It is a fact of life that even though we take care of our equipment that one day something will go wrong, and this is not just in the case of digital photography !
Camera Issues
Today's cameras are far different from those used 30 years ago, no longer, or seldomly, being built in metal cases, today's cameras are carbon Fibre based, sometimes with an internal metal chassis. This makes the cameras pretty tough and able to handle some bashing, but too much bashing and its a case of a new camera !
Lenses
Although the cameras themselves may be strong they still use fragile glass optics, so if one of these are damaged that can spell the end for that lens.
Lenses are very prone to getting dirty, so using a lens cloth on a regular basis can save a number of hours on a photo editor removing the marks caused by lens dirt.
Sensors
Sensors in DSLRs can also become dirty, as fine specs of dirt and dust can enter the camera whilst the photographer is changing the lenses. The sensor is very delicate so tools like a hurricane brush (a large blower brush - without the brush) can often blast any dirt off the sensor. For more stubborn dirt tools like the 'sensorklean' can be used to remove dirt from the sensor itself.
Batteries
Always remember that a camera without batteries, or recording media (memory cards, film) is nothing more than a very expensive, and heavy, monocular !
Spare batteries should always be carried, and checked prior to setting out - preferably the previous night - to ensure they are fully charged.
Media Issues
A common issue will film based cameras, especially those with motor winds, is when the photographic film comes away from its cassette in the camera. This happened to me once whilst taking photographs at the Burton Carnival (yes a long time ago !), when after taking some photographs of a street performer, I heard a strange noise coming from the camera. After finding somewhere dark to check, I carefully partly opened the camera back to see what had happened, which to my horror is was what I suspected, the film had come away from the cassette.
Once I got home it was a case of using a film changing back, which is a light tight bag with elasticated arm slots, and after putting in the camera and an empty film case, I zipped up the bag and by touch only I opened the camera and carefully fed the film out of the camera's spool and carefully placed it into the empty film case. Taking both the film case, which I sealed with black tape, and the empty film cassette to Chris Goodhead for careful developing.
In today's digital camera memory cards take the place of photographic film, but problems can arise, sometimes through the photographer !
Deleted and Lost Images
When taking photographs it is easy to look at the photographs on the camera's LCD screen and decide if you want to keep the images. People sometimes choose to delete a photograph themselves, only to regret this later.
Sometimes there can be a camera or memory card issue and the memory card can become unreadable by both the camera and a computer.
It is handy to understand how computers handle data on a disk, DVD, memory card, etc.
Both computers and digital cameras use a system called FAT, which stands for File Allocation Table, to know what is on the disk or card, and where it is, which I will compare to an index in a book. When a computer, or digital camera, deletes a file it simply removes its entry from the index, instructing the device that extra space is now available, without actually removing the pages from the book.
In these cases recovery software, installed on a computer can often recover the lost photographs, videos, etc. The reason I put the etc at the end is that the recovery software can recover any type of file that is on a computer, memory card or USB drive. These work by looking at the index and then the disk, or memory card, and listing all the files that don't have entries on the index, and if the files can be recovered.
One piece of recovery software that I use is called Recova, and this software can be run from a USB drive, so that it can recover lost files on any windows based computer, not just your own.
The way Recova, and all other recovery software works is that they scan the disks or memory cards for files that are missing the file header entry in the FAT (or the index of the disk, or memory card) and presents a list to the photographer, together with if the file can be recovered (sometimes because the camera (or computer) believes there is free space available it might overwrite the photograph that was deleted.
It is important to note though that sometimes photographs, etc cannot be recovered, for example if the memory card develops a serious fault. In this case it is time to get a new card.
Personally I always carry spare cards, so if one develops a possible fault, I can change to another card and prevent loosing too many photographs.
Computer Issues
It is ironic that as I type this my computer is recovering from a boot issue !
Errors to arise, hard disks can fail, power supplies can damage a computer if they are affected by an electrical storm, etc so it is important to back up your computer !
Always remember my sum:
| Tomorrow = | Too late |
Hard Disk Failure
Back ups are one thing everyone hates to do, it means the computer cannot be used for up to 18 hours, it’s not enjoyable, etc, but it can save you a lot of trouble !
There are a number of back up solutions available, one of which is Genie Backup Manager:
This software allows you to make full back ups and partial back ups (selected areas, files, etc) including scheduled back ups. These back ups can be made to several DVDs, external hard disks, network drives or even to internet based servers.
It is important to note that there is a difference between back up software and imaging software. Back up software allows the user to choose to restore everything or only selected files, whereas imaging software usually only allows a full restore, which might overwrite files that have been updated since you last image was created.
Back ups can also be encrypted to protect the data, as it would be pointless in using secure passwords on the computer, only to leave the back ups unprotected !
Crucial information can always be backed up to DVDs, USB devices etc every night if necessary.
Electrical Storm Damage
Many people think that lightning storms only cause damage at remote places, or somewhere else, trust me they don’t !
Spike and Surge protectors can protect you computer equipment in most cases and sometimes even carry a basic insurance for any equipment attached to them that is damaged due to a spike in the power supply (as would be the result of a lightning strike on the power supply, or to the building).
These devices come as individual plug in devices that you plug your computer power into before connecting to the mains, or as trail sockets that can protect several devices and even telephone and USB connections.
Power Failure
In this country we are lucky that we have a pretty constant electrical power supply, but in some cases even this can fail, workers cutting through mains cables, fires at substations, disputes, etc.
It is good practice to save your work on a regular basis, so that in the event of a power failure the amount of work that is lost is reduced.
Also UPS, or Uninterruptable Power Supplies, can be used to filter out the power supply, like a spike and surge protector (see above) and provide a few precious minutes in the event of a power failure for you to save what you are working on and shut the computer down properly.
It is important to note though that these UPS are very expensive, and might only give you about five minutes power.
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