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Must have software for digital (bird) photographers

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Maryland Birds & Birding

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Wed, 14 Apr 2004 21:27:50 -0400

Greetings,

This post is somewhat off topic and is more about digital photography than anything else (chastise and flame me if you must), but since so many bird photographers are moving to digital format, I thought it would be a service to provide this information. On the last pelagic alone, out of the ~40 people on board, there were 3 people, including myself, with the Canon 10D (digital 35MM bodies)& 100-400IS lens set-ups and 1 with another manufacturer’s digital format 35MM camera and telephoto lens.

This past weekend I was in the field taking some wildlife photographs with my digital camera body. While still in the outdoors at the end of the day, I reviewed the photos that I had taken, turned the digital camera off and packed it away. The next day, the photos taken during the previous day were no longer viewable. The photos from the Lewes, DE pelagic the week before were still there, but those photos taken on the day before would no longer display. The camera still showed that I had the same number of photos remaining on the card as was available at the end of the previous day (unlike film cameras, digitals tend to show space remaining instead of images taken), so this made me believe that the images were on the card taking up memory but the camera wasn't seeing them because of a memory card error like the file allocation table being corrupted or something similar.

I called the camera's manufacturer for a suggestion on how to search the Compact Flash card and I was informed that they didn't have any software that would do it. They told me there were products out there that would do the job and a search on-line would turn up some products by other manufacturers. A search of Google provided a list and I researched several before coming up with this gem.

The product is called "PhotoRecovery for Digital Media" by LC Technologies. For anyone that is into digital photography and wants an insurance policy against lost images, this product is as close to a lifesaver as you can get. It can be purchased and downloaded directly online (MSRP $39.99), installed, and you can start extracting the lost images immediately after that. The product was very easy to use by anyone that has any computer experience.

The program is not foolproof as some problems may be too severe to be overcome. Some of my images from the missing day were incomplete due to, I suppose, some of the data becoming so unreadable it exceeded any simple program's salvage ability, but more than half of the images that I thought were gone for good were resurrected from oblivion. Even some photos that had been taken on the pelagic trip the week before and deleted, during the trip were extracted during the salvaging process. After deleting the pictures, (some accidentally), on that trip, many more images were taken and stored on the card over these deleted images and this program was still able to retrieve the data. Shots of an Iceland Gull and Gannets diving in the wake of the boat that I assumed were lost for good magically reappeared on my computer. Amazing!

Perhaps there are other programs out there that do an equally satisfactory job. I looked at a half dozen others and I didn't find any. I tried to download a couple of trial programs of other products found on Google before trying this one and did not have the degree of success that this program gave me. There is a trial version of this program that will allow you to see what the program is capable of but you can only view found photos but not save them to the disk. Purchasing the product is a must to fully recover your lost data. I did not look to see if this product was available at a local store or via an online retailer because time was of the essence for me. You might be able to find it elsewhere for a street price below the company's online store.

The website for this product is
http://www.lc-tech.com/photorecovery.htm

Let my state for the record that I have no financial obligation or interest in LC Technologies or any associated companies related to the manufacturer and marketing of this product. I only provide this information to other digital bird (or any subject) photographers in the event that they find themselves in a similar predicament and at a loss on where to turn.

Ed Boyd
Westminster, MD

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