Dual Card Slots

[rpcrowe]

As I have mentioned before, I have never experienced a CF card which after working initially failed me (I did have two Kingston cards which were not working when I first used them).

However, there is a lot to be said about having dual card slots. The CF slot on my 7D2 just stopped working. It seems to be a factor of the spring or tension that ejects the cards.

I have a shoot Saturday for which I'd like to use my 7D2. I can use the SD slot on the camera (along with my 6D2) for the shoot and then run the camera up to Canon in Orange County, CA to get it fixed...

[billtils]

Two is twice as good as one! I've not had a slot 1 failure either with the x2 SD cards in the D750 or the CF + SD in the D810 but the overflow has come in handy more than once ... and now I've typed that, here's hoping the next post is not to talk about a card failure .

[Donald]

That's a new one on me , Richard. Obviously we all know about card failure, but the housing for the card failing is new to me.

I don't use SD cards at all. If I was a professional and the shots really mattered, then I would, but I look at it like the days of film. I had a roll of film in the camera. No back up. You took your chance that you'd get it home safe and sound. I don't take anything that's so important that losing it would be the end of the world.

Interestingly, on the subject of card failures, it was suggested to me, by a professional, that the occurrence of card failure correlates to whether and how much the user deletes images in the camera. The advise was, never delete anything in the camera (I don't anyway).
As I say, an interesting observation/theory.

[george013]

Have a good look at the card itself. If one of the wholes is blocked someway it might damage the cardreader. That happened to me ones. If you keep using that card it might damage more readers. Have a close look at the pins in your camera. Are they all straight?

George

[billtils]

I don't use SD cards at all. If I was a professional and the shots really mattered, then I would, but I look at it like the days of film. I had a roll of film in the camera. No back up. You took your chance that you'd get it home safe and sound. I don't take anything that's so important that losing it would be the end of the world.

Donald,

That's a wee bit ambiguous and piqued my interest. What does your camera write the images to if you don't use SD cards at all? And how do you get them in to your PP software and library? I'm sure there is a simple and straightforward answer that includes the fact that I'm missing something somewhere.

[Manfred M]

The reality of the situation is that CF cards have a significant weakness and that is that the card reader has a significant number of thin pins that must align with holes in the card. Any blocked hole can cause one of these pins to be bent when the card is inserted, which will ruin the card reader, whether it is in the camera or in an external reader.

I have had problems with SD cards in the past, but this was only when using cards not recommended by the camera manufacturer. I did have one physical failure, where the weld holding the plastic casing was not properly done and the whole case fell apart leaving me with the exposed electronic components.

SD card readers do require an ejection sprint and a way of latching the card that has been inserted into the reader. These are areas of failure for card readers and low quality ones are known for failing both these ways. The built in readers on laptops have are generally not well built and I've seen several fail.

The main advantage of a CF card over an SD card is the read / write rate. There are a lot more data channels in a CF card than an SD card, so data can be transferred more quickly in either direction. If one is shooting in burst mode is downloading a lot of data, this can become an issue. Otherwise SD cards are just as good, from a capacity and data quality standpoint as SD cards.

I suspect that your plan to use an SD card for the shoot will work out for you. After all that is part of the reason that your camera has two card slots; redundancy.

[Donald]

Donald,

That's a wee bit ambiguous and piqued my interest. What does your camera write the images to if you don't use SD cards at all? And how do you get them in to your PP software and library? I'm sure there is a simple and straightforward answer that includes the fact that I'm missing something somewhere.

CF Cards

[billtils]

Thanks Donald. Thought that may be it.

[DanK]

The CF slot on my 7D2 just stopped working. It seems to be a factor of the spring or tension that ejects the cards.

I don't understand. I have had 4 Canon bodies that used CF cards, and none has had a spring ejection of the CF cards. The CF cards are ejected by pressing a large square button at the base of the card, which seems to use leverage to force the card out. The SD slot in my 5DIII does have a spring ejection mechanism. So, I think I am misunderstanding what the problem is.

it was suggested to me, by a professional, that the occurrence of card failure correlates to whether and how much the user deletes images in the camera. The advise was, never delete anything in the camera

Yes, I have read this numerous times. I'm no expert, but it makes no sense to me. I assume cameras work like computers: when you "erase" a file, you are simply breaking the link between the file allocation table and the sectors where the information is, freeing the device to write new data to those sectors. Other devices do that kind of erasing over and over again, some with no re-formatting at all. Maybe nonvolatile memory is more vulnerable than RAM to problems from doing this, but even if that were so, I don't see why reformatting after the images have been uploaded wouldn't take care of any problems, e.g., sector misallocations. Can anyone here clarify?

SD card readers do require an ejection sprint and a way of latching the card that has been inserted into the reader. These are areas of failure for card readers and low quality ones are known for failing both these ways

My two Lexar card readers avoid these problems. They hold the SD card in by friction, and the user pulls it out manually. At least, that's what I have been doing for years. I'm traveling, so I can't see whether they do in fact have a spring release that I haven't used.

but I look at it like the days of film. I had a roll of film in the camera. No back up. You took your chance that you'd get it home safe and sound. I don't take anything that's so important that losing it would be the end of the world.

I do the same, although I can't rationalize it. My 5DIII will write to both cards if I tell it to. This might slow the camera down in burst mode, but I rarely use burst mode, so it would make sense to set the camera to do this. The only cost would be reformatting two cards each session rather than one. However, in all of the years I have done digital photography, I have never had a card failure of any kind, so I play the odds.

[rpcrowe]

I don't understand. I have had 4 Canon bodies that used CF cards, and none has had a spring ejection of the CF cards. The CF cards are ejected by pressing a large square button at the base of the card, which seems to use leverage to force the card out. The SD slot in my 5DIII does have a spring ejection mechanism. So, I think I am misunderstanding what the problem is.

I think that I did not describe the problem correctly. The square button that is at the base of the CF card will, if pressed when there is no card in the slot, pop right back out to the original point. That is what I meant by a "spring". However, with my 7D2, the button just stays pressed in and I have to use a pair of tweezers to return it to its original location.

Regarding problems with the alignment of pins in a card reader and the CF card itself... I have found that some card readers have an entry slot that is fairly loose and doesn't direct the card exactly. This bit of slop in the slot size can easily cause a misalignment between the pins in the reader and the CF card itself. I have never bent a CF card pin. However, I have never had a CF slot in a camera fail me either

[Manfred M]

What you are describing is that the card ejection mechanism is jammed and needs to replaced or repaired. I have not done this with Canon cameras, but cannot imagine that the mechanism is any different than with Nikon cameras. If this button is not moving freely and you have to force (pull) it back with tweezers, you cannot be sure that your card is seated properly and all of the electrical contacts are connecting as they should be.

[DanK]

The square button that is at the base of the CF card will, if pressed when there is no card in the slot, pop right back out to the original point. That is what I meant by a "spring". However, with my 7D2, the button just stays pressed in and I have to use a pair of tweezers to return it to its original location.

Do you mean that the button stays depressed while the card is out of the camera, or that it stays depressed after you have the card fully re-seated in the camera?

My bodies have no spring for this button. I just rechecked this with my two current bodies, a 5D III and a 7D I. With both of them, when I eject the CF card from the body, the button stays depressed. An internal mechanism pushes the button back out only when I re-seat the card fully into the body. I don't know what the actual mechanism looks like, but it acts like a lever with a fulcrum in the middle, that is, like a see-saw. Depressing the button forces the card partway out; depressing the card the final few millimeters forces the button back out.

If that mechanism is broken, I can't see an alternative other than taking it to a good repair shop or sending it to Canon.

[zen]

I don't understand. I have had 4 Canon bodies that used CF cards, and none has had a spring ejection of the CF cards. The CF cards are ejected by pressing a large square button at the base of the card, which seems to use leverage to force the card out. The SD slot in my 5DIII does have a spring ejection mechanism. So, I think I am misunderstanding what the problem is.



Yes, I have read this numerous times. I'm no expert, but it makes no sense to me. I assume cameras work like computers: when you "erase" a file, you are simply breaking the link between the file allocation table and the sectors where the information is, freeing the device to write new data to those sectors. Other devices do that kind of erasing over and over again, some with no re-formatting at all. Maybe nonvolatile memory is more vulnerable than RAM to problems from doing this, but even if that were so, I don't see why reformatting after the images have been uploaded wouldn't take care of any problems, e.g., sector misallocations. Can anyone here clarify?



My two Lexar card readers avoid these problems. They hold the SD card in by friction, and the user pulls it out manually. At least, that's what I have been doing for years. I'm traveling, so I can't see whether they do in fact have a spring release that I haven't used.



I do the same, although I can't rationalize it. My 5DIII will write to both cards if I tell it to. This might slow the camera down in burst mode, but I rarely use burst mode, so it would make sense to set the camera to do this. The only cost would be reformatting two cards each session rather than one. However, in all of the years I have done digital photography, I have never had a card failure of any kind, so I play the odds.

I'm with Dan on this one. Have had 5-6 Canon bodies using CF cards, including 5d3 and now 5d4, and have never had a problem with either the in-camera card slots nor card readers for transferring images to my computers. Have a dozen CF cards, and have inserted and removed all dozens of times without problems. Perhaps because I treat them like what they are: sensitive electronic devices. Maybe I'm just lucky.

Zen

[apersson850]

My bodies have no spring for this button. I just rechecked this with my two current bodies, a 5D III and a 7D I. With both of them, when I eject the CF card from the body, the button stays depressed. An internal mechanism pushes the button back out only when I re-seat the card fully into the body.

I thought the same, and checked the 1DX Mark II I have within reach right now. It's the same there. The square button is pushed out when the card is inserted, but not before that.

[royent]

Just tried it on my Canon 50D. Button stays in when no card comes out again when card fully inserted, so I would presume that this is how Canons work
Roy

[ST1]

Just tried it on my Canon 50D. Button stays in when no card comes out again when card fully inserted, so I would presume that this is how Canons work
Roy

I agree with Roy and the other responders who has described how the CF card slot and the card ejection mechanism works


Sent from somewhere in Gods County using Tapatalk

[rpcrowe]

I certainly did not describe what is happening accurately. The CF card will not fully insert into the card slot on the camera. So obviously, the white eject button does not extend out. I have tried several different cards with no difference. I can't see any obvious bent pins but, I do suspect that a pin or pins in the card slot of the camera is bent or out of alignment. I have tried jiggling the card a bit with no solution to the problem.

I have to drive up to Anaheim in Los Angeles County on Thursday to pick up a rescue dog. My destination is quite close to the Canon Service Center in Costa Mesa, CA, so I will kill two birds with one stone; pick up the dog and drop off the camera.

My experience with Canon Service is that I will receive the repaired camera delivered to my home, just about one week after I drop it off..

[george013]

I certainly did not describe what is happening accurately. The CF card will not fully insert into the card slot on the camera. So obviously, the white eject button does not extend out. I have tried several different cards with no difference. I can't see any obvious bent pins but, I do suspect that a pin or pins in the card slot of the camera is bent or out of alignment. I have tried jiggling the card a bit with no solution to the problem.

I have to drive up to Anaheim in Los Angeles County on Thursday to pick up a rescue dog. My destination is quite close to the Canon Service Center in Costa Mesa, CA, so I will kill two birds with one stone; pick up the dog and drop off the camera.

My experience with Canon Service is that I will receive the repaired camera delivered to my home, just about one week after I drop it off..

If you've a bent pin then that's most likely due to a bad card. So if this is true, then the next step must be to find that card. Try to insert them in an external card reader, gently.
The service center will give you the right answer of what is going on.

George

[zen]

I'm wondering how this problem was resolved . . . Any report?

Zen