Software review – CardRaider

Software Utility:  CardRaider
From:  ecamm
Price: $19.95
Description: A utility for Mac OS X computers that can recover deleted images
from memory cards
OS/Platform: Mac OS X only. Not available for PC

 

Memory cards that are used with cameras (and other devices) can get formatted by mistake.  Files can be deleted inadvertently or sometimes the files on the card can suffer corruption. In such instances, having a software utility  to recover the images/movies from the card is very handy and can save one a lot of angst and effort.  One such product is CardRaider by ecamm, a Massachusetts based company that promises something unique in this day and age – from their website, under what they call  their “Customer Service Pledge”, they say: “Whether you need help with sales, order fulfillment or technical support with one of our products, we will treat you like you’ve just walked into our office. No support ticket numbers. No auto-responses. Just direct person-to-person communication to answer questions and resolve issues as quickly as possible.”  That sure sounds good, but how good is their product?

I purchased a license and put it through it’s paces.  Here’s what I found:

Their UI is pretty simple and straightforward.  When you fire up the app here’s what you see:

Note that I had a SD card I had plugged into my card reader and CardRaider immediately detected that and had it selected.  Clicking the scan button tells CardRaider to go off and scan the card for files.

Now, when files are deleted from a card/disk, what really happens is that the areas on the card where that file being deleted is stored are marked as usable.  The actual data is not “erased”.  When new data needs to be written to the card, these areas marked as reusable are overwritten with new data and the old data are lost.  This of course means that if you delete (or format) and need to recover files immediately before any new data are written to the card, you should be in good shape.  CardRaider definitely delivers in this area.  The first card I tested had a 108 DNG files from the Leica M9.  After importing these files into Aperture, I used the Mac OS DiskUtility to format the card.

After verifying that the card was formatted and all previous images could not be seen through the Mac OS X Finder, I invoked the “Scan” function on CardRaider.  About 12 minutes later, this is what CardRaider has to say:

CardRaider had found and could recover all 108 images that were on the card.  Pretty cool!

Next I decided to use a different card and this time format the card in the camera and see what happens.  I had 61 DNG files on the card this time.  Here’s what CardRaider discovered:

This time CardRaider recovered 214 images when I had originally only 61 images on the card.  What gives?!!  It turns out that this time CardRaider not only recovered the 61 images I had just formatted off the card, but it recovered images that had been put on the card on two or three different shoot-and-format cycles!  All that data had not been overwritten on the card and CardRaider happily recovered all those images as well!  Good stuff.  I next tried formatting cards in Nikon cameras, as well as the Ricoh GXR.  CardRaider performed flawlessly in each case.

One thing that initially annoyed me was that as CardRaider starts scanning, each time it discovers an image, it generates a shutter-click sound.  After a while, that can get on one’s nerves.  Thankfully, there is an option to turn that off in preferences.

I also tried with with a card from my ebook reader and again, CardRaider performed flawlessly.  CardRaider supports jpegs and RAW formats from several camera manufacturers.  It also supports several popular movie formats.  You can see the entire list of supported files here.  In addition to file recovery, CardRaider also has a secure erase function that allows deletion of files from card such that they cannot be recovered.

The verdict?  CardRaider is a very useful utility that absolutely delivers what it claims in a clean, easy to use interface.  At $19.95 it is very fairly priced and offers the amateur or professional photographer peace of mind.  Only available for Mac OS X though.  Highly recommended.

Disclaimer:  I purchased my copy and do not have any pecuniary interest or relationship with the folks at ecamm.  Just a satisfied customer.

Book Review – “Why People Photograph” by Robert Adams


Title: Why People Photograph – Selected Essays and Reviews
Author: Robert Adams
Format: Paperback, also available in Hardcover
Publisher: Aperture Foundation
Publish Date: First published in1994
ISBN: 978-0-89381-603-2
Price: $14.95 ($10.91 at Amazon)
Description: Selected essays on photography and reviews of nine photographers

Robert Adams was born in New Jersey in 1937. For over four decades he has documented through his black-and-white photographs the impact of human proliferation in what used to be the wilderness of the American West, particularly in California, Oregon, and his home state of Colorado. Mr. Adams is a professional photographer and prolific writer with over forty published works. He strongly believes that art is not to be confused with decoration or investment.

In 2009, the Hasselblad Foundation honored him with the Hasselblad Foundation International Award, a prize of 500,000 kronor (approximately $61,000), describing him as “one of the most important and influential photographers of the last 40 years”. Adams’ photographs are inspired by the joy he clearly derives from the natural beauty of the landscape and also his dismay and disappointment at the degradation of the American West by commercial development. For an excellent introduction to Adam’s images go here. His work is represented by the Fraenkel Gallery in San Francisco. To see his exhibit titled “Consolations: Prairie, Forest, Sea” go here.

This book has three sections, in addition to the foreword and acknowledgements.  The first section is titled “What can help”, containing seven essays.  The second section, titled “Examples of Success”, has nine reviews of a diverse bunch of noted photographers including Ansel Adam & Dorothea Lange.  The third and final section, titled “Working Conditions”, contains three essays.

In the foreword to the book, the author makes clear his thesis – “Though these essays were written for a variety of occasions, they have a recurring subject – the effort we all make, photographers and non-photographers, to affirm life without lying about it.  And then behave in accord with our vision.”  Adams presents us with an etching by Edward Hopper, “The Lonely House”, and then  goes on to interpret the etching in a very interesting way – the author sees a coming “crowding” but reminds us that “there is still time – in the lee, in the quiet, in extraordinary light.”  His allusion to “crowding” is an indicator of the angst he clearly feels at what he considers the damage done to the landscape in the American West by human proliferation and commercialization. He devotes much of the writing in section three to this topic.

His first essay, titled “Colleagues” begins with a bold statement – [emphasis mine] “Every Photographer that has lasted has depended on other people’s pictures.” He goes on to identify an essential quality shared by the photographers he likes – animation.  He asserts that Photography is the kind of intoxication it is because the photographer has known a miracle, been given an unexpected gift that they did not earn.  Adams then offers up a powerful insight [emphasis mine] “When Photographers get beyond copying the achievements of others, or just repeating their own accidental first successes, they learn that they do not know where in the world they will find pictures.  Nobody does.”  Adams’ wry sense of humor is cleary evident in this essay.  He writes, “I have to admit there is another reason I like photographers – they don’t temp me to envy. The profession is short on dignity. Nearly everyone has fallen down, been the target of condescension, been harrassed by security guards and dropped expensive equipment.  Almost all photographers have incurred large expenses in the pursuit of tiny audiences, finding that the wonder they had hoped to share is something that few want to receive.”  Later on in the essay, the author offers up another keen insight – every photographers need to face the threat that they may lose their vision, either temporarily or permanently.  He offers up Ansel Adams as an example of someone that he believes lapsed into the formulaic after a period of extraordinary creativity.

In the essay titled “Teaching”, while commenting on teaching, Adams says that art requires empathy and a sense of wholeness.  I wonder if it is indeed this sense of wholeness that drives most photographers or perhaps, antithetically, a perception of incompleteness and a never-ending quest to achieve that sense of wholeness through their photography.  What do you think?  Love to hear your thoughts in the comments section.

The review section has essays on nine photographers including Edward Weston, Paul Strand, Laura Gilpin, Judith Ross Roy, Susan Mieselas, Michael Schmidt, Ansel Adams, Dorothea Lange  & Eugène Atget.  In the first essay on Edward Weston, Adams is scathing about what he considers a lacking biographer – “All but one of the recent biographies of photographers leave me embarrased at having listened to things for which there is, on the basis of the books, scant justification  to listen.  Gossip.”  and later, “One wonders why biographers, who usually begin their studies out of enthusiasm for their subject’s art, so often quickly turn away from the art.”  It is clear that he does not think much of Maddow’s biography of Weston. This section is interspersed with black-and-white plates of images that Adams offers up to illustrate his points.

An excellent book, written by a photographer who has thought much about photography and photographers, and who is able to clearly and cogently express his thinking in polished prose; in fact his prose is as polished as his photographs!  Definitely a book that belongs on every photographer’s bookshelf.  Highly recommended.

If you’re intrigued enough to purchase this book, I’d like to request you to consider purchasing it from Amazon.com by clicking on the thumbnail of the book at the beginning of this review. Doing so does not cost you anything additional but allows Amazon to give me a small credit towards purchasing other books – something that I would much appreciate! Thank you!