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Found An E-20N : The Good, The Bad

Started 11 months ago | Discussions
Hike Pics
Hike Pics Senior Member • Posts: 2,917
Found An E-20N : The Good, The Bad

Picked up one of these this past week for $22 US. It is in great condition physically (screen is perfect) and everything seems to work as it should. However, the camera reports all 5 of my CF cards as "Card Error". I have formatted each card (fat16) and the camera will not use them or format them.

It can use my only SM card just fine. But it's a 32mb card and can only hold 8 shots at SHQ. I looked at getting a larger capacity card but WOW they are not cheap these days. $30 for 128mb! Yeah, they cost much more back in the day, but still.

I doubt there are many people using these cards for cameras. I know they were used in older synthesizers, sounds modules and other music gear and there has been a resurgence for a few years now.

Michael Meissner
Michael Meissner Forum Pro • Posts: 27,998
Re: Found An E-20N : The Good, The Bad

Hike Pics wrote:

Picked up one of these this past week for $22 US. It is in great condition physically (screen is perfect) and everything seems to work as it should. However, the camera reports all 5 of my CF cards as "Card Error". I have formatted each card (fat16) and the camera will not use them or format them.

Given the price, it may be the original owner may have bent the pins in the CF drive. I've done it in various readers, but I never did it in one of my CF using cameras. I do recall reading posts of other poor souls that did damage their CF pins. As I recall, in the last few years of using the E-5, I would never remove the card from the camera, just upload it via USB so I didn't run the risk of bending the pins.

My memory is I probably paid at least $30 for 128MB Smart Media cards back in the day (i.e. when I was actively shooting with SM cameras, roughly 2001 - 2013). I last used SM in my C-2100UZ 2-3 years ago, and it looks like my SM cards are starting to age, as I lost a few pictures due to media errors.

You may know this (or not), but the older SM cards were 5 volts instead of 3.3 volts, and couldn't be used in the later cameras.  So if you are buying smaller SM cards (2-4 M?), be sure they are 3.3 volts.

According to Wikipedia, production on SM cards ended in 2006.

 Michael Meissner's gear list:Michael Meissner's gear list
Olympus Stylus 1 Olympus TG-5 Olympus E-M5 III OM-1 Olympus M.Zuiko Digital ED 9-18mm F4.0-5.6 +13 more
Hike Pics
OP Hike Pics Senior Member • Posts: 2,917
Re: Found An E-20N : The Good, The Bad

The first thing I did when it showed the first CF card error was to check the pins. They are fine, none bent or broken.

The manual reads that the camera can only use 3.3v cards. I have an older 3.3MP camera that uses 3.3v SM cards. I have an 8mb card in it.

The idea of using a data cable for these old timers is wise. Almost every camera I have that uses CF cards have data cables.

A $30 card is about the same price as another camera, or less. I know this camera works so a card is my best bet.

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