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Bent Pin in Compact Flash Card Socket on Canon 5Dmk2 CameraI hope this web page helps people. I really do. I hate not knowing stuff, and because of this lack of knowledge something valuable to me may end up damaged, suck money out of my wallet or waste my time. I hope this article saves someone out there some grief! I have used my Canon 5Dmk2 twice. Once to shoot a movie called “Burial Site” and the second time to snap off a few RAW stills while hiking in the White Mountains of New Hampshire. Things went well, I got the camera a little wet while hiking, but everything checked out fine. I tried to use it for the third time and now the camera is a paperweight. NICE! This has nothing to do with the light rain that I was shooting in while hiking in the mountains. It was something else all together. I slid the Kingston Compact Flash memory card into the socket on the Canon 5Dmk2 and found the camera to be malfunctioning. Nothing out of the ordinary, the card went in fine. The camera took about ten seconds to fully power up and it displayed the words, “Card Must Be Formatted” on the LCD. I was surprised at this, so I went into the menu and selected “FORMAT”. Instantly, the camera stated on the viewfinder, “CARD CANNOT BE FORMATTED”.
I removed the card and looked at it. I noticed a slight indentation between two of the holes in the interface. I immediately thought that one of the pins in the camera must have bent and that was the cause of the mark. I did not force the card into the camera, I just pushed it in like I had done in the past.
Next, I grabbed a flashlight and a magnifying glass and looked into the CF interface cavity of the 5dmk2. I saw that one of the center pins was pushed down into the socket. I swore.
That is pretty much it. If you own this camera, be careful! I did nothing wrong. I did not insert the card incorrectly. I simply ejected it, used it in a external memory card reader and then reinserted it into the Canon camera. The CF card was carried inside the little plastic case so that it would stay clean. I tested the suspect CF card in my external reader and it works fine. I cannot explain why this happened, but I will be contacting Canon tomorrow and I plan to add updates to this page as I go through the repair process. REPAIR UPDATES: July 6, 2009 @11:15am – I have submitted a new repair request through the Canon website. I filled out all the info and this is what I posted when asked to explain the problem. July 6, 2009 @2pm – I have packed up the camera and placed it in a small pelican case. I placed the peli-case inside a slightly larger box and sent if to the Canon Service Center in Jamesburg, New Jersey. It is due to arrive tomorrow.
July 8 2009 @2pm – The camera arrived in New Jersey and I immediately received this email:
Great customer service thus far. Thank you Canon. July 14 2009 @9am – Received this email:
July 15 2009 @1pm – Fed EX arrived at my home with Canon Package The paper included with my repaired 5dmk2 stated:
Canon also added:
I hope this helps you if you are going through the same inconvenience. I have replaced my Kingston Compact Flash cards with Sandisk Extreme III cards. I am not sure if the camera had a bad pin from the factory or if my Kingston cards were to blame. Based on what I have gotten back in writing from Canon, it appears that you get a one time “courtesy repair” on the PCB assembly. Not sure how much it will cost me if this happens again. 52 comments to Bent Pin in Compact Flash Card Socket on Canon 5Dmk2 Camera |
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Copyright © 2010 Tom Guilmette - All Rights Reserved |
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you couldn’t have inserted the memory card incorrectly, there’s no way that only ONE pin would have been out of place in that scenario (and even if only one pin was affected, it would have been on one end or the other, not in the middle).
Not a good thing though. Hopefully the turnaround is real quick
i agree craig. a few guys on twitter, matt and scott think that the pin in the socket may have been flawed from the start. it just took the third card insert (in the life of this new camera) for that rouge pin to catch and bend inwards.
i need this camera for a paid music video shoot on july 31st! i just want it back by then!!!
Now I am paranoid. That’s the exact same card I am using in my camera.
sorry! just make sure the card is lined up perfectly! i guess…
Sorry to hear about the bent pin. I’m sure this was just a fluke, maybe there was a bit of debris in the slot when you put the card in. I have a 5D2 since it came out, and it’s been my primary camera since last year and have not had any issues like this. With thousands of frames and almost 100 hours of video, I have done quite a few card insertions, and so far (knock on wood) no issues whatsoever.
I would contact Canon and send it to the NJ repair center explaining what happened. I am sure they will repair it for free.
Best of luck!
-J
I would not attribute this to the camera. These things happen unfortunately, I’ve seen it happen on various models and makes and somehow it’s always just one pin that gets bent.
If you have to pay you’re looking at a few hundred bucks out of pocket.
Do you have any pro account with Canon? If you do, use it. If not well …
Repair times tend to be pretty lenghty regardless of manufacturer especially if you don’t have anything (pro account) that puts you in the fast lane.
Hope this will get sorted out quickly for you.
i do not have a pro account with canon. i am surprised that this occurred with such a new camera. this was just the third insert of the card. the package is in the mail and canon will have it at their new jersey repair center tomorrow.
Is the card your using keyed, so it can only go in one way? If so it cannot reach the pins even if you do insert it wrong. Only explanation is something got in there upon reinsertion of a fresh card and it bent over a pin.
yes the card is keyed. it can only go into the camera one way. the channel on the side of the cf card down not allow the card to go all the way in and stops it from hitting the pins if inserted backwards.
It would be a good idea to have a card storage device that would always store the card with pins inserted to keep the cards from getting dirt into the pin holes.
i agree. but again, this stuff is brand new and i have always kept the card in the plastic case.
Ugggghhhh. Looking at that bent pin gives me a sick feeling in the stomach. I put some big stickers on my cards so I can identify the right way to place them everytime, and I’ll now be extra careful. It is surprising this doesn’t come up more often – those pins are skinny!
i am going to be EXTRA careful in the future and always look at the card closely. my biggest problem with this situation is that i cannot confirm exactly what went wrong. so since i can’t, i cannot avoid doing that certain something!
I’ve been through this before but with the pins on a computer processor! Not a great feeling when you’re looking at the heart of your computer with a bent pin. But I was actually able to fix this myself with a retractable pen. The opening on the end of the pen is a near perfect fit for the pins on the processor. But you have to be very very careful not to bend it so fast it snaps the pin off. I don’t know if it would work for you, you would probably have to disassemble the entire body just to get to the pins.
I’ve done the same thing with a pin on a computer. Problem with fixing the pin yourself in a camera is that you will be pulling the CF card in and out which would not be good on a fatigued pin. In a computer you can get by with it because you don’t remove the processor very often. This issue that Tom is having right now is exactly why I prefer SD cards over CF cards.
yea. i agree with you aaron. steve cahill also reminded me that if i open up the camera and try to fix this myself, my warranty would fly out the window!
keep an eye on the update section of this page as i work with canon to get this camera fixed. the package just arrived in new jersey, so i expect 7 days before it is fixed.
When I seen the first picture I was thinking maybe you just had a cheap card. Then I scrolled down and noticed I had the same card.
I just plug the camera through usb to get the data off. I have a CF card reader, but it’s very slow for some reason. Horribly slow actually. I was thinking about buying a new fast one, but now I think I’ll just stick to connecting it through usb to avoid wear and tear on the pins.
i own the Lexar firewire 800 CF external drive and it is VERY fast. just be careful when inserting the CF card into your camera! that is all i can say!
Scary. I use SanDisk, Transcend, and Kingston cards in my 5Dmk2.
Kingston’s are the cheapest of the 3… They are slow but so far no bent pins. Hopefully this is just a fluke! (crosses fingers)
i hope it was just a fluke as well. but now i will be only using sandisk extreme III cards. you can find them for $185 each at bhvideo.com with a $40 instant rebate and free shipping. link to cards: http://bit.ly/4rnJDx
Tom,
Glad to hear about the repair. I have had nothing but good experiences with the Jamesburg repair center.
Take care,
-J
Great news, Thomas
now we gotta get out and shoot “boston canon” short video! (sequel to “ultimate boston”)
Similar thing happened to me with my Sony A 900.
I have to yet investigate whether the card was dameged in an external reader or in camera.
Thanks for posting this information. I just had the same thing happen to my Canon, and the Factory Service Center was less than helpful over the phone. Your story helped me diagnose what is going on with my camera. Cheers!
no problem megan! glad this website is good for something!
My son also uses a Canon and shoots professionally (one of the published articles – http://nymag.com/news/intelligencer/23799/
He also was shooting with the Extreme III– hate to instill the fear, but the card failed after only a couple of outings– lost half his shoot!— after some investigating, this is not highly unusual for the Extreme III– needless to say, it was discarded — hope this helps!– BTW– great “Buried” video
so far so good with the extreme III cards. what cards does your son use? i would love to know what is the best and most reliable.
Thank you so much. You saved me time and money. I was desperate to find some answers when my computer and camera stopped reading my card. I had the same exact problem as you and didn’t even know it. Thanks for the help, everythings fine now. I’m SO relieved and grateful.
great. happy i could help.
SanDisk- just the garden variety– so far, no issues- I guess sometimes trying to get on the cutting edge we get hurt – hence, the bleading edge.
I read where a wedding photographer thought he was safe downloading to his laptop during the day of the wedding, wiping his cards, and continuing the rest of the day until one wedding his harddrive died–
That’s why now my son uses several small capacity cards, changing frequently during a shoot- if a card fails, he doesn’t lose the day.
Just a quick note– I have been able to recover images from a bad card as long as the files are not re-written– I use the softwar NT Recovery– works well (a bit pricy)—-Ed
great info. thanks ed. i am lucky so far to have great luck with hard drives (knock on wood) in the field. i just travel them in padded pelican cases and treat them with lots of respect!
Thanks so much for the great info. I am having the same problem with a bent pin. It is very frustrating. But I am glad I can follow the steps you outlined above! Thanks so very much.
Hi,
Saturday just 30 minutes before leaving for a wedding I broke *2* Canon 5D in this manner: I inserted the Kingston 16gb into the first camera and when I see the message CARD CANNOT BE FORMATTED, I stupidly insert the same card into the other camera: bam – 2 broken cameras.
Good that I had another camera as backup but it still hurts.
Bought my Kingston off ebay – might not be genuine.
I’m based in FRance so the process is likely to be different.
Blaise
yea, i highly recommend sandisk extreme III cards. just be sure to always move them around in the plastic cases they came with. just one little speck of sand can get into the small CF holes and bust a pin.
Great info! My friend do encounter this issue in Taiwan, with his 5DMK2, which is bought on June 09. He had a Trendcend 8G & Two Sandisk ExtremeIII 16G and both happened Err80 error. According to Taiwan Canon engineer, he also claimed that Trendcend card is the culprit of the whole incident. Told us it is caused by human error, therefore charge him for about NT2000 (about 70USD.
After reading this article, he has no confident and no idea of which CF card is best for his 5DMK2. It seems all major vendor’s card would likely make it happend!
again, i recommend the sandisk extreme III cards. the pros who shoot stills for sports swear by them. i have had great luck with them, just keep them protected! you do not want dirt or debris to get into the CF holes!