I got a Nikon d40x for Christmas and I've been taking tons of pictures, after I past the ~300 or 400 mark, I started to get a lot of corrupt images. These corrupt images would be for pictures I took either recently or even ones I took in the 100s. I was a little more causious after I noticed this and it just kept getting worse and worse. Soon enough, I would take a picture, go to look at it and it was already corrupt, I would turn the camera off, take the memory card out, put it back in and it would be un-corrupt but just the first few recent ones, not any of the others. I'm using a 4 gig A Data, Turbo SD HC card. I'm going to try and use a different card, 2 gig PQI sd and see if that works. Any ideas on whats going on?

By the way, when I go to look at the corrupt images on the camera, it says "Files does not contain image data.", and also, if I try and delete a corrupt one, the camera will freeze and tell me "This memory card cannot be used. Card may be Damaged. Insert another card." There is an option on the camera that says "Format Memory Card" and I've done it before and it works fine after that, except all my pictures are gone (duh!), but once I get up to the high numbers, it will start again.

Once you get it up to high numbers, can you remove the SDHC card from the camera, and copy the files (uncorrupted) to your computer via an SD Slot?

It seems that the merry card has gone bad, yes try to use a new one and see if you still experience the problem.

A tip: Next time you connect the camera to the PC, make sure you select "Safety Remove" from the taskbar before you disconnect the USB cable, this will protect the card/pictures from some kinds of corruption.

That would be too tedious for me to do each time, I'd much rather find the problem and fix it.



I always do the "Safety Remove", just like with my ipods and various mp3 players, I always press "Eject" on the computer before I actually unplug it.

So far I have been using the new 2gig memory card and its fine, but I only have ~50 pictures so far, I'll update if anything happens.

Thanks for the input so far.

Try it once. If it works, and hte pics come off uncorrupted, I would say the logic board in the camera is messed up.

It definitely sounds like the memory card.

Get a memory card reader by the way, faster and it'll save you battery.

You can pick them up at your local radioshack for $10. they're on sale like everyother week.

replace the memory card, get a card reader, and stay away from cheap memory cards. don't buy from ebay either. memory is one thing you don't want to go cheap on. what if you had been shooting a wedding? how would you explain that to the newlyweds?

You all are saying get card readers, but I have one. I'm fairly new to DSLRs, and when I took my card out the first time and put it in my card reader, it gave me an error red light. So I thought "Oh, it must be that you have to have the card in the camera and plug in the camera" Because on the camera, there is an option for it to look like a mass storage device. Maybe I should have realized back then that there was something wrong?


*EDIT* Wow, I should have realized back on Christmas that that memory card was messed up. With my 2gig one, I just snapped random pictures now, put it in my card reader, and it was fine, read it just like any other card. Damn. And by the way, is there any benefit to plugging the camera in instead of taking the card out and putting it in a reader, or is this option available just for people who don't have card readers.

There's no benefit from using a USB direct transfer from the camera. It's far slower than modern card readers and wastes battery.

But may be it's better for saving from camera memory-pins/door wear/breakage/dust? more insertion and removal is more chances of something messes up in the process, I'd say using the USB cable is safer IMHO.

There's a chance, but I've rarely heard of any stories of people breaking doors or bending pins. (most if not all manufacturers confine the memory disk slot to the size of the CF slot)

It's a far more trivial thing to be worried about compared to battery and speed.

I'd stick to 2GB cards....
Higher capacity (4GB or 8GB) cards tend to have these kinds of corruption problems more often. Sorry dude, it was just bad luck on your particular card.