# 5D mark III problem - 32gb sandisk extreme pro destroyed



## marooni (Apr 13, 2013)

I encounter a problem with my 5D mark III that destroyed one of my cards.

The problem appeared when I locked two pictures on the card and after that I erased all pictures fron the card except the locked ones. The erasing proces started and after few seconds (10-15 sec) appeared the message "the card is not recognisable". Tried different approaches: close and open camera, remove and put back the card, try to format the card on 5D mk II, try to format on MAC, PC, tray to accese it with IPAd, but the card remained not recognisable by any of the cameras, pc`s, mac`s or Ipad.

Is just broke.

Does anyone knew something about this issue?

Thanks,

Robert


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## Jay H (Apr 13, 2013)

Try Sandisk's RescuePRO first. A 1 yr license comes with each card, if you do not have a copy PM me + I will give you one of mine.


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## Canon-F1 (Apr 13, 2013)

what makes you think the canon broke the card?

counterfeit sandisk cards (approximately one third are fake says sandisk) show this behavior quite often.


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## Canon-F1 (Apr 13, 2013)

Jay H said:


> Try Sandisk's RescuePRO first. A 1 yr license comes with each card, if you do not have a copy PM me + I will give you one of mine.



that app is for rescuing deleted files. he can´t even access his card.


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## Mt Spokane Photography (Apr 13, 2013)

Canon-F1 said:


> Jay H said:
> 
> 
> > Try Sandisk's RescuePRO first. A 1 yr license comes with each card, if you do not have a copy PM me + I will give you one of mine.
> ...


 
Have you used it?
It will erase on a card and set all the memory cells to zeros. and will then reformat it. It might not fix his card, but its worth trying.


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## Jay H (Apr 13, 2013)

If the above doesn't work, open up windows/system32/diskmgmt.msc. That should recognise drives/cards not otherwise recognized by the computer.


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## TrumpetPower! (Apr 13, 2013)

A few thoughts.

First, "destruction" implies severe physical damage. From the subject, I was expecting to read about the magic smoke being released from the card, or something along those lines. Nothing of the sort happened.

Next, as others have noted, the chances that this is the camera's fault are basically nonexistent. Zero? No, of course not. But the odds that even something like a cosmic ray caused the problem are far higher than the camera being to blame.

And, last, once a card has gone tits-up like this, I'd never trust it again. If I could get a refund or replacement, fantastic. If not, I'd just toss it, write it off, and move on. Part of the cost of the business.

Cheers,

b&


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## Canon-F1 (Apr 13, 2013)

Mt Spokane Photography said:


> Have you used it?.



yes... and if the OS did not see the card it will do nothing.



> And, last, once a card has gone tits-up like this, I'd never trust it again. If I could get a refund or replacement, fantastic. If not, I'd just toss it, write it off, and move on. Part of the cost of the business.



+1000


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## marooni (Apr 13, 2013)

I did the best next thing: I tried the same thing with another card, an old 2GB Sandisk Extreme III: took some pics, locked some of them and erased the card. 
Same thing happened: the card is not useable anymore. 

This is telling me that my 5D mk III have a problem with locked pics. I do not know if this is a general problem, with all 5D mk III`s, but with mine is. I will buy tomorrow some cheap cards and try again the same thing.


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## marooni (Apr 13, 2013)

TrumpetPower! said:


> A few thoughts.
> 
> "First, "destruction" implies severe physical damage. From the subject, I was expecting to read about the magic smoke being released from the card, or something along those lines. Nothing of the sort happened.



True, Jesus did not appeared on the screen. I am still waiting! :-[



TrumpetPower! said:


> Next, as others have noted, the chances that this is the camera's fault are basically nonexistent. Zero? No, of course not. But the odds that even something like a cosmic ray caused the problem are far higher than the camera being to blame.



 I tried the same thing with another card, an old 2GB Sandisk Extreme III: took some pics, locked some of them and erased the card. 
Same thing happened: the card is not useable anymore.  
Looks like the cosmic ray caused the problem!!! 8) 



TrumpetPower! said:


> And, last, once a card has gone tits-up like this, I'd never trust it again. If I could get a refund or replacement, fantastic. If not, I'd just toss it, write it off, and move on. Part of the cost of the business.



Maybe you did not understood that this card is not useable anymore. How can I trust the card again if is not working?
I do not care about refund and I know well the cost of the business. I just posted a problem for a discussion hoping that someone else have the same problem or have a solution. 

Don`t let negative thinking clouded your mind. Let the Force be with you! ;D!


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## marooni (Apr 13, 2013)

Canon-F1 said:


> what makes you think the canon broke the card?
> 
> counterfeit sandisk cards (approximately one third are fake says sandisk) show this behavior quite often.



The card was bought from an "authorised store" and was pretty fast. I do not think it was a counterfeit one. 

And I think that camera broke the card because did the same think when tried with another card.


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## Drizzt321 (Apr 13, 2013)

marooni said:


> Canon-F1 said:
> 
> 
> > what makes you think the canon broke the card?
> ...



Perhaps time to contact Canon Support? If you have another camera you can take a video with, maybe take a video and show exactly what you are doing and the way in which are doing it.


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## jdramirez (Apr 13, 2013)

marooni said:


> Canon-F1 said:
> 
> 
> > what makes you think the canon broke the card?
> ...



It's screwy, but authorized retailers were also selling knockoffs a while back. It was a big problem a few years back, so I'm not sure if the issue was ever fixed.


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## alexanderferdinand (Apr 13, 2013)

Never tried to lock pictures, and thank you for the warning.
If this happened to two different cards, Canon needs to explain this.
The first one is/was ~ $ 300? 
Painful.
If you get an answer, please post it.
Good luck!


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## jabbott (Apr 13, 2013)

Jay H said:


> If the above doesn't work, open up windows/system32/diskmgmt.msc. That should recognise drives/cards not otherwise recognized by the computer.


Similarly on OS X, if you open up Disk Utility (under Applications/Utilities), it will sometimes show media that isn't properly formatted or that has corrupt partition settings. If it does show up there (note that it may be greyed out), you can click on it and erase it. Be sure to use MS-DOS format and MBR as the partition type as the camera won't work with a Mac-formatted card. If the card doesn't show up in the list, there are bigger problems afoot. I also recommend contacting Canon EOS Support as they might have additional suggestions. Last but not least, you should be able to contact Sandisk for a free replacement.


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## Mt Spokane Photography (Apr 14, 2013)

I took a few photos using a old cf card, protected two of them and erased the others. There was no problem, I tried this several times and everything worked.

Since it happened twice, I'd suspect the camera has either a hardware or firmware issue. It might even be a bent pin in the camera that causes the issue.


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## tron (Apr 14, 2013)

Mt Spokane Photography said:


> I took a few photos using a old cf card, protected two of them and erased the others. There was no problem, I tried this several times and everything worked.
> 
> Since it happened twice, I'd suspect the camera has either a hardware or firmware issue. It might even be a bent pin in the camera that causes the issue.


I had a similar thought but I had found it scary and disappointing (for the 5DMkIII) at the same time! This is not the first time I read 5DMkIII involved in bent pins  
My 5DMkIII is fine but I am very careful when I have to insert a CF. I didn't use to be afraid and pay extra attention with my 40D and 5DMkII (and I removed CF cards a lot).


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## jdramirez (Apr 14, 2013)

I want a 5dmkiii and this wont' stop me, but i'm pretty sure what I'm going to do is just transfer my photos via usb cable. First of all, I don't have a CF card slot in my computer, 2nd, bent pins have scared me since I heard it ruined a canon xti or something old school like that.


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## Mt Spokane Photography (Apr 14, 2013)

tron said:


> Mt Spokane Photography said:
> 
> 
> > I took a few photos using a old cf card, protected two of them and erased the others. There was no problem, I tried this several times and everything worked.
> ...


 
It hasn't been determined that a bent pin is involved, its just one of the things to check. Actually, its very unlikely.


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## Hugo Fisher (Apr 14, 2013)

I am using 5D3 every day with 32gb Sandisk Extreme - via card reader. I have my 5D3 for one year just now. I had never have a problem with putting a card in and out. It is just about to do it carefully. It seems like "hoax" for me to read about some bent pins.


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## synthetiq (Apr 14, 2013)

Discussion getting off topic.

The fact that you are able to repeat the error and someone else is not points to a problem with your setup (camera, firmware, ?). 

Suggest calling Canon support and at the same time RMA to Sandisk.

And apparently wrapping your camera in a tin-foil hat to protect from cosmic rays.


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## Zv (Apr 19, 2013)

I noticed one of my Sandisk CF cards was acting funny. Then I looked at it closely today and realized it looked a bit different to my other three. I am convinced it is actually a fake. My Lexar card reader doesn't recognize it and my laptop showed me the blue screen of death moments after. I also recall an error on my 7D but just removed the battery and it was fine. Now I realize it was prob that same card. What the heck should I do with it? Throw it away? I have contacted the seller (Amazon marketplace) since I bought it last month maybe they might offer something? Prob not. Kinda annoyed with myself, I'm usually more careful.


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## Richard8971 (Apr 23, 2013)

Hmm, I have recently had a similar issue with a Lexar card with my 7D. Two brand new cards used for only a short time and then bzzzt, gone, nothing. I sent the first one back to Lexar and they replaced it and then about 2 months of use the second card also crapped out. I am running the newest firmware V2.03 on my 7. I baby my camera and my equipment, I have no idea why 2 cards have taken a dump, I have never in all of my years of using compactflash (both Sandisk and Lexar) I have never had a problem. I bought my first card from Adorama and the second card came direct from Lexar... Hmmm, I am really confused...

D


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## victorwol (Apr 23, 2013)

It does not sound plausible to me that a camera can break a card by reading or deleting it, that it might happen because the card was faulty, and you just happened to be writing or erasing something at that moment, that could be... But the camera toasting the card... Don't thing so unless there is a huge design fault on the camera and probably most of use would have the same problem and a huge class action against Canon would be in order by now.... There are no moving parts like in HDDs so it is harder to break, but for sure there are parts that can go wrong, I had a Sandisk Pro Extreme going bad, totally dead, but just sent it back to Sandisk, had it replaced in about 10 days, but would never blame the camera for it, of course it is going to break while you using it 

Hope you get it replaced. Good luck!


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## vanermi (Oct 4, 2013)

Hi Guys, I'm new to this forum. I bought my 5D Mark III back in May of 2013 and have been using it with only Compact Flash cards until recently I have been using and writing to both card slots due to a similar case. I shoot on average 300 pictures a day 6 days a week plus shoot video 3 days a week. I have not had a single problem until recently when I purchased two brand new Transcend 1000x Compact flash 32GB cards from BH Photo. I was in the middle of shooting a video and was turning the camera on and off between clips to save battery when all of a sudden the message came up saying card was not recognizable. I went through the same steps and could not format the card in the camera or on the computer essentially rendering the card garbage. Anyways I switched to my other new card (both of which had already been used quite a bit already with no issue). Within a few shots it too crashed and was not recognizable however this one I was able to format later and recover files. I finally put one of my older cards in and finished the shoot fine. 

I got home and discovered there was a firmware update and I did that and started shooting by writing to two cards even though video only records to one and have been shooting this way now for about 3 weeks. Today I arrived at a shoot, put my memory cards back in the camera, turned it on and noticed the red light was solid and the screen was not coming on, then all of a sudden it came up with that message again "card 1 not recognizable by the camera" and poof it's ruined again, this time an older Transcend 400x 32GB card. I put another 64GB card in and it worked fine for the entire shoot. 

I am at a loss to what's happening. Canon originally told me it was the cards but now the fact it's done it again and I'm out another $80 card has me pointing directly at the camera as being the problem.

Hopefully someone can help a brother out.


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## agierke (Oct 4, 2013)

i have heard of transcend cards failing alot. i would steer way clear of that brand.


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## vanermi (Oct 4, 2013)

Thanks for the advise but I have been using them for years and have NEVER ever had one fail this way. The fact that two in a row failed $150 each card, then to have one of my older cards that I've used for years fail a couple weeks later does not point to them being Transcend, but rather the camera in my opinion.




agierke said:


> i have heard of transcend cards failing alot. i would steer way clear of that brand.


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## LookingThroughMyLens81 (Oct 4, 2013)

I too experienced problems with my camera and accessories after having installed the firmware. My SterlingTek batteries wouldn't work in the camera and even my unused came-with-the-camera Canon battery wouldn't work properly, so I went out and bought two new Canon batteries that work fine. A lot of other people have also reported weird quirks and problems with accessories after having installed the latest firmware, so some electrical changes may have occurred as a result of installing it.


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## vanermi (Oct 4, 2013)

LookingThroughMyLens81 said:


> I too experienced problems with my camera and accessories after having installed the firmware. My SterlingTek batteries wouldn't work in the camera and even my unused came-with-the-camera Canon battery wouldn't work properly, so I went out and bought two new Canon batteries that work fine. A lot of other people have also reported weird quirks and problems with accessories after having installed the latest firmware, so some electrical changes may have occurred as a result of installing it.



It's actually got nothing to do with the firmware update. This problem was happening before the update and now after the update.


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## cliffwang (Oct 4, 2013)

That may happen on any flash card. The controller or flash die of the memory card probably damaged by some unknown reason. I cannot say this is not caused by your 5D3, but most of time that caused by the flash card itself. I have worked/been working for both flash and semiconductor companies. What I can say is flash card damage is a normal thing. Moreover, CF cards are much more reliable than SD card. You should avoid to use SD cards when you can use CF cards. By the way, I believe 5D3 can support up to 133x on SD card which is much slower than CF card.


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## sandymandy (Oct 4, 2013)

Perhaps fake SD card. Can also happen if u order via amazon or else. no way they can check every product for it being not a fraud one


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## M.ST (Oct 4, 2013)

There is a big bug in the 5D Mark III card handling system.

I report the bug long before the 5D Mark III hit the market but nothing happend.

The same CF cards work perfectly in the 1D X.


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## wickidwombat (Oct 4, 2013)

Canon-F1 said:


> what makes you think the canon broke the card?
> 
> counterfeit sandisk cards (approximately one third are fake says sandisk) show this behavior quite often.



a fake will definately exhibit this behaviour
the fakes use chips that failed QA and only test out to a much lower amount it could be 4mb or 256 kb its pretty random
the card will work perfectly until the actual limit is reached and then the card will be completely dead. however you can download the programming software that will let you reprogram the card again (windows only) it will let you set the visible size of the card. its really really dodgy. i cant remember where to get the software but i have reprogrammed a few of these dodgy cards to their correct value but they are basically useless. because the usable value is most often very very low.


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## Camerajah (Oct 4, 2013)

I hope you format the card in camera before a shoot


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## vanermi (Oct 4, 2013)

I don't think any of you are seeing the point and just dead set on blaming the cards. My SD cards are fine and have NEVER failed. Also a compact flash card has NEVER failed on my before. I had the 5D Mark II before and never once did a card fail and I didn't format it each day. I shot with it for 6 months straight in Mexico not formatting it once and no problems. Now I have much faster more expensive CF cards and they failed back to back after already being used for weeks. Then yesterday another one fails. It's DEFINITELY the camera and I posted on here because I am exhibiting the same problems as the original poster and I can see his frustration too as people just keep getting off topic just to be heard. If you read my first post you'll see that every post after is redundant. It's NOT THE CF CARDS it is the camera and I want to know if there's a known issue before sending it back to Canon under warranty. If CF cards were that sensitive they wouldn't even exist. Thanks for trying but please stick to the subject and no more blaming the CF cards and spitting up over chewed up topic of failing cards as this is obviously a spike from the camera to the card.


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## longtallkarl (Oct 4, 2013)

also - marooni - if you're still out there, was there ever any conclusion to your problems?

-karl


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## tron (Oct 4, 2013)

vanermi said:


> Now I have much faster more expensive CF cards and they failed back to back after already being used for weeks. Then yesterday another one fails


Since you refer to 5DMK3 and to newer faster cards at the same time you must admit that you changed 2 parameters at once. So there is no proof like it or not. Proof would be if the old CF cards that worked fine in 5DMkII were damaged in 5DMkIII. And vice versa if the newer faster CF cards had worked with no problem and with the same scenario in 5DMkII and NOT in 5DMkIII.

That being said, have you sent your 5DMkIII to Canon?


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## GuyF (Oct 4, 2013)

Don't SanDisk have a lifetime warranty? Could you return the card to them for a replacement?


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## msatter (Oct 4, 2013)

M.ST said:


> There is a big bug in the 5D Mark III card handling system.
> 
> I report the bug long before the 5D Mark III hit the market but nothing happend.
> 
> The same CF cards work perfectly in the 1D X.



I had an err80 with my 5DMKIII two shoots ago and after taking out the battery is was away. After the last shoot I put my Lexar 32GB proffessional 800x in reader and Windows7 said it was a new card and wanted to format it. I put the card in a USB Lexar reader and to my relief there were still pictures on it.

Browsing the pictures I noticed that I was missing pictures and after checking I was missing the last 100 ones. I got 651 RAW pictures and that was 16GB on data still on the card.

I used Recuva to see if the missing pictures were there but there were only the deleted files from previous shoots.

Luckily I write JPG (S1) to my EyeFi SDcard (8GB) that transfer to an iPad with Shuttersnitch so I still got those. Setting for the two card: Rec. separately. 

My observations; this was the first time I used the CF card as playback, picture on the LCD, and this because I got a err80 the shoot before. The camera did not produce any errors during the shoot and silently switched over to the SD card as playback medium. The pictures still present on the CF card is half the size of the total size of the CF card.

After saving all the files I put the CF card back in the camera and took more pictures and it functioned perfectly again.

Checked now with Windows7 if there are any bad sectors and there were any.

Next shoots I will have to check during the shoot if the playback setting silently switches and carry extra CF cards with me to exchange the used CF card when this happens again.


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## cliffwang (Oct 4, 2013)

GuyF said:


> Don't SanDisk have a lifetime warranty? Could you return the card to them for a replacement?


Yes, you can return it and get a new one from SanDisk. However, you cannot get the pictures back on that card. I still prefer CF card because of the reliability.


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## serendipidy (Oct 4, 2013)

M.ST said:


> There is a big bug in the 5D Mark III card handling system.
> 
> I report the bug long before the 5D Mark III hit the market but nothing happend.
> 
> The same CF cards work perfectly in the 1D X.



YES, I think there is a bug. It happened recently to me with a brand new USA warranty 5D3. It worked fine for 2 weeks and then I sent it in to Canon's Irvine, CA Service center for calibration with my 70-200Lii lens. When it went in, it had the newest firmware 1.2.1. When it came back (later I discovered it NOW had the older firmware 1.1.7), after shooting about 160 RAW shots, I started to download to my Macbook Pro using the USB camera cable, and halfway thru, it crashed my EOS Utility software and froze. I could do nothing but turn everything off. I tried everything and it still would not work. I recently posted this on another thread several weeks ago. I took that CF card out of the 5D3 and put in my 7D and it worked fine and downloaded those photos that the 5D3 crashed. I tried more shoots and the exact same thing happened again and again. I took it to the Honolulu Canon center and they tried it with my 5D3 but with their CF card and their computer and it crashed their computer EOS Utility also and froze. They sent it back to Irvine and it came back with the newest firmware 1.2.1 now installed again. Now it has been working OK so far and will download OK. However, with the first shoot or two, my file numbering system was acting strange, switching by itself from my factory designated camera file name to IMG_ and back. Now, it seems to be OK. I initially tried multiple CF cards, which I always format in the camera I am using for that shoot, and they all failed with my 5D3 before the second trip to Canon's Irvine service center.


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## ForumMuppet (Oct 5, 2013)

I had an issue with a Sandisk Extreme Pro 32GB card giving an unrecognized error. After a few days I was able to format the card and take shots again. Being the card was only a month old, I contacted Sandisk explaining my lack of faith in the card not going bad and losing shots. After verifying the serial number and retailer where I purchased the card, the rep informed me the Extreme Pro cards are guaranteed for life and gave me a new replacement. From that customer service experience, I will only use Sandisk Extreme Pro cards moving forward. 

If you have not already done so, I would suggest contacting the Sandisk customer service for a replacement card.


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## vanermi (Oct 11, 2013)

tron said:


> vanermi said:
> 
> 
> > Now I have much faster more expensive CF cards and they failed back to back after already being used for weeks. Then yesterday another one fails
> ...




This latest card the fried was used a lot on my 5D Mark II. No I haven't sent camera in, just spoke with them. I just purchased new Komputer Bay cards and if they go, I will send camera back and they will replace pin bed. Then if still wrecking cards, new camera?? It's frustrating.


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## serendipidy (Oct 11, 2013)

My 5D3 and CF cards seem to be working OK now.


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## AdamJ (Oct 12, 2013)

I'm not suggesting that bent pins in the OP's 5D MkIII are the cause of his troubles, but in case anyone doubts the existence of bent pin problems, here's a quote from Roger at LensRentals:

"However, some common problems we saw a year ago like the 5D Mk III having bent CF pins and the D800 battery doors snapping off seem to have been fixed and have ceased to be an issue at all."

So it seems it was perhaps a problem in earlier Mk III bodies but not in LensRentals' newer Mk III inventory. The full article is linked below.

http://www.lensrentals.com/blog/2013/08/lensrentals-repair-data-2012-2013


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