brian_huntoon

Hi Shun,

Thanks for the feedback. I am using a variety of cards now to see if the problem recurs. I used a microdrive CF card

yesterday and got a brief CHA error (it flashed and went away). I then shot about 100 photos with no problems.

John, thanks again for the info on the cleaning kit. I stopped by Glazers yesterday and talked to all the personnel. They

had never heard of the cleaning kit for the CF buss connector. Darryl even searched the store looking for it.

I noticed that there isn't a spin rack by the door at Glazers. Could it possibly have been another store?

Thanks, John and Constantinos, for your feedback.

I'll try checking with the local camera stores in Seattle and get a compact flash slot cleaning kit, and see if that solves

the problem.

I have a Mac G5, not a PC. I wonder if there is a similar Mac program to Windows Checkdisk for checking the flash

card?

Also, I've seen people mention formatting the CF card from the computer. I've always used the D70's menu to do it.

What software program is used to format the card? Is the card in the camera and hooked up with the download cables

when you format this way, or do you use a card reader to format the card from a computer?

Thanks again, John and Constantinos.

Brian

I'm trying to figure out if my problem is with my D70, or my Sandisk Extreme III 1 GB Compact Flash card, or both. In the past, I've

experience the Blinking Green Light of Death, so I understand that. Nikon replaced parts of my camera for free after the BGLOD showed

up, and I have had about 2 1/2 years of trouble free experience since the free repair.

I was shooting an assignment recently when the screen gave a "CHA" error, and the camera became non-responsive, couldn't even turn

it off. I took the battery out, put it back in, and it took a few more photos, then locked up again. Not wanting to cause more problems, I

cut things short and went home to download the photos. About half the 130 or so photos were totally missing. There were all kinds of

crazy things with the file names, like switching from 58.jpg 58.NEF to the next image in sequence being 422.jpg and 422.NEF. Also,

crazy file extensions like .JTG and NMF. Some of these files I was able to open in Photoshop by changing the file extensions to jpg and

NEF; others wouldn't open. Some of the files with normal file names wouldn't open. Also had crazy file names for some images like

%56kj18.jpg. Some of these opened, some didn't.

I'm not concerned about retrieving the lost photos. I didn't tell the client what had happened, and they were very happy with the

photos I provided. I assumed the problem was with the D70, especially after my past Green Death Light experiences, so I called Nikon

technical support. The guy had me reset the camera using the single button on the base plate. It seemed to operate fine, and I fired off

and reviewed about 1500 test images, including shooting many with the remote control and the same 4 lenses, some manual, I had used

on the assignment when I had the problem. I used the remote, and the same media card as I did on the assignment (the Sandisk IGB),

to see if the problem would recur. It didn't.

Then, this week, doing my next "real" (non-test) photography, I took some group portraits. I was able to review the photos on the

camera back, and all seemed fine. A few minutes later I showed some of the subjects the photos using the LCD on the camera back,

and things were still fine. Shut the camera off, and when I went to show the images a third time, all but one of the images were

unreadable, giving me the "IMAGE FILE CONTAINS NO DATA" error message on all images but one.

When I returned to my studio, thank God all the images downloaded with no problem. I had been prepared for all of them or all but

one of the images to be gone, and to try using some Rescue techniques.

Based on the above, can I know for sure that the problem is with the camera? Or that the problem is the Sandisk CF card?

Could a bad card cause my camera to totally freeze up and not even turn off properly as happened on the first assignment?

Any help or guidance would be helpful. I'll probably trying not using that Sandisk 1 GB card for the time being and try shooting lots of

photos with other cards. But that is no guarantee, as after the first problem I shot 1500+ photos with the Sandisk card without any

symptoms before a new problem recurred.

My other considerations are to send the camera to Nikon repair facility and see if I can get another free repair (or at least get an

estimate), and / or to toss the Sandisk media card. Any thoughts?

Hi Roman. I had the same problem. Just got a copy of Photoshop CS in an eBay auction,

and it wouldn't open my NEF format raw files from my Nikon D70. I looked and saw that

CS came with the Adobe Camera Raw version 2.0 plugin. Went to the Adobe website and

saw that their description of the latest version of Adobe Camera Raw, v. 4.2, said it would

work on CS, CS2 and CS3. I downloaded it, installed it, and it won't open my NEF files.

I have a copy of Photoshop Elements 3.0, which I got because it is able to open NEF

files. I copied it's Adobe Camera Raw plugin, version 2.3, into Photoshop CS, after

deleting versions 4.2 and 2.0. Photoshop CS now opens my D70 NEF files with no

problems. I put the Adobe Camera Raw 2.3 plugin in the Photoshop CS/Plugins/File

Formats folder.

Don't know if you can download v.2.3 from the Adobe website, but if you can, that

should do the trick. If not, find a friend who has Photoshop Elements 3.0 and get a copy

of the 2.3 plugin there. Good luck!

I want to thank everyone for their input and ideas. My apologies as a "newbie" for

capitalizing my subject line. I knew using caps in the body of an e-mail is considered

"shouting", and I don't do that. Didn't realize caps in the subject line is a no-no.

Before I submitted my question I read the hard copy Reference Manual,

which contains little info, and the electronic manual that came on the 4870 CD, which is

much more informative, three times. I never did find an answer there, so I looked thru the

Photonet database, found no answer, and finally submitted my question. My scanner and

software work fine. Unfortunately, the answer to my question was not in the manuals.

By trial and error I came upon a setting on the Preview screen that adjusts how big of a

portion of your 35mm slide is scanned. At the bottom of the Preview screen, to the right

of "Preview", make sure "Thumbnails" and not "Normal" is selected with the toggle arrow.

Beneath this, click "Configuration". At the bottom of the Configuration window, there is a

slider bar for "Thumbnail Cropping Area", ranging from Small to Large. Slide it all the way

over to Large.

The result is that for 35mm slides this setting is about 1.41 inches by 0.93 inches. You

will scan a thin strip of the slide mount on most edges of your slides. On slides where the

window is a little oversized, you will lose very little image area to the crop, if any, with the

cropping area set to Large.

Thanks again for everyone's input! Cheers.

I recently bought an Epson 4870 scanner, and am now trying to scan 35mm slides after having had pretty

good luck with scanning prints. No matter what options I try, it seems the scanner insists that a 35mm

slide is 0.81 inches by 1.30 or 1.22 inches. In reality what shows thru the slide holder is about 15/16 inch

by 1 3/8 inches, or .9375 x 1.375 inches. The scanner only scans part of the image, leaving a strip along

each edge unscanned.

Has anyone else had this problem, and how do you deal with it? Thanks!