2GB CF Cards & Compatibility with D70s

[Tim Z]

I have a Kingston Elite Pro 2GB CF Card that I have been using for a few months now. In the last couple of months it has been causing me problems, by having a few NEF files that are not readable, and occasionally saying "no for" or no format. WHen this happens, it will not allow me to view or take more images. I could usually just turn off the D70s, take the card out, replace the card and then it would work again. However, I would still have two or three NEF files that were corrupted and would not work. Then on Sunday the same thing happened. However, this time I could not do anything to get the card to work and it said there was only two files on the card, when I had taken 68 NEF images. The only way I could recover the files was to use some rescue software, and even then two files could not be used.

So today I phoned Kingston support, and they are going to replace the card for me, but they said that the replacement could not be warrantied to work with the Nikon D70s. They said that they D70s is not listed as a compatible camera with their 2GB CF cards, and that I may have this problem with the new card as well. Then he went on to say that it may be that the D70s is not fully compatible with any brand of 2GB CF cards.

So this is a long-winded way of getting to my actual question. Does anyone know of any incompatibilities with the D70s and certain capacity CF cards? Or is mine just an unlucky random case? I just ordered a Sandisk Extreme III 2 GB card, and certainly hope that I do not run into the same problems with that card.

Much appreciated :smile:

Cheers

 

[JeffKohn]

I never had any problem using the D70 with Sandisk Ultra II 2GB cards, I think the Kinston guy is just trying to shift blame.

 

[Retief]

Tim, this sounds more to me like you have some "creeping crud" on the Kingston card, maybe a bad sector or two that needs mapping out. Put the card in a reader on your PC, do a Full Format and a Scandisk. The in-camera format only erases the FAT, it doesn't do anything more thorough on the card, so it is a good idea once in a while to do a Full on the PC. The Scandisk process will identify and map out any bad sectors as well. What can happen with a bad sector is that your image may write, but there is an electrical problem with a sector in the middle, hence making the image not-readable. And this can look very random.

 

[Tim Z]

Tim, this sounds more to me like you have some "creeping crud" on the Kingston card, maybe a bad sector or two that needs mapping out. Put the card in a reader on your PC, do a Full Format and a Scandisk. The in-camera format only erases the FAT, it doesn't do anything more thorough on the card, so it is a good idea once in a while to do a Full on the PC. The Scandisk process will identify and map out any bad sectors as well. What can happen with a bad sector is that your image may write, but there is an electrical problem with a sector in the middle, hence making the image not-readable. And this can look very random.

Thanks Bill, but I have to return this card in order to get my replacement. They are sending me a replacement via FedEx, so I would rather just forget about his card for now and send it back as is. I was more concerned about his statement that the 2GB Kingston Elite Pro cards are not listed as compatible with the D70s.

 

[Tim Z]

I never had any problem using the D70 with Sandisk Ultra II 2GB cards, I think the Kinston guy is just trying to shift blame.

Jeff he never said that this was a problem with other cards, it was just possible speculation. All he could confirm was that their 2 GB Elite Pro card is not listed as being compatible with the D70s. It didn't mean that it definitely wasn't compatible; it just meant that they cannot warranty the card except for those cameras that have been tested and confirmed to be compatible. He could not explain why the D70s was not on the list. I guess I'll just have to wait and see what happens when I get the replacement and when I get the Extreme 2GB card. It may be that my D70s has some kind of write error, because I have a feeling that this happened once before with my Sandisk Ultra 1 GB card as well, but I'm not positive.

Thanks
Tim