C300: C300 Mark II CFast Data Corruption Due to Lens Swap?

N

nagymatt

Member
I've had the C300MKII since early September and I've now ran across a problem twice and it's rather disturbing. I'm using Lexar CFast 2.0 3400x cards and I've had data corruption on 2 separate cards. The first time it happened was after a lens swap from the Canon 100-400 IS II to the Canon 24-105. Shot with the 100-400, powered the camera down, swapped the lens to 24-105, powered the camera up, and got the "Some clips require data recovery" error. It corrupted the last 3 clips on the card, but the other 60 or so were just fine.

Today, I was on a shoot. Almost the same thing. Shooting with the 100-400, powered down, swapped lens back to 24-105, and when I powered back on it I got a different error, something along the lines of "File structure error" or "File Directory Error" (not finding this error in the manual). CFast card shows no clips at all on the card, not even when I read it on the Mac. The CONTENTS folder is empty. However this time I had an SD Proxy and all of the files and footage are there. Shooting 10-bit YCbCr 1920x1080 23.98. Powering camera from AB power source.

Could this be related to a lens communication issue when swapping lenses from the 100-400 IS II to a different lens? Maybe the camera freaks out when it powers back up? I've used the 24-105 and 70-200 combo on several shoots, multiple lens swaps and battery changes. Shot an entire day's worth of media and no issues, so it seems a little suspect that it's happened both times I've switched from the 100-400. Any thoughts?
 
Don't have a Mk II (yet) but I have found that many recent cameras take a while to shut down, almost like shutting down a computer. On my C300 the LEDs above the memory cards go off in about 1 second, but on Sony PMW200 and on an FS7, I noticed that they stay on for 4-5 seconds. That's an eternity when you're shooting. Could the C300 Mk II take longer than the Mk I? Could you have pulled that lens before the camera was done shutting down?
 
Maybe a dumb question: Are the cards you're using on Canon's approved media list? I found out several years ago do not use cards/media that haven't been vetted by the equipment manufacturers. I was having issues with simple MP3 tracks on my SD 664(fortunately just during initial testing before it went on a real job). I was using high quality Lexar Pro cards that more than met the speed requirements, but they weren't on the approved list. Switched to approved cards and everything was fine. After that I ONLY use manufacturer approved media.
 
Ive been using the 3400 cards like you and haven't had any problems yet. I've swapped lenses after powering down as well. Are you running the latest firmware on the MK II?
 
Hot swapping lenses actually is very important for me.. I am just one step away from upgrading from a C100 to a c300 mk2 and that is one little Detail i want to be sure about.. any further practical Infos about this would be great.. thanks :-)
 
BigDuck said:
Don't have a Mk II (yet) but I have found that many recent cameras take a while to shut down, almost like shutting down a computer. On my C300 the LEDs above the memory cards go off in about 1 second, but on Sony PMW200 and on an FS7, I noticed that they stay on for 4-5 seconds. That's an eternity when you're shooting. Could the C300 Mk II take longer than the Mk I? Could you have pulled that lens before the camera was done shutting down?
Click to expand...

+1 could anybody with a c300 mark II try to replicate this error by quickly changing lenses, in a test setting :evil:...
 
tet20 said:
Hot swapping lenses actually is very important for me.. I am just one step away from upgrading from a C100 to a c300 mk2 and that is one little Detail i want to be sure about.. any further practical Infos about this would be great.. thanks :-)
Click to expand...

Been hot swapping at least 10 times a day for the last 4 weeks and no problems. You can be sure, this camera is a beast
 
I'm going to try to replicate the problem this weekend, and see if it's related to this specific lens. I'm running the latest firmware. I'm almost 99% sure I did not hot swap the lenses when I encountered this problem. I now have several of the new Lexar 3500x cards which are now C300 Mark II certified, so I will try with those and my original 3400x cards as well. I'll keep everyone posted. Thanks for sharing your ideas.
 
Where did you get the 3500x cards from? It's still listed as "Pre-order" from B&H. Are you keeping or returning the 3400x cards then?
 
I pre-ordered them from Adorama back in October and they just shipped this week. Not sure what I'm going to do with the 3400x cards. Can't return them. Might just have to sell them.
 
Hmm, I see they are available at Adorama. It's been less than 30 days since I bought my 3400x, so I can probably still return them.

I'm still confused about what makes the 3500x compatible and the 3400x not "officially" compatible. Perhaps a phone call to Lexar is in order for an answer to that question.
 
Did some testing to see if I could replicate this problem and unfortunately I could not. I tried man combinations to see if I could get the data to corrupt or give an error message, but to no avail. I tried with both the Lexar 3400x card that I had issues with, and a brand new Lexar 3500x card. Tried cold swaps, hot swaps, and hot swaps where I removed the lens, then powered down the camera and attached the lens. All clip data integrity is intact on both cards and the proxy SD card. Planning to give Canon a call and see if they give me an idea of what might have caused the error message I saw.
 
Wanted to give everyone an update. While I don't have an exact resolution for this, I talked with an EOS product development tech and several other Canon reps at GV Expo last week here in DC. Basically, they said that you should not use Lexar cards under any circumstances in the C300 Mark II. They said only use Sandisk. They aren't sure what Lexar does to their cards but they said these random issues like I mentioned come up and I believe the quote was "you won't know when it's coming, but they'll burn you." So as of right now, there are only 3 approved cards for the C300 Mark II on their list. All Sandisk, in 128, 64, and 32 GB varieties. I asked about Lexar's new 3500x cards and they said they aren't approved for the camera even if Lexar is advertising they are.
 
Like I said, ONLY use cards on the manufacturers approved list. It doesn't matter if the cards meet the speed/spec requirements, etc. Doesn't matter if something else has worked for your buddy, or website/blogger X says, "This card works regardless of what the manufacturer says, use it". Yes, ANY piece of individual memory could fail, but play the odds. If you use unapproved media and have a failure/problem, you have NO ONE to blame except YOURSELF.

The funny thing is, in my Canon still cameras I use all Lexar Pro cards, but in my C300 I use all San Disk. And I remember a few years ago, Convergent Design PULLED SanDisk from their approved list with the Nano Flash, because they changed something in the manufacturing process with their cards that caused errors.
 
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