While filming yesterday I got back to base to discover a problem that I had seen once before last year. My Sony MC-50 which is weeks old had decided not to offer me the first 4 shots that you can see clearly as thumbnails but will not play back.
You are presented with this screen when you try to choose any of the 4 thumbnails to play back, as I have said this very same scenario happened to me last year with a different MC-50 while filming on Arran.
My ex boss Jan had her 60th birthday party and once again the first 4 files were not available for playback once recorded, you are left with 2 possible causes…
1. The cameras filing system
2. The SDHC card
All I can add to the mystery is that the cards were indeed Genuine Transend 16G but one was a class 6 and the most recent a class 10, it seems most unlikely that 2 cards used 6 months apart would cause the exact same problem…in my opinion.
Both cameras were the exact same type, an MC-50 but not the same camera, one was demo stock and the other I now own and bought from new.
I tried to recover the files without much success but it does leave a bad taste in my mouth about using the MC-50 as a front line professional tool, the camera is fine otherwise and records onto the same SDHC card with no hitches.
As a further investigation the first 4 recorded files do not exist assuming the the counter starts at 00000.
CONCLUSION : Sony read this blog so I hope we can get an answer to this annoying problem, if I could at least recover the 4 files then this would not be as problematic nor cause anxiety for all MC-50 users. I think it would be prudent for all Sony MC-50 users to check the first few shots as you film them to be on the safe side and keep a random check throughout a days filming.
UPDATE : Having a further look their is some kind of repair under Media Management but I tried this with no success, secondly the thumbnails are produced with the first thing you film, that only proves that you filmed something but does not give any indication as to how long you were filming for.
I have two MC-50s that I’ve had since soon after it was introduced. I’ve used both with SD cards and also the internal memory and, knock on wood, have never experienced the problem you are having. Obviously, this could be: 1) one of those random problems that happens with electronic equipment; or 2) evidence of a camera problem. The only way to determine if it is (2) is to continue to shoot with the camera to see if the problem repeats.
I have no fear in using my MC50s.
I was surprised to see it raise it’s ugly head in a two week old camcorder, I have been using the camera with no problems over the last two weeks but it’s a tad un-nerving when you know this Spector can raise it’s ugly head leaving you with thumbnails and no apparent form of recovery !