon looking at the metadata, as the camera recorded the data it would appear that indeed the files were written out of order. Whats baking my head is that if the buffer is fifo (first in first out), how could these get written to the cf card out of order? Has anyone else seen this?</p>

<p>thanks!</p>

<p>Mike</p>

[richard_turner1]

<p>Amazingly for the first time yesterday on my D300, it was very strange and i don't have an answer for you, sorry, i am in the dark as well.</p>

[nishnishant]

<p>This happens if you delete images. The camera gets confused. So if you have 3 images 1, 2, and 3. And then you delete 2, and take images 4 and 5, your sequence would be 1,4,3,5.</p>

[curt wiler]

<p>Any time you delete files in the camera you are creating a space in the file structure that will be filled when another file of the same size or less is written. The camera does not move files that are already written, but it attempts to fill the holes. When the files are downloaded, most programs will sort them in the proper order, certainly if they are renamed by date and time upon download.</p>

[mats nilson photography]

<p>More or less the same has happened to me with my D3. And that has nothing to do with deleting files, coz there's no time to do that when shooting action. I was thinking maybe it had something to do with several images having the same timestamp when shooting at 11 fps. But now that I go back and look in Lightroom at an instance when I know this happened, everything seems to be back in order.. Utterly confusing.. It might be an issue only during downloading to the computer and to do with the order in which the software grabs the image files from the card?</p>

[mats nilson photography]

<p>A follow-up question: Mike, if you sort your images by filename (provided that you haven't renamed them during download), are they still out of sequence? What if you sort by capture time?</p>

<p>My guess is that the software that reads the memory card reads the timestamp, and upon finding several images taken during the same second it grabs them randomly. Once in your image library, however, you should be able to sort them into the original sequence.</p>

[mats nilson photography]

<p>OK, sorry for a third post, but now I can tell what goes on - in Lightroom at least. Sorting by 'Added order' or 'Capture time' both yield a random sequence of images taken during the same second. Since downloading an image takes more than a second, 'Added order' will be unambigous, whereas 'Capture time' isn't. File name, however, is correct, and thus the buffer does indeed write on a fifo basis.</p>

[pcnilssen]

<p>I agree with Mike. This has happened to me on numerous occations when shooting fast sports action. I always start with formatted cards, so I guess it has something with the writing sequence to the card to do.</p>

<p>I have noe been able to get the right sequence in either Bridge nor Lightroom, so for me the solution has been to sort the images manually in the right sequence and then rename them accordingly.<br>

I have used Sandisk Ultra II and Extreme III. A sudden thought was maybe it has something to do with the speed of the card. </p>

<p>Which cards do you use, guys?</p>

[pcnilssen]

<p>Oh, when will I ever learn to proof-read before posting...... :(</p>

<p>I meant to say that I have the same problems as Mike, but agree with MATS in his opinion that this has nothing with file deletion to do.</p>

<p>Sorry, guys!</p>

[haslamphotography]

<p>Mike, I have had this happen in the past and there was a post last year with some others running into it (w/D300). It is hard to find an answer as I do not notice it until I download to my computer and review them in PS. So I do not know if it was the camera or PS, however, my guess it is the camera. Since the firmware updates and formatting my cards more often, it seems to decreased from last year. It definity happens in burst of 5 or more frames, but only happens once in a few hundred groups. Per-Christian, I use Lexar 4Gb 133x cards. I seem to recall the earlier post talked about the speed of the cards and the cameras buffer. It hasn't been so bad to send the camera to Nikon.</p>

[ramon_v__california_]

<p>nish and curt are right! it's best to delete an image(s) (or a file) in your computer when you have transferred the images. and then make sure you format IN THE CAMERA and not from the reader of the computer.</p>

[jkiffmeyer]

<p>I had this same problem with my D40x. I haven't seen it with my D90, but haven't had it very long either. It would happen during a burst of at least 5+ shots. There would be one or two out of order during the burst. I can only think that the buffer is feeding them out to be processed in the wrong order, resulting in getting the wrong numbering order for photos in the burst. Since they are taken during the same second in each case, that may also have something to do with it. Certainly was interesting, and annoying...</p>

[mike_metcalfe1]

<p>HI all, thanks for the feedback, and apologies for not participating sooner, been away from the computer for a bit..<br>

Some notes of interest that I have seen here <br>

1, I'm using SanDisk ultra II and Extreme III cards as well. (mostly Extreme III's now, the ultra II's are in my d100 for snapshots)<br>

2, Cards are allways formatted in the camera (first thing i do when i put the card in)<br>

3, I have enough CF cards so i never delete images when shooting, So it definitely is not something that happens as a result of non-contiguous holes in the file system<br>

4, I'm also using lightroom v1.4.<br>

5, A lot of my shooting is fast sequences, i.e. pick the shot and hold the shutter down until the buffer is full. (12 frames, i also shoot raw 99% of the time) (I'm shooting wakeboarders, so the action and tricks are really fast, maybe 1-3 seconds tops) I'm also using the battery grip with the d-300..<br>

6, I know there is some lens data that gets written into the files, But i would not think that would be part of the file processing/writing operation. The instances where this has occured are with a 70-200 AFS VR (g series) lens..Anyone else using this combo?<br>

I checked in lightroom and sorted the files per the capture time (as opposed to the acquired time) and the files are indeed out of order. I'd say most of the time this occurs in the middle of a sequence so instead of a smooth {12345678}, you might get something like {123437658}. I can manually resort them, and the images are all ok, its just more of an annoyance than anytyhing!</p>

<p>thanks again for the input!</p>

<p>mike</p>

<p> </p>