Lost photos is it camera or card problem?

Just got back from Tunisia, downloaded off my lexar16gb card lots of photos missing ( all the best ones of course!!!) Also some I took and checked using the B&W in camera filter,have downloaded in full color.The camera is the K3. I have tried the lexar recovery 4 software but didn't get anythingany advice appreciated thanks.

Moved to the right place

When you say lots of photos missing, could it be that you have a mixture of RAW and JPEG and the viewing software can't see the RAW files?

The pictures are likely RAW if the B&W show up in color in the program used to open them.

It might help us shed some light on the subject if we knew what program you used to import the files on your computer.

And slide the WRITE protect switch along to stop any further writes or deletions from the card and preserve the data that might or might not be on it.

When I had a problem a while ago, I found a program called 'Photorec' that that was able to recover everything on the card, including ones that a software crash appeared to have lost. It's a Linux program, mind you - see this page for more. It was quite easy to use - and a great relief!

If you use Windows, I expect you'll be able to find something similar.

I used Picasa as I normally do. I think I used JPEG only although I normally use raw only. Thanks.

If you haven't already done this could you try putting the card in a card reader attached to a PC and tell us what files are actually there in the directory? If you are lucky the card and pictures may be perfect and the problem just to do with the Picasa download.

My son got me to put the card back in my camera and check the photos, they are not thereall my best shots of course

Hi caj26: all may not be lost. What sometimes happens is that a glitch damages the index on the memory card, so that your computer/camera can't find the images themselves. With a bit of luck the JPEG or RAW files will still be there, but without the index your computer can't find where they are. That's what I found when I used the Photorec recovery program I mentioned above - it looks at everything on the SD card, not just the index file, and then helps you rescue 'lost' items.

As suggested above, write protect the card and don't use it again till you've tried some rescue software. I've had another look at the Photorec page - and realised I was wrong to imply it was only for Linux - works on Windows and MacOS too. Give it try - it's free.

Hope it works!

Thanks I will give it a go.

Put another card in the camera,Camera says no card in camera.was able to take photos but still kept saying no card in camera moved ports, formatted card still came up the same appeared to take shots but none available to download. By the way camera froze on me two weeks ago.

Something to be said for "breaking in" boots before a long trek. The same can be said for hi tech too.

Take everything back to the shop and get them to look it over.....

Pentax have given same advice thanks.