350d + faulty compactFlash

Has anyone any experience of the new EOS 350d 'breaking' compactFlash
devices? The reason I ask this question is that since my new camera
arrived, I have experienced 2 failed compactFlash devices and want to
know if anyone else has had a similar problem?

I have had a NEW 256MB compactFlash card slowly fail over a week -
corrupted data, loosing the occasion photo until eventually I can't
access the card at all using the camera or my PC reader.

Also I have had a NEW 5GB Seagate microdrive appear to be dead on
arrival, but perhaps the camera damaged it??

I hope I have been unlucky and got a 'bad' compactFlash card and
perhaps the microdrive was damaged in the post - it arrived in only a
jiffy bag and the following review states that one broke after a 2 inch
fall - http://www.robgalbraith.com/bins/mul...?cid=6007-7699

So maybe I have been unlucky, but what do you all think?

I have had a NEW 256MB compactFlash card slowly fail over a week -
corrupted data, loosing the occasion photo until eventually I can't
access the card at all using the camera or my PC reader.

Did you try formatting it in the camera? I'd be surprised if a card would
format but couldn't be read.

--Mike-- Chain Reaction Bicycles
www.ChainReactionBicycles.com


"GT" wrote in message
oups.com...
Has anyone any experience of the new EOS 350d 'breaking' compactFlash
devices? The reason I ask this question is that since my new camera
arrived, I have experienced 2 failed compactFlash devices and want to
know if anyone else has had a similar problem?

I have had a NEW 256MB compactFlash card slowly fail over a week -
corrupted data, loosing the occasion photo until eventually I can't
access the card at all using the camera or my PC reader.

Also I have had a NEW 5GB Seagate microdrive appear to be dead on
arrival, but perhaps the camera damaged it??

I hope I have been unlucky and got a 'bad' compactFlash card and
perhaps the microdrive was damaged in the post - it arrived in only a
jiffy bag and the following review states that one broke after a 2 inch
fall - http://www.robgalbraith.com/bins/mul...?cid=6007-7699

So maybe I have been unlucky, but what do you all think?

Yes - card won't format or do anything in my PC reader or in the
camera. PC reports it as 'Unreadable'. Camera just says "Err CF" and
won't do anything. I know the camera was working because I have a few
hundred photos from the first 7 days of the CF card's life, but now
nothing. The microdrive arrived in this state, but I think it might
have been dead on arrival.

Has anyone even had a CF card fail in any camera. I know they have no
moving parts, so should only really be damaged by heat or impact, which
this card has not experienced.

A little more info, not previously mentioned - I noticed the problems
start to develop with this card only when I switched the 350d to RAW
images and tried to shoot a few frames in continuous mode. Anyone
experienced problems with lost data on an EOS digital in RAW mode?

I think it is my luck as I just bought a "second user, but in full
working order" CF card reader and it has arrived with 4 pins pushed
through to the back of the housing and 1 bent pin! (I can't even insert
a card, never mind read one!).

"GT" wrote in message
oups.com...

A little more info, not previously mentioned - I noticed the problems
start to develop with this card only when I switched the 350d to RAW
images and tried to shoot a few frames in continuous mode. Anyone
experienced problems with lost data on an EOS digital in RAW mode?

I've had problems with an EOS 300D in that mode, but with a few
complications: I had just bought a new 1GB card for RAW shooting - so I
simultaneously did 3 things: 1) started shooting RAW; started using a brand
new card, and set the camera to continuous shooting mode. The problem I
experienced was also complex. If a sequence of photos was taken, everything
would be fine. All photos OK. They could be viewed, downloaded - no problem.
However, if the camera was then switched off, the next session would
*sometimes* corrupt the last file written in the previous session. The file
could be downloaded OK, but the Canon RAW format was corrupted. It is as
though the first photo of the next session had ovewritten the end of the
previous one.

Since I had changed 3 separate variables, I cannot be certain which (if any)
has caused the problem. So far, I have had no problems shooting RAW with my
256K cards. The supplier agreed that the card was most likely at fault and
agreed to replace it. I have now replaced the 1GB card with 2 512K cards
(which is probably wiser all round) - haven't tried them yet though.

--
John
Replace 'nospam' with 'todnet' when replying.