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12/06/2009 10:20:43 PM · #1 |
I'll keep the story short. We hired a wedding photographer that was very arrogant and said he was basically the grandmaster of all photographers in Western PA. He\'s an old snake that may have been good 20 years ago, but he has let himself go and scams people on their wedding pictures. This guy lied about what he was giving us and then when we called him out on it he threatened to take away our wedding pictures. He yelled at us, bringing my wife to tears, and told us to take the crappy pictures he was giving us and smile on our way out the door. We have since brought a lawsuit against him and won a monetary refund because he did not give us a \"high resolution\" cd that he promised. Instead we got 1,300 good images that are low res.
With that background in mind... The photographer had about 125 images he took that got saved on an SD Card as corrupted files. He refused to give us the SanDisc SD card the images were on, but instead copied, pasted, and burned the files onto a cd for us. We have the cd. The files are corrupt and cannot be opened. They appear to be saved as JPEG files but he told us that he shoots in RAW on some Cannon camera he used. I have tried about 20 forms of freeware on the web trying to get these JPEGs to open. I have also sought answers all over the place. I\'m stumped.
I am really hoping to give these Wedding images to my wife for Christmas. Because they are precious to us I am willing to pay for your time and efforts if you can truly get it open. At this point I have been too afraid to pay for software or big tech guys who may in the end just say \"yeah, you\'re screwed.\" If you can open them I would be willing to give you at least something for your efforts. I have uploaded a couple of the files to 4shared. They can be accessed at this address:
4shared.com/dir/24915904/13114423/sharing.html
Also, at this site I have uploaded about 4 of 1,300 good images. I am not very tech savy, but perhaps the good images may clue you into what\'s wrong with the corrupt files. If it would be more helpful to have a copy of the full cd, I can make one and mail it your way. Also, if you just want to reply with suggestions for software, other blogs to try, etc., I\'m fair game for that too.
I appreciate you taking the time to look at my post. I am especially grateful for those who may try to fix them and come up short. I have given you all the info I know up to this point and thank you for your time. Thanks again.
Brendan |
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12/06/2009 10:39:51 PM · #2 |
I tried recovery of one file with the demo of "pixrecovery" which reported that there was no data to recover. I doubt that is true, since the file size is about what it should be for a moderately large .jpg file. It may be that the data is so badly mangled that it truly is not recoverable, or it may must be that the program is not too capable.
Corrupt .jpg files are bad news, because the compression scheme used is efficient, therefore if even one bit gets corrupted, it affects all the following data. |
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12/06/2009 11:15:32 PM · #3 |
I used a hex editor on one of the corrupt files, but it doesn't appear to even contain a valid JPG header.
A JPEG file starts with the hex sequence 'FF D8' - The images you've uploaded which are okay have this sequence, as would any JPG file. However, in the corrupt files I can't find the FFD8 bytes anywhere in the file.
I tried copying a valid JPG header onto the start of the corrupt JPG as a long shot, but no joy there either.
Are you sure these are JPGs and not some other file format, like RAW?
P.S. The corrupt file has the byte pair A9 26 in the header. The only reference I could find to this was a fragment of a Minolta MRW raw format. If the header is scrambled or missing you don't stand much chance of finding out the file format, let alone recreating it (sorry to disappoint you)
Still let's see if any other DPCers can come along and work their magic.
Message edited by author 2009-12-06 23:25:48. |
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12/06/2009 11:24:12 PM · #4 |
So sorry about that. :(
I can't help at all, BUT if the answer *can* be found, a dpc'er will do it. ;) |
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12/06/2009 11:24:51 PM · #5 |
| The photographer did not give a lot of his information to us in the process. But I do know that he told us he shot in some sort of RAW, then had a program that converted it to JPEG. Perhaps you are correct then that while the good pictures are JPEG the corrupt files may are likely in their original RAW format. |
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12/06/2009 11:32:04 PM · #6 |
Okay, I've checked a few of the other corrupt ones, and I'm not seeing any consistency at all in the header bytes. It just looks like scrambled data to me. If these files were one of the RAW format, or any other graphics file format, then the first byte pair in the file would be the same across all the files. That's how headers work.
Without valid or intact header information not only can you not determine the original file type, but it would make it extremely difficult to reconstruct.
Why not offer your wife a studio reshoot as a present instead? :) |
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12/07/2009 12:07:10 AM · #7 |
Originally posted by waterloggedsocks:
The photographer had about 125 images he took that got saved on an SD Card as corrupted files. He refused to give us the SanDisc SD card the images were on, but instead copied, pasted, and burned the files onto a cd for us. |
Assuming the assertion is true "saved on an SD card as corrupted files," and then someone simply tried to copy them onto other media, you simply have garbage data.
If you can gain access to the original media, or a raw image dump of the original media, there is *some* chance the files could be reconstructed, but if someone simply tried to copy files from corrupt media, you've just got garbage.
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12/07/2009 12:33:33 AM · #8 |
one thought is that perhaps they are just RAW files as suggested previously and were merely renamed.
It would be worth a shot trying to change the file extension to the Canon RAW extension. (Not sure what extension to try. What is the Canon RAW extension anyways?)
Message edited by author 2009-12-07 00:34:11. |
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12/07/2009 12:40:29 AM · #9 |
Originally posted by Citadel:
one thought is that perhaps they are just RAW files as suggested previously and were merely renamed.
It would be worth a shot trying to change the file extension to the Canon RAW extension. (Not sure what extension to try. What is the Canon RAW extension anyways?) |
There are a couple. .CRW and .CR2 |
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12/07/2009 07:14:27 AM · #10 |
Originally posted by waterloggedsocks:
At this point I have been too afraid to pay for software or big tech guys who may in the end just say "yeah, you're screwed." |
i once used these guys: DTI Data they don't charge to take a look and give an estimate; you only pay for shipping. they did a decent job for me on an xHD that was nearly destroyed by WD's tech support.
you didn't share the details on your settlement, but it's a shame if you couldn't get either enough money to re-stage and re-shoot, or if you couldn't get a court order forcing him to turn over ALL the digital media.
so sorry to hear this. best wishes for the rest of your marriage. |
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