MFDB jam: what #$%@! happened?

[lowep]

I took my eMotion75 with Contax 645 out this afternoon to snap a few test shots before heading out of town. Much to my surprise I got a red warning screen advising me the back had a communication problem with the camera; after I turned the camera off and on again the warning screen disappeared; but when I fired the next test shot a nasty red dot appeared in the place of the green OK button on the MFDB and everything froze.  

As you can imagine I was happy when I turned the MFDB back off and on again that everything seemed to be working as usual - until I took another test shot and the MFDB jammed again; refusing to respond to any menu buttons or to switch off though this time the green OK button remained lit.  

When I opened the battery/CF card door on the side of the MFDB the red light that indicates the back is writing to the CF card was lit. Not being made of stone I was VERY tempted to just remove the battery and reboot until I checked the instruction manual that says: "When an image is being recorded on the CF card, the CF card symbol lights up in red. The CF card must not be removed from the Sinarback eMotion while the CF card symbol is lit up in red" so instead decided to do nothing and see if anything happened.  

After a few minutes the red light went off, the menu buttons unfroze and I was able to turn the MFDB off normally via the power switch on the back of the unit. Now I just took another shot and everything appears to be working normal again.  

Fortunately this happened on home turf during a test rather than out in the field. Just not sure what happened? Could this problem be corrupt firmware, loose connection of MFDB to camera, corrupt CF card, all of the above, or...?

[revaaron]

side note: shooting a wedding 2 weekends ago BOTH of my partner's camera's had the same part fall out with in 1hr of each other. (canon 5d mirror).

[lowep]

So did they agree to repeat their wedding for you?

[TH_Alpa]

I don't think this is a serious issue, rather a mishandling in connection with CF card recording.

Thierry

Could this problem be corrupt firmware, loose connection of MFDB to camera, corrupt CF card, all of the above, or...?

[Graham Mitchell]

It's worth trying a new CF card.

[revaaron]

So did they agree to repeat their wedding for you?

heh, I was there with 3 nikons so it was all good.

[Jack Varney]

I live near the ocean in Florida and find it necessary to frequently clean the contacts between the P45+ back and the Mamiya to which it is attached. Even though these contacts are gold plated it is not a guarantee against poor continuity. Perhaps this is your problem.

[lowep]

thanks for the reassuring feedback - looks like one of those paranormal black hole/glitch/bad-hair-day thingies. Just reformatted the CF card, rubbed the gold contacts with a microfiber cleaning rag, sacrificed three chooks and everything seems to be working ok.

Just in case this ever happens again am contemplating investing in 3 nikons and a partner with 2 canon 5ds as back up (given the weight maybe 5 M9s instead?) -- though have not made this jump yet.

[bcooter]

With the Contax, it 's rock solid if prior to every shoot you take all the lenses, prisms, backs and polish the contacts.  Not just clean them or rub them with a solution, but really polish them with a lint free towel like your polishing a jewel.

Then as long as the prisnm mounts securly your good to go.

If you live next to a costal area, or shoot on the beach you have to do this more often.

The one and only one glitch with the Contax is it's easy to break to mounts that hold the prism onto the body, which will result in movement and erratic performance.

You can get extra pins from ToCAD but the best way to avoid this is to travel with the prism off the body and never pick up the camera by the prism.

Other than that the Contax is dead solid forever.

IMO

BC