My CF card can't be read

Your card is somehow corrupted or not formated for the Canon EOS rebel

Your CF pins in the camera are most likely bent/broken. This is a very common problem. Most repair shops will charge $150-$200 to repair this.

Hope this helps.

Wes

Not all CF cards are created equally, so yes, it could be your batch of cards. To determine if the error is CF related, and not anything else, try the following steps which are used to diagnose err 99's

To isolate the cause of the issue, do the following: -

1. Turn off the camera.
2. Remove the lens, battery, and CF card.
3. Allow the camera to sit without power for approximately 20 minutes.
4. Insert only a fully charged battery, and turn on the camera.
5. Depress the shutter button as you would to take a picture.


Does the “ERR 99′ message appear? If so, the camera may be faulty and requires a service. If it does not, then: -

1. Turn off the camera.
2. Insert the CF card.
3. Turn on the camera.
4. Format the CF card in the camera.
5. Depress the shutter button as you would to take a picture.


Does the “ERR 99′ message appear? If so, then the CF card is faulty. Try a different card. If the message does not appear: -

1. Turn off the camera.
2. Clean the gold contacts on the lens by GENTLY rubbing them with a pencil eraser or soft cloth. Keeping the camera face pointing down, also clean the gold contacts on the camera, being careful that you do not let any debris fall into the camera body.
3. Reattach your lens.
4. Turn on the camera.
5. Depress the shutter button as you would to take a picture.
If the “ERR 99′ message only appears when one particular lens is attached, then that lens should be examined by a service technician.
If you see the “ERR 99′ with a different Canon lens attached, then the camera is faulty and should be serviced.

Are you using a typeII Cf card. You might try reformatting the card. Or go pick up a type II or III card, the type IV's seem to not do as good in the Canon..

Hi! I just had the same problem with my Sony A100, when I tried two different CF cards. I was getting the same error message as reported above: "Unable to use card" then "Format?" then that format fails. Thinking the camera is broken, I checked online camera repair sites and also called Sony directly. Sony's flat rate, and that of PrecisionCamera is $228 to fix CF card failure. Then my daughter said, "the CF card in my room works fine in the camera" - and lo and behold - it does. The CF card that works is brand PQI and is marked Hi-Speed 60 2Gb. The cards that do NOT work are marked SanDisk Ultra II 1.0Gb and SanDisk 128 Mb. So my advice is, before you give up on the camera as broken, try a number of different CF cards first.

The second cause of CF failure is if someone has pushed a CF card in the wrong way. That can bend one or more of the tiny metal contact pins in the CF socket in the camera. Look carefully to see that all the pins are straight up. [I don't know how one can straighten these pins, or if the whole socket would need to be replaced...but at least you can determine the cause of the CF failure.]

Best regards - Michael

These are steps to Fix Err 99's, have a go and see if resolves your other problem too.

To isolate the cause of the issue, do the following: -
1. Turn off the camera.
2. Remove the lens, battery, and CF card.
3. Allow the camera to sit without power for approximately 20 minutes.
4. Insert only a fully charged battery, and turn on the camera.
5. Depress the shutter button as you would to take a picture.

Does the “ERR 99′ message appear? If so, the camera may be faulty and requires a service. If it does not, then: -
1. Turn off the camera.
2. Insert the CF card.
3. Turn on the camera.
4. Format the CF card in the camera.
5. Depress the shutter button as you would to take a picture.

Does the “ERR 99′ message appear? If so, then the CF card is faulty. Try a different card. If the message does not appear: -
1. Turn off the camera.
2. Clean the gold contacts on the lens by GENTLY rubbing them with a pencil eraser or soft cloth. Keeping the camera face pointing down, also clean the gold contacts on the camera, being careful that you do not let any debris fall into the camera body.
3. Reattach your lens.
4. Turn on the camera.
5. Depress the shutter button as you would to take a picture.
If the “ERR 99′ message only appears when one particular lens is attached, then that lens should be examined by a service technician.
If you see the “ERR 99′ with a different Canon lens attached, then the camera is faulty and should be serviced.

The manual says when this comes up, it means there is a problem with pictures being recorded or read. You should transfer whatever pictures you have on there to a computer and then format the card. Make sure you format the card in the camera via the menu.

Rob

Try the following diagnosis steps, in this exact order. This will isolate the cause of the issue: -
1. Turn off the camera.
2. Remove the lens, battery, and CF card.
3. Allow the camera to sit without power for approximately 20 minutes.
4. Insert only a fully charged battery, and turn on the camera.
5. Depress the shutter button as you would to take a picture.

Does the “ERR 99" message appear? If so, the camera may be faulty and requires a service. If it does not, then: -
1. Turn off the camera.
2. Insert the CF card.
3. Turn on the camera.
4. Format the CF card in the camera.
5. Depress the shutter button as you would to take a picture.

Does the “ERR 99" message appear? If so, then the CF card is faulty. Try a different card. If the message does not appear: -
1. Turn off the camera.
2. Clean the gold contacts on the lens by GENTLY rubbing them with a pencil eraser or soft cloth. Keeping the camera face pointing down, also clean the gold contacts on the camera, being careful that you do not let any debris fall into the camera body.
3. Reattach your lens.
4. Turn on the camera.
5. Depress the shutter button as you would to take a picture.

If the “ERR 99" message only appears when one particular lens is attached, then that lens should be examined by a service technician.
If you see the “ERR 99" with a different Canon lens attached, then the camera is faulty and should be serviced.

Can you read the card in your camera?
If you cannot read the card in the camera...wow and ouch.
Try to get the card to a friend or someone who can read the CF.
Then see if they can read the card.

Hate to say it, but with an error like that, it may mean that the CF card is not working.

Are you trying to read the CF card on a reader on the computer?
Try your usb cable to the computer instead of the reader.

It is possible that the driver has become corrupted for the reader on the computer. Try the above, see what happens.

Problem #1
this is not a problem.. if you leave the camera in the ON setting for long enough.. it goes to sleep ... in order to conserve battery life.. you need to keep some of the buttons pressed for a bit for it to wake up... e.g. keep the picture taking button depressed for 5 secs.

Problem #2
If you were checking the pictures after just shooting them then its probably a CF card problem. You can also get the same error .. i.e. corrupted files from the cameras perspective.. if you use a CF card reader and try to change the pictures on the card.
You should try to connect the CF card that has those pictures to a computer it might be able to open them.. .

Otherwise try another CF card.