K20D strange image

Finally I found a bit of time to give my new K20D a bit of a test run. Works like a treat. So I shot the sunset and a few more pics after the sun was gone. The last one in the series turned out rather strange:



100% crop:



I have no idea where the bar on the left comes from nor do I have a clue why there is the "banding" in the picture (everything left of the "bar", you can see it in the 100% crop if you get a bit closer to your screen).

I left the EXIF data on the bigger one. The same exposure (2 s, A11, ISO 200, DR increase) was used on two previous shots without these artefacts. I do remember, though, that I had to tighten the quick release plate to the camera as it was turning when put in the vertical. However, after I noticed the artefacts I took some shots at home without loosening the plate and pictures were fine.

Any ideas as to the reason of this?

I am not overly concerned at the moment, but certainly will keep an eye on it...

Prieni

I really think and hope it is a sd card problem, and not a camera problem.
Did you format the card in the K20D, or just swapped it from your other camera.( just hoping that it is a minor problem like that )
Martin

The 100% crop looks too regular to me, suggesting electrical interference (or maybe the SD card). You didn't have your mobile phone or anything like that near the camera at the time? I haven't noticed any banding with my K20D yet and the higher DR settings side-effect that I've seen is just more noise in dark areas.

Oh, and did you turn SR off especially when it was tightened?

that's a classic corrupted JPG file

Thanks for your suggestions.

Martin:
It could be, of course, a problem of the card. Haven't had much experience with it (about 130 shots so far). It is new (the *istD takes CF cards) and I always format in the camera after downloading pics to the computer.

Chirpy:
Yes, I also find it a bit too regular (and this on two different scales, the bar and the line pattern). Yes, I had my mobile in my pocket, not too far from the camera, all the time. So we cannot rule out interference from that.

Have to check about the SR. As far as I remember I had switched it off. Shouldn't make a difference, though, as I used the 2 s delay which should switch off SR anyway.

Mongoose:
Not so classic as I took it as a RAW (PEF) file...

So, two candidates so far: SD card and/or interference.

As I said, I will keep an eye on it. If I find more hints I will let you know...

so it appears in the original raw file when opened in a raw converter?

did this shot fill the card? I've seen digital cameras corrupt the last shot on a full card before now (though admittedly I've never seen a DSLR do this).

Yes, that's how it looks in SilkyPix as well as on the camera display. The uploaded shot is processed into a TIF file using SilkyPix, then resized and converted to JPG in Photoshop.

Nope, there was plenty of space left on the card.
I put the same original post up on depressing review as well and had one reply telling that they had a very similar thing happening once (from >1000 shots so far).

So I guess that another candidate for cause could be a software glitch that occurs under certain circumstances only (that's a programmers favourite, some error that you cannot reproduce but that appears from time to time...)

I would be inclined to send it send it to Pentax with a note along the lines of "why do you suppose this happened?"

they'll probably blame the SD card, but it might be worth a shot.