Nikon Frustration

[ATJ]

I'm recently back from a dive trip around Komodo Island and surrounds. As some of you know I have been using an Eye-Fi card in my D7000 inside the housing which lets me get the photos (and videos) off the camera without having to take the camera from the housing. I also use ShutterSnitch on my iPhone so that I load the images from the Eye-Fi card to the iPhone and then from the iPhone to the Mac.

This worked very well on the trip (until it didn't). Most days we'd do 4 dives a day and I wouldn't open the housing until after the last dive. I can change the lens simply by removing the port and the camera itself stays in the housing. After each dive I'd plonk the camera down on the deck under the table in the dining area and using my Huawei E5832 as a WiFi access point load the photos from the camera to the phone. (Yes, I know I could load to the phone directly, but the WiFi signal from the Eye-Fi card is quite weak so I can place the Huawei right next to the back of the housing and have the iPhone further away.) I could review the photos as they came off the camera and even show them to my fellow divers. All I then had to do was take the phone to my cabin where my Mac was and load the photos onto the Mac. This worked great for most of the trip.

I did 32 dives in total. On the 27th dive (a night dive), I had taken a few photos and all appeared to be going well. When I took the next photo the light on the back of the camera that indicates it is interacting with the card stayed on and the photo did not appear on the LCD. I took another photo and the same thing happened, even though it appeared to be taking the photo. I tried to turn the camera off and while the switch was in the "Off" position, the camera would not turn off. It then displayed an error on the back CD indicating the SD card had failed and was flashing "ERR" on the top LCD. I could no longer take any photos and was basically carrying a expensive weight around for the rest of the dive.

What is really frustrating, and I put it down to poor design by Nikon, is I had a regular 16GB card in the second slot. I have the camera set up to use that card as overflow. If I had filled the first card or even forgotten to put the card in the first slot, the camera would have happily written to the second card. There was nothing wrong with the card in the second slot, only the card in the first slot (or at least the camera thought there was something wrong with it as I couldn't find any issues with it later).

I didn't risk using the Eye-Fi card for the remaining 5 dives, nor have I used it since for fear of being stuck with a non-working camera. It is a pity that a good idea can be let down by poor design by Nikon.

[Reschsmooth]

If I understand the situation correctly, the first card (Eye-Fi) failed and stopped the camera writing to the second card. Whilst it is possible/probable that this was a camera failure, is there a chance that the Eye-Fi card created such an error that stopped the camera writing to any card?

[ATJ]

No idea, really. Back on the boat when I opened the housing the camera was no longer complaining. I popped the Eye-Fi card and it looked fine in the computer and I put another SD card in the first slot and it was instantly recognised with no errors.

The Eye-Fi card had all the photos I'd taken up until the point it stopped showing the photos on the back LCD (and all the photos from the previous dives that day).

I would have thought I should at least be able to switch the camera off to reset it.

[Matt. K]

Andrew
I think you've picked a weakness in the system. Tell Nikon about it. Tell the card manufacturer about it. Hopefully they will fix it.

[aim54x]

Andrew
I think you've picked a weakness in the system. Tell Nikon about it. Tell the card manufacturer about it. Hopefully they will fix it.