D70s CHA error, what's the deal?

[BRATCH]

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.

[jdryan3]

Given that they are relatively inexpensive (compared to a new camera), why not go out and get some new cards, maybe Lexar or another brand. I use the SanDisk Ultra II 2GB (never any problems), but have used Lexar 256MB & 512MB in the past. That should at least eliminate the cards as the issue.

However I use a Canon 5D, so I have not heard of this issue with the D70 before.

[HarveyMushman]

My D70 does the same. I don't know what causes the problem, although I am a firm believer in paying the absolute minimum for CF cards. Turning the camera OFF/ON usually makes things right. Also, make sure you do not delete individual files in-camera. Mine seems to behave better since I made a habit of formatting "new" cards in-camera and never deleting in-camera.

Buying a whole new camera because of this? There's no shortage of stupid in this world . . .

[greenpea]

I was having similar problems with my D70, although less so with the CHA (I saw that rarely... and that was always fixed by pulling the battery and putting it back in). But I was getting a fair number of "Image Contains No Information" messages, maybe one or two per filled CF card. They seem to occur with older more heavily used CF cards, with newer CF cards didn't seem to have the problem. My camera as at 60K+ images.

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.

[BRATCH]

Originally Posted by HarveyMushman

My D70 does the same. I don't know what causes the problem, although I am a firm believer in paying the absolute minimum for CF cards. Turning the camera OFF/ON usually makes things right. Also, make sure you do not delete individual files in-camera. Mine seems to behave better since I made a habit of formatting "new" cards in-camera and never deleting in-camera.

Buying a whole new camera because of this? There's no shortage of stupid in this world . . .

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.

[greenpea]

Ultimately, while my D70 was off for repairs, I got a D200 because (like you) I was concerned about reliability. My D70 will have its 4 year birthday in March and the way I figure DSLRs don't have about the same lifespan as a laptop.

[HarveyMushman]

Originally Posted by BRATCH

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.

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.

[ziggy53]

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.

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.

[bkatz]

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.

[BRATCH]

Originally Posted by ziggy53

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.

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.

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.

[photocat]

I would immediately think of battery problems. Either the battery is not put in well, of has a bit of lee way to go. I have that problem if my battery grip is not tight enough on my D200.
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...

[jmkermath]

can anyone post a solution to this common error on the Nikon D70? Did you find a solution? Thanks, Jeff

Originally Posted by BRATCH

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.

[ziggy53]

Originally Posted by jmkermath

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.

[NikonsandVstroms]

I had that same exact issue/error on my D50 and sent it to Nikon service.

They replaced the shutter assembly and even now with my friend giving it heavy use there are no issues.