CF card reliability vs camera damage

[markkubis]

People say that you should use multiple smaller capacity cards rather than a single huge capacity card in case you have a card failure. However, I cannot remember reading any posts reporting card failure but have read many posts of people damaging (bending) the contact pins on their cameras during the insertion of a card. This usually results in immediate camera failure and expensive repairs if repairs are even possible on discontinued models. People who have tried to straighten a bent pin say it causes it to snap.

I always connect my A1 (512 MB card) and 7D (2GB card) to my PC to download pictures rather than taking the risky option of removing the card from the camera to put into a card reader. Am I being paranoid?

Mark

[harveyzone]

People say that you should use multiple smaller capacity cards rather than a single huge capacity card in case you have a card failure. However, I cannot remember reading any posts reporting card failure but have read many posts of people damaging (bending) the contact pins on their cameras during the insertion of a card. This usually results in immediate camera failure and expensive repairs if repairs are even possible on discontinued models. People who have tried to straighten a bent pin say it causes it to snap.

I always connect my A1 (512 MB card) and 7D (2MB card) to my PC to download pictures rather than taking the risky option of removing the card from the camera to put into a card reader. Am I being paranoid?

I too do what you do. I have a 4Gb Microdive which, for about 4 years, was my main card, and now also a cheap 4Gb CF card (slow, but I do not need speed) which is now my main card with the microdrive as backup, (and also a couple of 512s, just in case). It is very rare to hear of a solid state card failing (although microdrives with their moving parts do do more often), although they do occasionally.

I rarely fill my card before having an oportunity to empty it, so rarely change my card. I too always use the camera USB connector to download, unless I am away from home. I think that the USB connector is more robust than the pins are.

In contrast to your experiences, however, I have heard of many people who have straightened bent pins succesfully without them breaking. Using a clutch pencil is the best method I believe.

So yes, you are probably being over paranoid, but there's nothing wrong with that

--
Tom

[David Kilpatrick]

I think the USB connector is also fairly fragile. I trust the A100 insertion slot for CF more than the 7D/5D. The most reliable connector alignment is the Sony AD-MSCF1 Memory Stick Duo adaptor to CF slot, because it's as fat as a Microdrive, and can not be inserted the wrong way or jammed in as a result.
Our daughter sold here Canon 300D to her employers, and within a day one of the staff had bent a CF pin in the camera - £126 to repair. Card inserted wrong way round.

Here's an A100 close-up (VERY close-up) of what a nice clean CF card interface looks like -



The full size original is even more scary

http://www.pbase.com/davidkilpatrick/image/65413637

David

[harveyzone]

I think the USB connector is also fairly fragile.

Do you think so? It seems tougher to me, but this is completley unsubstantiated - just a gut feeling on it.

My other reasoning (which has somewhat more logical grounding) is that a damaged USB port would generally not make the camera unusable. I could carry on using it by reverting to a card reader to download files. A damaged pin would potentially kill the camera, and I couldn't use it until fixed.

Here's an A100 close-up (VERY close-up) of what a nice clean CF card interface looks like -

(SNIP Image)

Well I'm sure mine is not as messy as that one

[01af]

The most reliable connector alignment is the Sony AD-MSCF1 Memory Stick Duo adaptor to CF slot, because it's as fat as a Microdrive, and can not be inserted the wrong way or jammed in as a result. [...] and within a day one of the staff had bent a CF pin in the camera - £126 to repair. Card inserted wrong way round.

Unless dumb or maladroit, you can't insert a CF card the wrong way, not even the slimmer CF-I type. The grooves at the edges prevent misalignment because one is wider than the other. You can push a misaligned CF card down a slot until it touches the pins at the slot's bottom only by brute force ... and those who do that to a delicate device don't deserve any better.

By the way, I am constantly surprised how much of a difference the material of a CF card's housing makes. I have four Pretec 'Cheetah' 80× CF cards (two 2 GB and two 4 GB) which have metal housings rather than the usual plastic. Inserting them into a CF card slot---be it the camera's or a card reader's---gives a much better and more precise feeling of perfect alignment so the card's holes will hit the device's pins more accurately which reduces the danger of bent pins. I keep wondering why so many premium cards, like e. g. SanDisk Extreme III or Lexar Wa Professional, always have those cheap plastic housings ...

Here's an A100 close-up (VERY close-up) of what a nice clean CF card interface looks like ...

Strange! The funnels, or craters, surrounding each hole look like rising cones due to the lighting ... similar to craters on the moon's surface which often look like hills.

-- Olaf

[markkubis]

Of course the USB pin connector on the camera is fragile too. I'm very careful when connecting the lead to the camera making sure the connector is the right way round and that it goes in squarely rather than at an angle. But I have never read of anybody having damaged the camera USB port.