I just bought a new to me D700; bought off one of the several camera forums. It has less than 1500 shutter actuations. I can take photos. However, the camera does not save the image data and will only (sometimes) show the last photo taken. Message says "this folder does not contain data" or it will tell me my CF card may be bad. After about 20-30 shots I get the dreaded CHA error on the upper screen.
I've tried an older 1 gig Scandisk Utra II, and brand new 4 gig Scandisk Utra II, and a brand new 8 gig Scandisk Extreme IV. These cards are not fakes. I've fully formatted multiple times in the computer and on the camera (via menu).
I've taken the lens off multiple times and have tried a Nikon 80-200mm F/2,8, Sigma 120-300 F/2.8, and a Sigma 17-55mm F/2.8. Tommorrow, I should receive my, new to me, Nikon 28-70mm so I will try that as well.
Any suggestions on what else could be wrong. Is there a switch or setting that could be causing this? I am hoping so---I was bought all my new gear so I could shoot Lunar New Year ceremonies at my in laws on Saturday (I live in S. Korea).
Hang on, you bought a 'new' camera off a forum, with 1500 actuations? That's not new. That's someone else's camera which might have a problem. How good was the sellers rating? How do you know you haven't got a lemon with a card error issue? Just stating the obvious. And yes, I know that's not being helpful. But seriously, if you've tried more than one CF card what else could it be? I suppose you could always try a full reset just for the hell of it.
The Sellers feedback was good--both on the Forum and ebay. I haven't yet tried a "full reset"-- I actually didn't know that was an option. I've haven't got far into the manual. Spent most of my time (between work--16 hour work days yesterday and today) googling the issue. Thinking it was a CF card issue, I did manage to break off during lunch and find a LG authorized vendor (LG is the distributer for Scandisk in Korea) and bought the Extreme IV card (anyone that has ever lived in Seoul knows this can be an adventure in of itself).
I forgot to add in the orginal post that the Pins in the slot appear to be intact.
I will attempt the "full reset" Hopefully google is my friend and I can find this quickly.
Edited to add: Full reset=reset of the shooting menu. I knew (and forgot) about this on my D80. I thought you ment "hard" reset. I.E. a reboot.
Hmm.. Although memory cards incompatible can give CHA error, I've never heard people having trouble with Sandisk cards. Plus, you've tried more than 1 so even less chance of it being a memory card problem. Try taking pictures without the memory cards and see if you get CHA error. There's a setting that allows you to take pic without memory card, it stores the pic temporary on the camera.
I popped the card out and it went automatically to demo mode where it works like a charm. Fired off 20 or so shots and was able to view them all, zoom in, etc. Popped the new card back in and back to CHA land. I think that means it is either the cards or the card to pin connection.
Make sure you format the memory card in-camera before you use it. The D700 can be picky about certain brands of cards. I've never had a problem with a genuine sandisk, but some generic 16gb ones act in the way you describe. If you format the card before you use it, you should be alright.
Take a careful look at the pins in the camera - are any of them missing or bent, or loose? (be gentle).
After a closer inspection (camera and cards), it looks like two of the pins at the end are going into the same hole. Do you think a decent camera shop could bend this back? I've got plenty of shops to choose from--probably 30 to 40 in the Ipark Mall and electronics district, 20 in Namdaemun Market, and 15-20 in Myeongdong camera/printing district (my preference). I should have bought this local but don't like to pay VAT and import tax.
The pin might - should even, be able to be bent back into place, but a bent pin will eventually fail. You can prolong the time to failure by minimizing the number of times you swap cards. Sooner or later, it will have to go back to Nikon for repair. In the grand scheme of things, fixing a bent pin isn't among the more expensive things that can go wrong.
I got brave and tweaked it back myself with small screwdriver--usually I'm not squeamish about fixing stuff myself but didn't want to risk my new $$$ pride and joy from lack of knowledge. It was quite easy and bent right back into place. It was just slightly bent, so hopefully metal fatigue doesn't set in too fast.
Other than soft pins, I'm highly impressed by this camera and can see what the fuss has been about!!! No more grainy ISO 400 images (like in my D80)!!!
Hopefully this post can/will help others in future if they have the same issue (and use the search button).
Good for you! But kinda sly for the seller not to mention about it. It's impossible to get those pins bent during transportation, so he must have them bent before shipping. I would leave a bad feedback for him. Which forum or internet listing did you find this camera? I hope its not FM.
screwdriver wrote:
does taking the card o and off a lot make it more prone to bent pins?
It's possible but since we hardly hear anyone mention any bent pins from pulling out the card my guess is that its very minimal. Plus, the metal slot holding the memory card extends all the way to the door, so its very hard for anyone to wiggle the card side to side or up and down. I seriously don't know how the seller managed to bent those pins.
