Lost photos on my SD card while shooting with Nikon D80

Question

I spend a day in and around Verona, Italy past weekend and was shooting around with a lent Nikon D80. I used a 2G SD card for storage. I was shooting FINE/L JPEG photos. When it got to 161 photos before it was full I started getting a CHR/CHA (since it's digital display I can't really say whether it's an A or an R) reding on the mono display. Anyway. It was blinking and after every shot the number increased back from 160 to 161 so I realised that something has been going on.

I tried replying my photos but camera wouldn't show me anything. Anyway. For the last 30 minutes of shooting I changed SD card to at lest be able to continue shooting but the shocker came afterwards.

When I inserted the SD card in my computer it started behaving badly because I wasn't able to get any photos off of it. When I tried to do a disk error checking, it dis something quickly and now when I try to put the card it it says it needs to be formatted before it can be used.

I'm afraid all my photos are now lost.

I wonder whether you're ever experienced anything similar? Which camera did you use and were you ever able to recover those photos you've taken?

It wasn't something so very important but I wonder what I would do if I took some photos of something I know I'd do only once in my life like a super special vacation somewhere and then loose all photographic memories?! I hope this kind of thing never happened to any of those wedding photographers. What an embarrassing moment that would be! Saying: "Would you please do the whole day again please, because I lost your photos?" is probably out of the question.

Answer

Making this an answer by request. This post is basically a duplicate, although that's not necessarily a terrible thing.

Earlier questions are:

• Recover deleted photos from an SD Card
• Recover photo files in corrupt-filesystem CF card

Check more discussion of this question.

Why can't I take a photo in dark with auto focus, manual mode?

Question

I'm dorking around with a Nikon D80 and I am a total beginner. I am trying to shoot some light trails but the darn thing doesn't even take a picture. I am in manual mode with the bulb setting. For some reason, when I hold down the button, it does not take a picture. I can hold the button half way for the lens to auto focus (is that what it is doing when it is moving?), but when I press down all the way, the camera refuses to take a picture. When I go back to automatic mode, it happily takes a photo. What am I doing wrong? Thanks!!

Edited post: I am thinking it has something to do with how far/close the subject is. If there is something close, the camera doesn't want to take a picture, but if there is nothing right in front of it, it will take a pic in manual mode... (Generally hypothesizing right now.)

Answer: I think I found out what is wrong. The lens was on auto focus. I guess I had to change it to manual to use manual mode..... It works now (taking a pic of something close up that is..) Could anyone give a more detailed explanation as to what happened here? :)

Answer

Re. your answer - you don't have to have the focus set to Manual just because you're in Manual mode, but autofocus systems generally don't work in the dark. Therefore the camera will fail to focus and refuse to take a picture. By switching to manual you remove that problem.

Switching to Auto mode may allow autofocus because it turns the AF illuminator on. Autofocus works by splitting the image coming through the lens and then calculating the focus needed to recombine it. If the image is too dark, the camera can't 'see' what it's splitting and recombining, and so it will fail to focus. The AF illuminator lights up the scene so the camera can make its decision, but it's usually turned off when in the priority or manual modes.

When lighting painting, it's best to pre-focus manually with the lights on, then leave it on manual and turn the lights off.

Check more discussion of this question.

Why can't I take a photo??

Question

I'm dorking around with a Nikon D80 and I am a total beginner. I am trying to shoot some light trails but the darn thing doesn't even take a picture. I am in manual mode with the bulb setting. For some reason, when I hold down the button, it does not take a picture. I can hold the button half way for the lens to auto focus (is that what it is doing when it is moving?), but when I press down all the way, the camera refuses to take a picture. When I go back to automatic mode, it happily takes a photo. What am I doing wrong? Thanks!!

Edited post: I am thinking it has something to do with how far/close the subject is. If there is something close, the camera doesn't want to take a picture, but if there is nothing right in front of it, it will take a pic in manual mode... (Generally hypothesizing right now.)

Answer: I think I found out what is wrong. The lens was on auto focus. I guess I had to change it to manual to use manual mode..... It works now (taking a pic of something close up that is..) Could anyone give a more detailed explanation as to what happened here? :)

Answer

Re. your answer - you don't have to have the focus set to Manual just because you're in Manual mode, but autofocus systems generally don't work in the dark. Therefore the camera will fail to focus and refuse to take a picture. By switching to manual you remove that problem.

Check more discussion of this question.

Is Nikon AF 70-300/4.0-5.6 G Black Nikkor Lens compatible with Nikon D80?

Question

I'm looking at the Nikon AF 70-300/4.0-5.6 G Black Nikkor Lens, and that page says that it's not compatible with Nikon D40, D40x, D60 and D5000. I'm not sure - would it work with my D80?

Answer

Yes it will work. Those cameras don't feature an in body focus motor and won't autofocus with any "AF" lens. Your D80 should be fine with any AF or newer AF-S lens.

Check more discussion of this question.