# Watch those CF pins on your 5D3



## drmikeinpdx (Sep 21, 2012)

http://www.lensrentals.com/blog/2012/09/lensrentals-repair-data-january-july-2012

Roger Cicala at LensRentals.com has another one of his great articles posted on his blog. This one talks about the repair history of the various cameras and lenses that his company stocks. LensRentals.com is in a great position to comment on the durability of lenses and cameras. 

Since a lot of us are starting to use the 5D3, I really appreciate his warning about seeing a lot of bent pins on/in the Compact Flash card socket. When I get mine, I'll be very careful.

He also has some comments on the service departments of the major manufacturers that you might find helpful.


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## preppyak (Sep 21, 2012)

Yeah, the difference between repairs for Nikon and Canon is pretty staggering; just crazy that they think they can get away with charging double


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## bvukich (Sep 21, 2012)

A little piece of me died seeing the picture of the 50/1.0, I sure hope they bought the insurance.


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## K-amps (Sep 21, 2012)

bvukich said:


> A little piece of me died seeing the picture of the 50/1.0, I sure hope they bought the insurance.



+100%


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## gilmorephoto (Sep 21, 2012)

K-amps said:


> bvukich said:
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> > A little piece of me died seeing the picture of the 50/1.0, I sure hope they bought the insurance.
> ...



The horror..... the horror....


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## BruinBear (Sep 21, 2012)

gilmorephoto said:


> K-amps said:
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> > bvukich said:
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Even if its insured, canon is no longer repairing them so its a complete loss...i feel like my hopes of owning one are getting lower and lower each day


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## dstppy (Sep 21, 2012)

See, the problem with even insurance, is, there's still not any more of them, and they're not repairing them. 

So what's the point, it's only money.

I call conspiracy as to why it was discontinued . . . on a 1Dx, you could actually get some usable shots of R'lyeh and the Old Ones just couldn't have that.


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## Mt Spokane Photography (Sep 21, 2012)

The pin / socket arrangement on CF cards violates rule 101 of connector design. 
Sockets go on the power side, pins on the non powered side. 
It was designed by a total klutz.


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## weekendshooter (Sep 21, 2012)

gilmorephoto said:


> K-amps said:
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> > bvukich said:
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They did not have insurance, but Roger was looking at the possibility of rebuilding it using the glass from another f/1 that had its electronics shot. He posted on FM about it, but I don't have the link now.


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## jthomson (Sep 21, 2012)

Mt Spokane Photography said:


> The pin / socket arrangement on CF cards violates rule 101 of connector design.
> Sockets go on the power side, pins on the non powered side.
> It was designed by a total klutz.



Given the evident problems, why do gearheads always want Dual CF slots in their cameras?

I know CF cards can have higher speed ratings, but does this actually show up in the use of the camera?

I've got a mix of CF and SD for various camera's and I don't really see an advantage to the CF cards.


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## AvTvM (Sep 21, 2012)

Mt Spokane Photography said:


> The pin / socket arrangement on CF cards violates rule 101 of connector design.
> Sockets go on the power side, pins on the non powered side.
> It was designed by a total klutz.



in this case ... not so! Can you imagine the amount of bent pins, if all those pins were sticking out from the CF cards???

It really beats me how one can bend the pins inside a CF card slot. The cards are mechanically coded with those grooves along the side ... without brute force one shoult not be able to insert them far enough to damage pins. And the right way in, they also should not damage the pins. I have never had a single problem with CF cards or CF slots all those years .. neither electrical nor mechanical. 

I do agree, that SD-connectors are better. But the cards are too small for me ... i drop them all the time. ANd I really like that CF cards have the data controller onboard whereas SD-cards are totally dumb.


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## Mt Spokane Photography (Sep 21, 2012)

AvTvM said:


> Mt Spokane Photography said:
> 
> 
> > The pin / socket arrangement on CF cards violates rule 101 of connector design.
> ...


Bent pins on a cheap CF card can likely be straightened, or it can be tossed. The cost to have Canon fix the camera is very high.
Actually, there is a design method where you shroud the pins that could be applied to the card. Its the normal low cost way to get around the bent pin where they are exposed. There are even better designs that resist bending but still use pins.
The CF Card is a very old design, and has lasted for far more years than would have been expected. That pin design is not going to be changed, but hopefully successor cards will not use it.
As far as bending pins in a camera, the alignment is pretty good, but like anything else, poor manufacturing can result in out of tolerance parts or sloppy build. If the 5D MK III is having more bent pins than normal, something is wrong somewhere along the line. Maybe a tooling issue for the camera, or a subcontractor issue.


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## pwp (Sep 22, 2012)

AvTvM said:


> Mt Spokane Photography said:
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> > The pin / socket arrangement on CF cards violates rule 101 of connector design.
> ...



The physical design of the "throat" where you slot the CF card into the camera or card reader is the critical element. A nice tight, deep throat will steer the pins into the sockets perfectly every time. 

The two factors that can bring this unstuck are too much movement in the throat, or in the case of my new white Sandisk USB3 CF card reader, the throat is very shallow making careful guidance and alignment of the CF card into the reader important. I bent the pins in the reader a number of times when I first got it but they can be easily straightened with a tiny jewellers screwdriver.

But yes, it's a pretty crazy design. The contacts on an SD card make for a more durable, robust scenario.

-PW


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## Drizzt321 (Sep 22, 2012)

jthomson said:


> Mt Spokane Photography said:
> 
> 
> > The pin / socket arrangement on CF cards violates rule 101 of connector design.
> ...



Yes, it can absolutely show up in the use of the camera. More generally if you use the burst mode, especially like sports and I think birders often will. According to Rob Galbraith's amazing table, with my 5d3 if I have the Lexar 1000x 32GB CF card in, I'll get around 73 shots in 30 seconds. With my Transcend 400x 32GB card (he only lists the 16GB card), I get around 36 shots in that same 30 seconds. HUGE difference. Especially if I shoot for 2-3 seconds, pause, shoot for 2-3 seconds more, pause. Using that method, I might get my high speed burst all the time, rather than hitting the part where it has to slow down significantly. 

Now, I don't particularly need it all that often, so I haven't spent the money to get the Lexar 1000x cards (*drool*). But for example, if you have dual CF slots, such as on the 1DX, you can have 2 separate CF cards with identical speed ratings and have it write to both cards. The odds of both cards failing are pretty darn low! Or, if you want super high speed, you can have it write the the cards for every other shot (I think the 1DX can do that). That'll let you go even longer in burst mode before it'd have to slow down. If ever.


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## gmrza (Sep 22, 2012)

Mt Spokane Photography said:


> The pin / socket arrangement on CF cards violates rule 101 of connector design.
> Sockets go on the power side, pins on the non powered side.
> It was designed by a total klutz.



I agree. I think CF was designed before anyone really know what it would be used for. The high insertion rates of cameras were probably not considered in the original CF design. - Given that Compact Flash was designed in 1994, I doubt that the usage in cameras was even considered at the time.


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## jthomson (Sep 22, 2012)

Drizzt321 said:


> Yes, it can absolutely show up in the use of the camera. More generally if you use the burst mode, especially like sports and I think birders often will. According to Rob Galbraith's amazing table, with my 5d3 if I have the Lexar 1000x 32GB CF card in, I'll get around 73 shots in 30 seconds. With my Transcend 400x 32GB card (he only lists the 16GB card), I get around 36 shots in that same 30 seconds. HUGE difference. Es


Thanks for that table. I guess none of my camera's has a high enough performance.


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## Philco (Sep 22, 2012)

I had the CF reader replaced in a 5DII early this year, and my bill came to $38.00, which also included a new door for the CF slot. The cost of replacing another one doesn't scare me, but it would be a hassle I wouldn't expect with the 5DIII.


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## JasonATL (Sep 22, 2012)

I've was bitten by this in the first month we had our 5D3. I put a CF card in and the camera wouldn't function. It would turn on, but then nothing could be set (e.g., ISO, aperature). Movie function wouldn't turn on. When I turned it off, it wouldn't come back on. Pulled battery and same thing. Called Canon. They were no help, but did issue an Repair ticket immediately. Just after hanging up with them, I pulled the CF card and battery. When I put only an SD card in, the camera operated fine (with battery, of course). When I looked into the CF slot, I could see the bent pin touching the side of the slot and, apparently causing a short.

Canon repaired it quickly under warranty. Total turn around, including shipping, was about a week.

Bottom line: I put CF cards in very gently now. 

It seems that if the problem is so pervasive that Canon might consider a recall.


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## Mt Spokane Photography (Sep 22, 2012)

dilbert said:


> Mt Spokane Photography said:
> 
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> > The pin / socket arrangement on CF cards violates rule 101 of connector design.
> ...


Having spent 30 plus years desiging pin and socket interfaces for electronic equipment, including being a member of International design standards orginations, I can say that the industry experts and manufacturers agree with me. Problem is thats its too late to do anything about it, so manufacturers do the best they can to design a camera so that the cards and pins can be aligned without scooping. Even so, I've had DSLR's with bent pins. Its not frequent, but very expensive to repair if you can't straighten it.


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