canon 550D and the missing RAW files

Question

Before my last trip I set the recording mode to RAW+JPG.

I haven't changed that setting for the entire trip, however when I got back home and imported the pictures into lightroom, I found that several of those were just jpg (eg. no equivalent RAW files saved). What is strange is that it seems to have changed at some point, roughly in the middle of the second day, when the camera has apparently started recording both RAW and JPGs.

I am positive I haven't changed the setting.. do you have any possible explanation? has anybody else had the same problem?

Do you mean you have JPEG only in the middle and then both RAW+JPEG? Or is it JPEG from that point to the end? — Itai, Sep 28 '12 at 22:23
it is from that point to the end. it's like i had decided to change settings at that point... except I didn't! — Patrick, Sep 28 '12 at 22:51
OK, but what did the setting say? Was it still set to RAW+JPEG or did was it at JPEG only? — Itai, Sep 28 '12 at 23:59
Isn't that the title of a Nancy Drew novel, The case of the canon 550D and the missing RAW files. — Alaska Man, Mar 27 '19 at 17:29

score 1 · Answer 1 · answered Jan 25 '13 at 20:44

1

If I'm going to be honest here, I think the most likely explanation for this is that you did in fact (accidentally) change the quality setting - an slight squeeze of the Q button plus a jog of the control wheel is all it takes.

answered Jan 25 '13 at 20:44

Philip Kendall

21,867
6
67
101

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Oct 23 '12 at 21:04

That's very strange. If you haven't used the memory card since then you could try to do a file recovery to see if the missing raw files were accidentally deleted. There several softwares available to do this, but the one I've used successfully in the past is Stellar Pheonix Data Recovery, available for both Windows and Mac.

score 0 · Answer 3 · edited Nov 22 '12 at 16:36

0

If you use the full auto mode it might only write JPGs, and write both RAW and JPG files again when you switch back to P/Av/Tv/M.

edited Nov 22 '12 at 16:36

Edd

3,057
2
28
36

answered Nov 22 '12 at 15:54

Sam Figueroa

218
1
4

2

I can confirm that my 550D if nothing else honours the RAW/JPG/RAW+JPG setting in full auto mode. (Firmware 1.0.9 if anyone really cares). – Philip Kendall Nov 22 '12 at 21:33
Thanks for confirming. I wasn't sure anymore. I think my 450D used to do that and guessed on from there. – Sam Figueroa Nov 23 '12 at 13:17

canon 550D and the missing RAW files

3 Answers3