Tech Tip: Submerged CF Card

I was just down in Miami this week shooting an advertising campaign on the edge of a pool. One thing lovely about the 1Ds MKIII is that when you eject a CF card, it likes to launch it as if it were a cannon ball. Seeing that the camera was vertical on a tripod, when I ejected the card, it shot straight out the back faster than I could catch it and it went fumbling into the pool with full of our last series of images.

My assistants quickly rushed it off to the hair department to dry it out with a hair dryer. After some TLC, and some dry heat application we took it over to digital to see if it was ok. Luckily being the solid state memory it was we were able to download the images on the card just fine.

After downloading the card, they taped it up, labeled it "H2O" and told me I should not use it again.

Moral of the story: Don't drop your CF cards in the pool.

Comments

[Terence Patrick]

What a close call. Did the client freak out?

[Doug]

HA! This happened to me last year at a hotel. I dried it the same way you did and saved the images, labeled the card, and put it in the back of my bag. I'm not really afraid to use it again if I have to, but it's my last ditch card for sure.

[Ja Tecson]

yikes! that happened this to me too. It's effin scary, but I was able to salvage them too, thank god. Glad eveyrthing worked out.

[stikman]

good one nick. Happened to me once too, only it was pics of my kid by our pool, so I wasnt sweating the images, saved em anyways with a heat gun on low setting.
Take care and keep living the dream

[Steven Noreyko]

FWIW - I dropped a CF card in a puddle once and after drying I continued to use the card with zero problems.

I've also heard of people accidently putting CF cards through the washing machine. :)

Of course given the low cost of CF cards these days, your choice to "retire" the card is probably a good idea - esp. for client work.

[Pants pockets o' doom ...]

Several times I have washed cards (we use SanDisk ExtremeIII 2 and 4 meg) in the washing machine. They have never been through the dryer though. (I tend to forget anything left in my pants pockets.)

Never had a problem with the cards afterwards. I let them dry on their own for a day, and they have worked fine since.

I have, to my wife's dismay, ruined a cell phone by putting it through the wash. I now use a G'z One Boulder for my phone. I am able to report that it can survive a washing machine.

Pants pockets o' doom ...

[Pants pockets o' doom]

(Oops, I meant 2 and 4 Gig cards. In any case, they survived the washer.)

[Borut Peterlin]

Send me the card. I washed it in a washing machine and after being a bit careful first half a year to what motifs am I going to use that card, now I'm using it without any prejudice.
It's no problem!
B5

[alex Menendez]

My father in law would say this...." Don't do that!".

I don't know why I posted this, his voice just came into my head while I was reading this post. Carry on.....

alex

[Simon McConico]

That is crazy, had a memory stick go through the wash once in a pair of jeans. I was freaking. Put it in the comp and it was still good. I was impressed.

[robert benson]

It will be fine. You can submerge and reuse those things all you want. Check this out:
http://robertbenson.com/blog/?p=1813

[LeonorKent]

Some time ago, I did need to buy a good house for my firm but I did not have enough money and could not purchase something. Thank God my sister suggested to get the home loans at creditors. So, I acted so and used to be satisfied with my small business loan.

[Timberland Boots Sale]

mean I just read through the entire article of yours and it was quite good but since I'm more of a visual learner,I found that to be more helpful.

[Asics Tiger]

mean I just read through the entire article of yours and it was quite good but since I'm more of a visual learner,I found that to be more helpful.