In case any are interested in responses we just received elsewhere (including a response from Cuddeback), regarding this problem:

From Cuddeback:

Bruce,

The image you see is generally caused by one of three things:

1) The media card was removed while the image was being saved

2) The batteries were weak (Always use brand new Duracell or Energizer batteries, other brands do not have sufficient current capacity to run the camera.

3) The Smart Media card is defective.

If you do not think one of the above is the cause of the problem call our tech service department.

Thanks,

Mark

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My thoughts:


1: While the camera was strapped to a tree was the weather very hot or very cold? The media card may not be rated for extremes of temperature.

2: What about humidity? Again the media card may have been operating outside its specification.

3: Is the camera rated for extremes of temperature and/or humidity? The CCD may have been affected. I say this because, although the bad image files were dated incorrectly, the logfile (.txt file) was OK meaning that part of the camera system was working OK (updating and writing the .txt file to the media card) while another part was not (capturing the images and writing them to the media card).

4: The camera batteries of course would also be affected by extremes in temperature and humidity: particularly if it got very cold, the batteries would be unable to delivery their full charge and so maybe that resulted in the camera/media card operating at a borderline power level.

Just a few possibilities (excluding mischievous deer and aliens ;-))

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Your files are corrupted. I've seen the same thing happen when files posted on the internet are damaged during downloading. The fact that your time and date is wrong on these pics supports this notion. It is almost certainly a hardware problem possibly due to a bad memory card. Try using the camera for a while with a different memory card to make certain the problem is not in the camera itself.

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I thought to post this in case you should ever experience this or know/will know someone who has/will.

Fortunately our warranty has not expired, though close! Mark Cuddeback responded quickly (this was nice) to our problem. I have faith that he will correct the problem, should the problem be with the camera itself.

Yesterday my husband set the cam up again and in a week, he is going to swap out the media card for the one that originally came with the cam (Viking). Hopefully it's just the card: a quick, easy and inexpensive sollution.