Why do photographers lose photos in the field?

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NaturEye

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Michel
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Hi everyone!

I'm Michel, an amateur (mainly) wildlife photographer, curious scientist and experienced reliability engineer.

I am running an survey "Why do photographers lose photos in the field?" The fully anonymous survey takes less than 2 minutes.

The survey intends to capture failure modes, effectiveness of dual card protection, recovery success, whether it makes sense to retire cards. Your answers - whether you lost photos or not - will enable deriving best practices which I will share with the community.

The survey was covered on DIYPhotography and discussed on DPReview. Every response counts!

Your help is highly appreciated. Thanks in advance!

- Michel
 
Hello Michel,

I've completed your survey, great initiative! One thought: I've had very, very occasional data loss over the years, like a handful of frames, so I answered accordingly. But I had no way to record the context of that, which is probably a few million problem-free frames. That baseline data feels like it could be just as valuable as the failure details, since it would allow you to calculate a real failure rate rather than just characterise the failures themselves. As it stands, I'm only contributing my rare bad experiences, not the overwhelming majority of cards, cameras and frames that have been error-free.

Perhaps people who have never had any issues contribute a useful "no loss" data point, but for those of us somewhere in between, it's hard to give the full picture. Just a thought. I'm looking forward to seeing the results.
 
TimHughes said:
Hello Michel,

I've completed your survey, great initiative! One thought: I've had very, very occasional data loss over the years, like a handful of frames, so I answered accordingly. But I had no way to record the context of that, which is probably a few million problem-free frames. That baseline data feels like it could be just as valuable as the failure details, since it would allow you to calculate a real failure rate rather than just characterise the failures themselves. As it stands, I'm only contributing my rare bad experiences, not the overwhelming majority of cards, cameras and frames that have been error-free.

Perhaps people who have never had any issues contribute a useful "no loss" data point, but for those of us somewhere in between, it's hard to give the full picture. Just a thought. I'm looking forward to seeing the results.
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Thanks Tim!

Indeed. My thought was for respondents to report according the "most relevant" case, but of course there can be "in-between cases", like yours. Maybe consider taking it again?

- Michel
Eucris said:
Why does your survey know my email address?
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Hello Eucris,

Really? Tell me more - this shouldn't be the case. The survey is anonymous and doesn't record any identity.

- Michel
 
NaturEye said:
Thanks Tim!

Indeed. My thought was for respondents to report according the "most relevant" case, but of course there can be "in-between cases", like yours. Maybe consider taking it again?

- Michel

Hello Eucris,

Really? Tell me more - this shouldn't be the case. The survey is anonymous and doesn't record any identity.

- Michel
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Hi Eucris, I immediately checked and confirm that the survey is not collecting emails.
 
Eucris said:
Why does your survey know my email address?
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Not exactly rocket science.

The survey is using Google Docs as a platform.

You are logged in to your Google account.

There's a comment below your address that says very clearly "Not Shred".
 
NaturEye said:
Thanks Tim!

Indeed. My thought was for respondents to report according the "most relevant" case, but of course there can be "in-between cases", like yours. Maybe consider taking it again?

- Michel
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Hi Michel, I've made another entry for the no-failure case. I doubt I'm an in-between case. I would expect everyone who has had a failure; this has been the exception, and the no-failure case is the norm, but your questionnaire does not capture that.
 
What is the eventual purpose of the survey? ie, is this going to be used to publish an article in a magazine or something?
I just wonder because we periodically get people joining the site to carry out market research etc, who never contribute anything to the site, just use the fact that we have an active membership. If this is for some eventual personal gain, then it would be nice if the OP at least bought a coffee, unless they plan to publish results on this site?
 
lindsay said:
What is the eventual purpose of the survey? ie, is this going to be used to publish an article in a magazine or something?
I just wonder because we periodically get people joining the site to carry out market research etc, who never contribute anything to the site, just use the fact that we have an active membership. If this is for some eventual personal gain, then it would be nice if the OP at least bought a coffee, unless they plan to publish results on this site?
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Hi Lindsay,

This is purely independent research - no commercial purpose. As a scientist by training and with an applied reliability engineering past, I am curious about this question that affects all of us.

Results will be published openly and shared back with the photography community - including here if there's interest. DIYPhotography has already covered the study and will publish the findings.

Happy to buy a coffee as a gesture of appreciation for the community's help. Please advise.

Thanks!

- Michel
 
NaturEye said:
Happy to buy a coffee as a gesture of appreciation for the community's help.
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'Buying a coffee' is forum slang for making a donation to the running costs of the site.

It indicates an expectation of donation level.

Although in your case, I would suggest that a round of coffee would be more appropriate...


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DemiLion said:
'Buying a coffee' is forum slang for making a donation to the running costs of the site.

It indicates an expectation of donation level.

Although in your case, I would suggest that a round of coffee would be more appropriate...


View attachment 481097
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Hi DemiLion,

thanks for the clarification! Will do. Hoping for more participation ...
 
This survey might appear to overinflate the number of card failures. I am like Tim. I completed the survey for the one bad experience I had. But that needs to be put in context of over a million problem-free writes. The most common "problem" I have is that the Sony a1 11 bodies occasionally randomly switch from slot 1 recording to slot 2. I still haven't figured out what triggers this behaviour. But it does give a moment's panic. Thanks for the initiative. It would be good to share your results with the forum. It might also be useful to include a question on the type of card used (SD, CE, etc.)
 
Constable said:
This survey might appear to overinflate the number of card failures. I am like Tim. I completed the survey for the one bad experience I had. But that needs to be put in context of over a million problem-free writes. The most common "problem" I have is that the Sony a1 11 bodies occasionally randomly switch from slot 1 recording to slot 2. I still haven't figured out what triggers this behaviour. But it does give a moment's panic. Thanks for the initiative. It would be good to share your results with the forum. It might also be useful to include a question on the type of card used (SD, CE, etc.)
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Thanks Ed,

You raised several important points.

The survivor branch exists precisely to provide context for failure events. Your million problem-free writes alongside one bad experience is exactly the data the study needs. Without it the failure rate would be wildly overstated.

The Sony a1 slot-switching behavior is interesting. It would likely fall under the slot/connector fault category in the survey, though it sounds more like a firmware quirk than a true failure.

Regarding card type: SD, CFexpress and XQD are all in scope. It's not a standalone survey question currently but worth considering for a follow-up study once a baseline is established.

Looking forward to sharing results here when the data is sufficient.
 
DemiLion said:
'Buying a coffee' is forum slang for making a donation to the running costs of the site.

It indicates an expectation of donation level.

Although in your case, I would suggest that a round of coffee would be more appropriate...


View attachment 481097
Click to expand...
Can you help me out? I do not see a donations button. Perhaps you can share a link?
 
Constable said:
The most common "problem" I have is that the Sony a1 11 bodies occasionally randomly switch from slot 1 recording to slot 2
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I had this with my Fuji bodies - worked it out to be switching on with only one of the cards in the slot, it made it switch to the only available slot to write.
Maybe something to check?
 
Filled it in, but it was so long ago that I doubt it really is useful (except for someone using ancient DSLR from like 2010)

Every other shot I've lost has been my own stupid fault.
 
gramps said:
I had this with my Fuji bodies - worked it out to be switching on with only one of the cards in the slot, it made it switch to the only available slot to write.
Maybe something to check?
Click to expand...
Thanks gramps. I've been bitten by that one before, but it is not the case here. Thanks anyway. Actually, I just figured it out by looking at the shots before the card changes. I was shooting BIF at 30 fps each time, and I think it switched cards when the buffer filled. It seems to be a feature rather than a bug!:)
 
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Sorry but I don't do online surveys like this on a forum. Either because a student is too lazy to do face to face survey as per in a street, or because of financial gain using other peoples knowledge
 
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realspeed said:
Sorry but I don't do online surveys like this on a forum. Either because a student is too lazy to do face to face survey as per in a street, or because of financial gain using other peoples knowledge
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I agree with the sentiment.

I think my time would be better used counting the angels who are dancing on the top of that pin. {shrug}
 
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