Corrupt Card ... Manual Flash Issue?

I had a card corrupt on me yesterday. I took the flash of my nikon film camera (SB24) and used it on my 40d. I used

it in the manual mode, and everything seemed to be fine, then when I got home I downloaded my images, and found

that the entire card was corrupted. Even images I had taken a few days ago.

My question is, does anyone know if the flash is to blame? Yes I know that it isn't made for the 40d, but I only use

manual control anyways, so I didn't see the point in paying $300 for the canon flash. Maybe this is the reason I

should though.

Sounds like the flash was working OK, and you were taking pictures OK. Could just be an issue with that particular card and/or your camera. Could just be a coincidence.

Picture card corruptions can be caused by an number of different causes,like

- Turning off the camera while its still writing picture data to the last picture file.

- A malfunction inside the camera and/or its firmware.

- A defective picture card.

- Failing to format a new picture card.

- Data scrambling due to

- Strong magnetic fields

- Electro Static Discharge (ESD)

- Large motors, generators, magnets or elctromagnets, CRTs, telephones, and the like.

- Florescent light ballasts and other large Transformers.

- A 'normal' h/w failure inside the card, simply due to age and constant usage.

- Formatting the card on the Computer rather than in the Camera.

- Touching the gold contacts with your fingers,inducing ESD static zap.

- h/w failure in the camera's builtin internal memory buffers.

stuff like that.

The problem may have even started in your previous picture taking sessions, since older pictures were impacted, way before the flash was tried.

You might want to try some simple tests, first with the flash OFF the camera, then with the flash ON.

1. Charge your batteries up fully.

2. Use a different picture card, one that you know is good. Copy all pics OFF that card.

3. Format the 2nd picture card in the camera 3 times sequentially. If you can do the FORMAT 3 times, without any sign of any problems, and the FORMAT response looks OK, thats good confirmation that the card component is functioning OK, as far as camera is concerned.

4. Now, go out and take some test pictures, maybe 1 or 2 dozen, without using that flash.

5. Now upload the pictures, and examine them,see if they look OK.

If you still see the same corruption, w/o using the flash, then the problem is not caused by the flash, but by some other component in the process.

Now, go back and repeat these steps, and this time use the flash when you take the sample pictures.

Now upload the pictures again, and see if the images got corrupted. Observe the camera, flash, and LCD Preview screen and LCD Data screen as carefully as possible, to try and detect if the camera is having any "anomalies" because of the flash. Use the LCD Preview screen to see if the images taken with the flash look OK. Give the camera plenty of time window to save each image to the picture card.

Now upload these pictures to the computer, and see how they look. See if you see any coruption.

Alan Peed wrote:

<p>

<i>3. Format the 2nd picture card in the camera 3 times sequentially. If you can do the FORMAT 3 times, without any

sign of any problems, and the FORMAT response looks OK, thats good confirmation that the card component is

functioning OK, as far as camera is concerned.</i>

<p>

No, it isn't. Formatting just writes to a few blocks at the start of the card. You'd need to write and read back every block

on the card, which would take several minutes at least.

<p>

My money would indeed be on the flash. The size and position of the centre contact is an ISO standard, but, after that,

all bets are off. You could easily have damaged not only the card but the camera. If you're going to use a dedicated flash

of the wrong brand, <i>always</i> tape all the contacts except the centre one.

Went through the routine.

The one card is toast, others do fine no matter what.

Frank: thanks for the flash info I looked all over for which contacts to tape. I guess I should have just asked here first.

The card is the problem. I wanted a card to shoot pics of the kids, so I found on cheap. Turns out it is a fake Sandisk. Only lasted 46 days, and I needed to file a dispute with paypal in 45. So some con man on the other side of the world makes $23, and I learn a lesson.

Josh, I'm glad it was "only" the card.

There indeed doesn't seem to be much on the net about hot shoes, unless you count a PDF on offer from ISO for SFR

48, so here's the detail I left out about the Canon one. The metal runners that the shoe slides into are the earth [uS:ground] (i..e.,

tied to the camera body back when those were bare metal) and the larger round contact is the other pole. I don't know

whether this is -ve or +ve earth for Canon flashes. On many other brands this centre contact is key-shaped. The flash is fired by the

camera closing the circuit between the centre contact and the runners. To "tape" the contacts on a Canon camera, cover the four smaller

contacts with black insulation [uS: electrical] tape, making sure to keep it clear of the runners and to cut a hole for the centre

contact. This should be safe for your Nikon flash in manual mode, since it is recent and unlikely to use high voltage. You know the polarity

is correct, since it worked before.

Canon flashes probably send 5.5V through these 4 contacts, because EOS was a digital system from the start. Nikon

could be much higher, since their system predates digital. That's why you might fry a Canon camera with a Nikon flash.

It may also be that contact is never made without taping - I don't have a Nikon flash to try.

There should be no voltage problem from an SB 24, which is comfortably below 6V:

http://www.botzilla.com/photo/strobeVolts.html

Aside from which, the hotshoe on a 40D is designed to tolerate 250V, as with all recent DSLRs. There is no need to mess with taping the hotshoe.

Mark, I'm not talking about the voltage on the trigger circuit. The OP already tested that...

It's the other 4 contacts that are of concern. I see no measurements of them on your linked page.