D70s CHA error, what's the deal?
Here's the deal. I'm using a D70s with a couple of SanDisk Ultra II CF cards in 1 GB and 512MB versions.
A few months ago I was shooting a soccer game and all of the sudden my camera wouldn't shoot. I then noticed I was getting a CHA error. I turned the camera off and then turned it back on and everything was relatively cool. Then I got the error again and I started checking over my photos and noticed that randomly some of them were nothing but black. Like I had been shooting with the lens cap on or I would get a "Image Contains No Information" message. The one thing that I found to lessen the likelyhood of it happening is to format the card I'm usingly like 20 times before shooting, but now that isn't working as well as it used to. I also got a messege during some of these instances to format my card.
Anyway, I don't think I have to explain this problem any further because I've been researching it for a while and everyone seems to have heard of it. However, I've never seen anyone on the internet give a solution.
There seems to be two groups. Those that believe it's all in the memory cards and those that throw the camera away and upgrade. I've seen that a few sent their D70 off for repair and when it got back nothing really changed except they spent some cash and were without the camera for six weeks.
Here are my questions: Let's say it's not the memory cards, what is the problem then? It is safe to say that the camera needs to be repaired, but has anyone sent their D70 or D70S off with this problem and it was actually fixed? And how would a repair like this cost or is it even worth fixing?
I've got a little less than 20,000 shoots on this camera and have really only had it for 18 months or so I believe.
I just want to know what the deal is with this. Everyone seems to be talking about it, or at least were talking about it, but not a single person has come up with a solution that I could find.
I would explain more, but I have two basketball games to shoot with this ailing camera in about 45 minutes so I gotta run.
Thanks for the help.
A few months ago I was shooting a soccer game and all of the sudden my camera wouldn't shoot. I then noticed I was getting a CHA error. I turned the camera off and then turned it back on and everything was relatively cool. Then I got the error again and I started checking over my photos and noticed that randomly some of them were nothing but black. Like I had been shooting with the lens cap on or I would get a "Image Contains No Information" message. The one thing that I found to lessen the likelyhood of it happening is to format the card I'm usingly like 20 times before shooting, but now that isn't working as well as it used to. I also got a messege during some of these instances to format my card.
Anyway, I don't think I have to explain this problem any further because I've been researching it for a while and everyone seems to have heard of it. However, I've never seen anyone on the internet give a solution.
There seems to be two groups. Those that believe it's all in the memory cards and those that throw the camera away and upgrade. I've seen that a few sent their D70 off for repair and when it got back nothing really changed except they spent some cash and were without the camera for six weeks.
Here are my questions: Let's say it's not the memory cards, what is the problem then? It is safe to say that the camera needs to be repaired, but has anyone sent their D70 or D70S off with this problem and it was actually fixed? And how would a repair like this cost or is it even worth fixing?
I've got a little less than 20,000 shoots on this camera and have really only had it for 18 months or so I believe.
I just want to know what the deal is with this. Everyone seems to be talking about it, or at least were talking about it, but not a single person has come up with a solution that I could find.
I would explain more, but I have two basketball games to shoot with this ailing camera in about 45 minutes so I gotta run.
Thanks for the help.
If they hate you they have a subscription. -- Bratch
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However I use a Canon 5D, so I have not heard of this issue with the D70 before.
-Fleetwood Mac
Buying a whole new camera because of this? There's no shortage of stupid in this world . . .
For an unrelated reason I sent my D70 off to Nikon for repair, they fixed it as a "goodwill" repair and charged me nothing, and since I got the camera back I haven't seen any CHA messages and haven't seen any "Image Contains No Information" messages (although I don't really use my old CF cards anymore).
Although Nikon charged me nothing, someone had told me that they generally charge around $300 for most any repair (and my D70 was completely broken). The full process from shipping it to Nikon to getting it back was maybe 4 weeks.
Hope this helps.
initialphotography.smugmug.com
"The camera is an instrument that teaches people how to see without a camera" - Dorothea Lange
First off, my newspaper will be purchasing the new camera this is just a reason to do so because we are a small paper and can't be without a camera for an extended period of time.
Normally in a situation like this I would blow it off, but I'm not a big fan of shooting a ballgame or whatever only to find that some of the photos aren't there anymore.
The first time this really happened I shot most of a soccer game and throughout the game I noticed some shots I loved on the viewfinder. About five shots that I really loved. Then the CHA error comes up. Turn it off and back on, everything seems cool right up until I'm thumbing through my photos and notice that about 80% of what I had shot was corrupt and history.
I would say that it wouldn't bother me otherwise but knowing I lost five or more photos I really liked, it irks me.
I use SanDisk Ultra II cards and in fact, I had never used my 512MB card at all until this started and it happens even more with that card than the 1GB that I used all the time before that.
All I'm asking is what is causing this if it isn't the cards. Because I've seen this problem all over various messege boards on the internet with the D70 and the D70s with every kind of memory card under the sun. Something is causing it and I know that there has to be someone out there that had the problem, sent the camera off to be fixed and it was fixed. Or maybe it wasn't fixed and Nikon doesn't know how to fix it. My buddy has a D70 and it's got well over 20,000 shots on it and it's doing just fine.
Either way, all I know is that I have a camera that I can't depend on anymore. It's officially unreliable and I can't have that.
initialphotography.smugmug.com
"The camera is an instrument that teaches people how to see without a camera" - Dorothea Lange
If your income depends on the thing by all means do what you must, but to broad-stroke it as "officially unreliable" strikes me as a bit over the top. For me, this little problem has never risen beyond "mildly annoying," but I've never lost more than a few photos, never anything approaching 80% of my shots.
If you are truly curious you could always send it back to Nikon for a look-see.
1) CF card fault/failure
2) CF card fragmentation
3) CF connection, camera contacts
4) Camera internal failure with card write circuit board
5) Power supply in camera, potentially also related to the battery.
To rule out the Compact Flash card(s) as the fault, try a brand new card (not Lexar 80x, as those seem problematic), format in camera and do not field erase images. Reformat card in camera to start over. If this procedure works, format the older cards in the camera and then work the cards by taking images, preferably RAW to fill up the card as quickly as possible. Do not completely fill the card but stop at around 10 remaining images and format the card in camera once more. You might be good to go.
If these procedures don't work, it is recommended to return the camera to Nikon for a checkup. If Nikon cannot diagnose a problem, you might try a new battery as some claim a weak battery to be part of the problem, but I don't see that "cure" mentioned often enough to know if really is a cure or not.
Repairs for an out-of-warranty repair for the problem relating to the camera seem to run around $300USD from those few folks who reported a cost.
Moderator of the Cameras and Accessories forums
I have seen it only twice on my D80 and that was when the lock switch on the SD card was mistakenly moved to locked. What I have seen more commonly is that if I don't format the card in camera I sometimes get funky (old images still there - less space)
By default I recommend formatting your card everytime you put it in. Haven't seen any issues since I started that.
Brian
http://photos.katzclix.com
blog - http://blog.katzclix.com
Thanks Ziggy and everyone, this is the information I'm looking for.
The only way I've really found that can solve the problem most of the time, but not all the time, is that I have to format the card I put in the camera at least a dozen times in a row. I usually will do it 15-20 times before shooting, but that's a little ridiculous.
I've also put a card in before and the top display went from -E- to 291 and back to -E-. Then I had to pull the card out and put it back in for it to pick up the card again. That's why it seems to me like the contacts in the camera are malfunctioning. Honestly, thats why I figured more cameras were using SD cards now instead of CF.
I'm not sure what you mean by "weak" battery. Do you mean weak as in not fully charged or weak like the battery itself is malfunctioning?
Another reason why this is a serious problem is that on Wednesday I drove across town just to get a single mugshot of someone. All I needed was one photo.
When I got back to the office where my editor was waiting for my photo so we could get the paper out, only one of the photos I took would open. If that first shot doesn't open, I'm driving back across down and delaying everything and everyone.
At that point time is money.
Since we have to send off the camera for repairs anyway, a D80 is on the way. I think I will prefer the D80, but I do love the D70s' 1/500 flash sync.
It could be the contact points that are a bit dirty.
It should not last half your shots as previous poster said. It can ruin one shot, but you will notice it does not fire. I've "repaired" it with wiggling the battery grip a bit more, or trying to turn it to the camera a bit more steady.
Try cleaning out the contact points of the battery chamber... No need to get a new camera for that one. If you do, have a look at my D70 for sale in Nikon Land on Dgrin. Another shameless plug. You guys will be so tired of me...
http://photocatseyes.net
http://www.zazzle.com/photocatseyes
can anyone post a solution to this common error on the Nikon D70? Did you find a solution? Thanks, Jeff
This is a common error message with many causes, kind of like a "check engine" light on a car. It tells you that there is a problem without telling you exactly what the problem is.
As I mentioned above:
It appears that a Nikon D70/D70s CHA error is a general "cannot write to card" error and can be caused by many different situations including:
1) CF card fault/failure
2) CF card fragmentation
3) CF connection, camera contacts
4) Camera internal failure with card write circuit board
5) Power supply in camera, potentially also related to the battery.
If the problem occurs with a single card, then it probably relates to that card.
If the problem occurs with a singular battery, then it probably relates to that battery.
If the problem occurs with a particular combination of equipment, like a VR lens or a vertical/battery grip, then it is probably a power and/or contact issue.
etc.
Moderator of the Cameras and Accessories forums
They replaced the shutter assembly and even now with my friend giving it heavy use there are no issues.
I am new to this site. I have had this issue on more than one occation and to me, once is too many. I was using a Nikon d 70s with a SandDisk Ultra II 8gb. card. After about 130 pics I got the CHA error , tried turning the camera off then on the error cleared but when I went to view the pics I took it said there were none on the card. When this happen the last time the camera put the pics in a DCIM folder that I could see on the computer and was able to retrieve the pics that way. This time, unfortunately I wasn't so lucky. This isn't GOOD... when I take pictures I take them because I want to PRESERVE the MOMENT..... these were pics of our grandchildren a special event, so that would make it something that can't be DONE AGAIN....like a sitting or a table top. It hurt..
I reallly appreciate the forum because it let me know I wasn't alone out here and others were having the same issue. Also that it wasn't particular to just me, being as I am relatively new to this and just recently lost my mentor and BEST and ONLY SOURCE for anything I needed to know on the subject of photography. It also let me know of the others reasoning and what they thought the cause might be.
What I did try is, in the comfort of my computer room, I snapped off about 200 pics in about 10 minutes, I would delete them on the camera and then shoot some more. Delete again, shoot some. Format in the camera (as I was told to do from day one) Shoot some more and delete again . Even after doing this for about an hour and utlizing a SanDisk 512 mb card also and I could not recreate the CHA ERROR. I have a thought to put out there if anyone is listening , I seem to remember that the couple of times this happened that the air temperature was cool (below 65 degrees frnt) Just a thought…… I hope someone can help solve this one, its really hard to deal with....Thanks for allowing me to bend your EARS..
I got this error message for the first time when I maybe stupidly took my d80 out in the snow to get some pics of my kids. It just popped up with the CHA and I couldn't get rid of it. I took out sd card, and the battery, waited a couple of mins then popped them back in. Nothing changed. So I just put it to the side before I got myself worked up. Once we, and the camera had warmed up it seemed to work again. It happened again today though and it had not been out although it's still snowy outside the heating has been on full blast all day. So I started googling for answers and the long and short of it is this. The camera cannot read the card. The card may have the "lock" switch on, may need formatted or be corrupt. It may also be an issue with a weak battery or even connections within the card reader circutry. I kept finding links that told me to format my card in camera so I tried and it kept saying formatting then "done", but this didn't help. Eventually I put it back into the laptop card reader and the camera had not wiped the information at all so I formatted via the laptop and thankfully, when I put it back in the camera I got the proper display back and can now use again. phew! hope this helps someone.
Aberdeen, WA USA
glockman99@hotmail.com
It's a card issue. either a card needs formatting or its a bad card
Sally, thanks (loads!), this worked for me. I've got D80, got the CHA message yesterday for the first time ever, ok, out in the cold and snow - but I regularly use my camera even in -20C/-4F or colder weather. Formatting the card in the camera didn't help, another SD card worked fine however, so followed your advise about formatting the 'faulty' card via the laptop, and bingo! the SD card works again. As a precaution formatted the SD card again in the camera. A good lesson though; should always carry at least 2 cards with you to be safe(r).
Hi Bratch
I have the same problem with my personal camera, AND the identical camera I use for work. I had to buy another one for work and currently and without use of a camera at home... because of this same problem. What a financial loss; they are relatively new cameras. Did you get a helpful response to your posting? My daughter is getting married in 2 weeks and needless to say I'd like to use my camera.
Thanks for any insight.
Debra
This is a common error message with many causes, kind of like a "check engine" light on a car. It tells you that there is a problem without telling you exactly what the problem is.
As I mentioned above:
It appears that a Nikon D70/D70s CHA error is a general "cannot write to card" error and can be caused by many different situations including:
1) CF card fault/failure
2) CF card fragmentation
3) CF connection, camera contacts
4) Camera internal failure with card write circuit board
5) Power supply in camera, potentially also related to the battery.
If the problem occurs with a single card, then it probably relates to that card.
If the problem occurs with a singular battery, then it probably relates to that battery.
If the problem occurs with a particular combination of equipment, like a VR lens or a vertical/battery grip, then it is probably a power and/or contact issue.
etc.
Moderator of the Cameras and Accessories forums
Every time I take the card out, CHA error when I put it back in - take it back out, reseat it and voila the error clears, so I would guess it must be the contacts..
No problems with images to date - in fact apart from the standard 18-70 lens that was faulty from new (can't focus) and still jams every now and again it's been a very reliable bit of kit.
I have this problem all the time now. At first I didn't have this problem at all. When it first happenned I didn't know what it was. But with a little help from google, I have since figured it out completely. There is a combination of stuff happening. And If you do some simple things, then you will never lose a photo from this and can get a breath of fresh air from your now ancient but still totally awesome D70!
First things first, I never ever formatted a card in my camera. Kenrockwell.com(goto his website for awesome info about your D70 and other cameras. I am not ken rockwell, but his site is a golden nugget.) recomends that you format a card everytime, first thing after you put the card in.
That has significantly helped with the issue. Nikon says the same thing in the owners manual and on there site. Look in the manual for the CHA problem. I think you can download the manual from Nikon site still. If your like me, you never read the manual. Go read your manual.
2.) If your camera is having this issue, bring multiple cards with you. I have three. And if one card gets this problem when shooting, then turn your camera off and remove and store that card. When you put the next card in, the problem will magically not be there anymore! Yay!
If you turn your camera off then on and the error clears and you use the card, you will lose the photos you just took. But if you wait till the green data light is off on your camera, then turn off your camera, then remove and you store the card in your bag or case- the pictures will be there when you go to read them on your computer. And if they are not- then download a free software retrieval program called Recuva and recover the pictures off the card. It does work. Don't freak out.
2a.) HAve multiple CF cards, download them immediatly to your computer when your done using them, format them in the computer after you download them and then one by one put them in your camera and format them. Then store them in your camera bag. Then you are ready for this problem, every time.
3.) Buy a card reader- it takes about 1/100th of the time to get your photos off cards than plugging your D70 into your computer via usb cord. Just saying- this tip saves me hours.
4.) Charge your batteries completely before shooting, especially if its been a while since charging the battery. The camera will say you have 3 bars on you battery after it has been sitting in the bag for weeks. This cannot be true. If it has been a couple of days or a week- then charge your batteries completely before shooting. If needs be, buy new batteries- they are like ten bucks on amazon.
5.) Nikon reccomends that you do a factory reset on the bottom of the camera after getting the CHA error. I have done this a couple of times.
6.) I updated the firmware in my camera.
7.) I found that if you leave your camera on, then you can come back to a CHA error. So turn it off if its going to sit for a while.
8.) I have had success with the methods above. It really doesn't take that much time- like 5 minutes to do what I have outlined with setting up your cards and cards are cheaper now, so get multiple cards. I have one older card that would get the CHA often, so i chucked it and got two newer 4gb ones and still use one older 512mb one. I have found that I get the error less when shooting in RAW mode. And I have found that using the methods above- I get the error less often now.
9.) You can replace the card reader in your camera, but I haven't had to do this. I would do the things above and if that doesn't work, then get new cards and batteries as well as doing the things above. Then if you are still haveing the problem- send your camera in.
If your card reader is bad and you know it and don't want to send it in, do it yourself:
10.) You can buy the new reader slot from here: http://www.uscamera.com/1c998-634.htm
11.) This is a how to on changing it yourself: http://blog.stephanmantler.com/d70s-camera-repair/
Hope this is helpful. I love my D70. I had it in a drawer for a while because of this issue, but now I am using it daily. Happy Shooting!
First post with a link in it, and it got thrown into our moderation cue. I approved the post, so you're all good to go.
Dgrin FAQ | Me | Workshops
This is link to an explanation what is (maybe) happening with your D70S, in Japanese, I used GoogleTranslate to get it in English. It is sort of do-it-yourself solution, or you can explain it at your local photo repair shop...
http://blogs.dion.ne.jp/nisegrapher/archives/6877743.html
Photos later on are really helpful!
Here is also nice link about CF section problems:
http://blog.stephanmantler.com/d70s-camera-repair/
And yes, CHA error is gone after cleaning and aligning ribbon cable that connects CF sub-panel with main panel. And be careful, this WILL VOID YOUR WARRANTY!
Good luck,
Oliver
Not all problems are fixed by the same solution.
I have a new fully charged battery and a new Kingston card. Also have tried new cards of different brands (quite possibly all that are available anymore) and have combed through forum after forum looking for solutions that actually gives me back my beloved D70.
Nothing works. And since it is well out of warranty I am not going to spend $300 to get it fixed, specially since I only spent $250 for the actual camera over four years ago and have found the D80 for around $400. To send it in for repairs and pay that cost is the very definition of stupid.
I don't know what happened to mine; it worked beautifully right up to our last vacation. I am not sure if it actually got wet at SeaWorld, even though it was protected from the salt water tanks and showed no signs of ever getting wet or if it was just it's time.
I have cleaned contact points, I have formatted the card in camera, I have quite possibly tried every trick I have read about and as soon as I get a battery in it, I get the CHA error.
I don't know about the rest of you, but having a camera that you have to sit and pray you got the shot and it will be there come time to save it to your computer is another good example of stupid. I can not afford to hope the pictures I am taking will be on the memory card nor should I have to pray to some camera gods that my memories are secure in picture form so that I may share them with family and friends.
If in the end you have tried all the suggestions and no one can come up with any new "tricks" to try and most importantly if your D70 is out of warranty, it would probably be best just to buy a new camera. There are deals out there, you just got to open your eyes and do some hard research to find them. And I'm not talking eBay either. I am talking brand new, out of the box bought from a reliable store. Very few of us are made of money, me least of all and I'll admit, I get attached to my favorite products but there is always a time when you just have to grin and bear it.
As I am understanding this issue there is no sure fix for it. I am not even sure if Nikon knows how to fix it, as in my extensive research I have not found a whisper from them. But as the CompactFlash is getting more difficult to find, it is for me time to upgrade. I won't be carelessly tossing my D70 in a rubbish bin, but giving it a place to sit and wait. Who knows, someone might figure this error out sometime in the future when compactflash is all but a whisper in history.
And since many of these previous posts are old, links lead to nowhere, people have forgotten the issue and no sure solution has been discovered should say something. The error began for me March 2012 and I have not found a solution despite the fact it has been around for years now. My final advice: Send it in if you can, save up for a new one if you can't.
Not the card or battery. Bought both and still have the problem
Check the CF card socket inside the camera for bent pins.
Clean the contacts inside the battery compartment. (A fresh, red, pencil eraser may help with this. Be careful not to leave any eraser dust in the battery bay.)
Perform a system reset.
If those things are OK, it may be a blown circuit in the camera.
Moderator of the Cameras and Accessories forums