WPF - World Photography Forum
Home Gallery Register FAQ Calendar Search Today's Posts Mark Forums Read

Welcome to World Photography Forum!
Welcome!

Thank you for finding your way to World Photography Forum, a dedicated community for photographers and enthusiasts. There's a variety of forums, a wonderful gallery, and what's more, we are absolutely FREE. You are very welcome to join, take part in the discussion, and post your pictures!

Click here to go to the forums home page and find out more.
Click here to join.


Go Back   World Photography Forum > General Photography > The Photography Forum


The Photography Forum General Photography Related Discussion.

Nikon 'CHA' error... you get what you pay for!

Reply
 
Thread Tools
  #1  
Old 30-06-09, 20:14
Canis Vulpes's Avatar
Canis Vulpes Canis Vulpes is offline  
Senior Member
 
Join Date: Dec 2005
Location: United Kingdom
Age: 51
Posts: 4,398
Default Nikon 'CHA' error... you get what you pay for!

For those of you that do not know me, I am a regular at most U.K. airshows. I often travel hundreds of miles and invest time and effort photographing these events. On Sunday I was using my beloved Nikon D2x and 50 shots into the first CF card the letters CHA appeared in the remaining shots top LCD panel and the green drive read/write led was permanently on.

I figured my D2x had bit the dust and the airshow had not even started. Luckily I have a spare body but it not a D2x. I turned it off then on and it seemed okay but when I took a test shot the same thing happened.

I swapped the CF card and all was fine, I have four 2GB CF cards all Lexar 2GB professional 80X that I have used for the past four years.

As the afternoon wore on I was using the CF cards up with no further issues other than being one memory card down. When getting back home I googled Nikon 'CHA' and found it was a memory card issue or memory module of the camera. I have no idea what CHA stands for but its bad news if you are a memory card.

I managed to access the card in a reader and recovered my 50-ish photos but the card has a question mark over it.

Lexar professional cards have a lifetime warranty and I called Lexar on Monday and straight away without quibble they agreed to swap the card.

I am now awaiting a replacement from those nice Lexar people.

I have now purchased a few spare cards but it seems 2GB are out of fashion however they hold 200 RAW D2x images. The 4 and 8GB capacity are more redly available but I could not afford to loose 400 shots if a 4GB failed near full capacity.

I found Warehouse express stocking 2GB 133X professional cards and snapped a few up as spares. Shocking they were only £15ea, the 80X cost £200ea in 2005!

The morale of this story is....... you get what you pay for.....
Reply With Quote
  #2  
Old 01-07-09, 21:29
Joe's Avatar
Joe Joe is offline  
Senior Member
 
Join Date: Jan 2007
Location: Manchester, United Kingdom
Age: 51
Posts: 1,586
Default

Hi there.
I've not had anything with the D2 bodies, but had exactly the same CHA error came up on the top plate LCD of a D1 body. It was more than a little worrying, as I thought it might have been a duff body. It only happened as it tried to write to the card
Like you though, I ditched the card (a 1gb Lexar one, ironically the only Lexar one I had) and stuck in a fresh card. all was well.
I tried replicating it by putting the card in another body, but it never came up with the error again. I think I binned the card (like you've found too....they have gotten so cheap to replace)
I've since thought it might have been related to the little button cell in the body, but since dismissed that idea.
I've even thought it might have been my fault in the way I used the card, ie, deleting photos directly off the card with the Laptop or desktop rather than back in the body.

To be honest though I let it pass as I never had the problem occur again with the D1h,D1x or either D2 bodies, and came to another possible reason that maybe it was because I continually buffered up to the max the original D1, so made the processor work hard (overheat??)..... so I'm glad you brought this back to light but on your D2.
Generally a bit of a mystery, so would be interested if anyone could shed some light??
__________________
primarily using Nikon film and digi kit, and some micro 4/3rds gear for experimenting with old lenses

Last edited by Joe; 01-07-09 at 21:32.
Reply With Quote
  #3  
Old 01-07-09, 22:30
andy153's Avatar
andy153 andy153 is offline  
Senior Member
 
Join Date: Aug 2007
Location: Bodelwyddan Denbighshire
Age: 78
Posts: 5,271
Default

Hi folks, I had it once with the D2H Joe and it was on a 2Gb SanDisk - I spoke to a fellow Nikon Nut and he said it was caused by continually filling the buffer as you suggest Joe, he said I needed to limit the high speed continuous burst I had set at the time - which I think was 20 shots and give the buffer time to recover between bursts if possible and only use high multi frame bursts when absolutely necessary and have a spare body with me if I anticipated a lot of continuous frame shooting. He said that the card should be alright by reformatting in the camera, but I got rid of mine anyway.
__________________
"I take pictures of what I like - if someone else likes them - that's a bonus" Andy M.

http://www.pbase.com/andy153

http://andy153.smugmug.com/

Equipment: Nikon - More than enough !!!
Reply With Quote
  #4  
Old 02-07-09, 07:14
Canis Vulpes's Avatar
Canis Vulpes Canis Vulpes is offline  
Senior Member
 
Join Date: Dec 2005
Location: United Kingdom
Age: 51
Posts: 4,398
Default

I never use burst photography as my subject is always moving, I only release the shutter when I can be confident there would be no or little motion blur. The 'CHA' error occurred taking a single shot.

The nice lady at Lexar suggested that all may be well if reformatted on the computer then in-camera. The camera would not mount the drive so a computer format would be a sensible way round that.

All my cards are reformatted in the camera I would be using on that day so there would have been no slight incompatibility between cameras. I can be like a woman getting ready when preparing and packing my camera gear before a trip.

Back to the nice lady at Lexar, I suggested that I invest time, fuel and entry to events before photography can begin and I did not want a question mark over one card. With that said the card was being replaced by Lexar and should be back today. I did not have to say I paid almost £200 four years ago.

Top job to Lexar!
Reply With Quote
  #5  
Old 02-07-09, 16:19
Joe's Avatar
Joe Joe is offline  
Senior Member
 
Join Date: Jan 2007
Location: Manchester, United Kingdom
Age: 51
Posts: 1,586
Default

Glad to hear you got some excellent customer service from Lexar there Foxy.
Thanks Andy. Blimey, you must have been going some to buffer up the h body. (40 on jpeg and I think about 25-30 on raw or combo shooting). The 1h body was about the same as the 2h, but seem to remember the original D1 was a bit crap on the buffer size, hence why I'd hit the buffer limit a few times.
I will bear this in mind tho when shooting, though the laptop is more likely to queal under the pressure, particularly with the larger x body files....even though I'm guilty of not using RAW mode as often as I should.
__________________
primarily using Nikon film and digi kit, and some micro 4/3rds gear for experimenting with old lenses
Reply With Quote
  #6  
Old 06-07-09, 18:56
Canis Vulpes's Avatar
Canis Vulpes Canis Vulpes is offline  
Senior Member
 
Join Date: Dec 2005
Location: United Kingdom
Age: 51
Posts: 4,398
Default

Replacement card now received unfortunately it was later than expected but it was 4GB!

Yay bonus!
Reply With Quote
Reply


Currently Active Users Viewing This Thread: 1 (0 members and 1 guests)
 
Thread Tools

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is Off
HTML code is Off
Forum Jump


All times are GMT +1. The time now is 21:57.


Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.7.3
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.