Comments on: Bent Pin in Compact Flash Card Socket on Canon 5Dmk2 Camera

By: Steve Harrison

Steve Harrison — Sun, 19 Dec 2010 13:30:40 +0000

Exactly the same problem for me in every respect – I took delivery of a brand new Canon 5D Mk II and took about 12 photos. Took the CF card out and transferred the photos to my computer via a card reader. Put the CF card back and got the dreaded “Err CF” message and I was unable to format the card. On close examination one pin had bent. So took it back to the dealer I bought it from – he took it apart and fixed the bent pin FOR FREE. He also told me to not remove the card and to attach the entire Camera to my computer via the USB cable in future.

By: Clay Clay

Clay Clay — Sat, 18 Dec 2010 17:00:25 +0000

Correction to my last. The xfr rate of the Sandisk Extreme IV is 45MB/s, not 300MB/s as stated earlier.

By: Clay

Clay — Sat, 18 Dec 2010 16:53:12 +0000

Thank you for a very helpful report!! My 5D/2 (>10000 shots to date)encountered this problem when I inserted a CF-to-SDHC adapter in an effort to maximize use of my card library for an upcoming shoot. Normally I use 2 Sandisk Extreme IV 300MB/s 16g cards backed up by two 8g CF cards of same type for sports shoots of >1600 shots/session. When inserting the adapter, I “felt” an unusual transition (’bump’ I’ll call it) in the typical insertion resistance and knew immediately something was wrong. A visual inspection showed that Pin 50 was bent over. Being an instrument technhician, I attempted and was able to straighten it, but then it dropped below its mount hole & couldn’t make contact with whatever was inserted. Thanks to I’ve learned that pin 50 is a redundant GND, so I’ve inserted the card for tonight’s (Saturday nite) ~1600 shot sports shoot (fingers crossed that the unmounted GND pin won’t short circuit any functions) and plan to send the body out to Canon Monday AM.

By: John

John — Sun, 05 Dec 2010 07:00:56 +0000

I believe the new canon SLR’s use a SD card which will avoid the pin problem. If you shop around for a reburbed or used one you could save a few hundred.

By: Christine

Christine — Sat, 27 Nov 2010 20:03:37 +0000

I am looking to finally upgrade to a DSLR camera. I was told to get a Nikon or Canon but after hearing about all the problems with the bents pins, I am not sure I want either one of those cameras. Is there a comparable camera I can buy that doesn’t have this issue? My Sony (non-dslr) camera has been wonderful with no issues until now, but it is 6 years old and has taken 10k plus photos… I just plain wore it out. Any advice or links to good reviews would be grateful accepted. Also, I cannot spend a lot of money on a new camera. Thanks, from a “starving artist”

By: Alex

Alex — Sun, 14 Nov 2010 05:29:33 +0000

not just canon specific! happened with the same kingston card on my nikon d300, except it bent the middle pin and SNAPPED the bottom left pin, i have no power and cannot turn on the camera at all! this happened just 3 days into my 6 week trek across asia, will hopefully be getting it repaired in shanghai this tuesday!

By: Terry

Terry — Thu, 11 Nov 2010 23:20:53 +0000

Thank you for all the posts, I had a middle pin bend and was touching another pin. I was able to take my fillet knife and bend it back. I then took another CF card and put it in very carefully. I’m letting it set in there and will be very careful when replacing. I also need to go through all my cf cards to check for damaged holes. The damaged holes I believe came from my card readers as you can see the plastic damaged on one of my cards. Again, thanks for the posts and pictures.

By: Linda

Linda — Wed, 10 Nov 2010 01:47:24 +0000

Well, I’m glad to hear all these problems..mine is worse however. Have had my 30D for 4 years…never a problem anywhere and then this summer I got the dreaded error CF. To make a long story short, I’ve had it to Canon 3 times and every time I get it back it works for about 3 weeks and then goes out again. I’m at my wits end…not ssure what to do from here. Canon says I’m doing something wrong…I disagree…they told me to make sure i was using good cards…duh!! new cards – old cards – when it goes out, nothing works. Any idea what to do now? I have no problems with these same cards in another Canon that uses them.

By: Suzi Ellington

Suzi Ellington — Tue, 05 Oct 2010 19:43:09 +0000

Hi. Thank you so much for posting this! I had the same problem… same cf card manufacturer too. I have had my camera for just over a year through Adorama. I will go through them to see if they can fix it.

Suzi

By: Burke

Burke — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 16:07:55 +0000

Same problem here, on a 4 month old Canon EOS 7D.
It’s also the middle pin (#13)! According to pinouts.ru this a Vcc pin (supplies power to the card). There happens to be another Vcc pin (#38) on the CF card interface, which explains why the camera may still work with the pin snapped clean off. But we will probably try a warranty repair first.