7D Mark II writes to wrong card

[kitmos]

I bought a 7D mark II and have had an ongoing problem. I have it set to write to Card 1 (CF Card) first and when full to card 2 (SD Card). Several times I pulled the CF Card and put it in my computer but it was blank. When I put the SD card in the card reader my photos are on it. I sent it to Canon and they said there was nothing wrong with it. When I got it back I double checked the settings (correct) it was OK for awhile but then reverted back to writing to the sd card and ignoring the CF card. Having spent $30 to UPS it to them I'm reluctant spendvanother $30 to send it back again.

[ebiggs1]

"... the 1D series seem to do what folks want the code already exists."

I really don't know why I argue with him. He makes so little sense sometimes.  A weakness in my character I suspect.

[kitmos]

So I talked to Canon again today. I'm frankly dissapointed in the quality of advice I have been getting from Canon. Everytime I've talked to them about this problem I get a different answer.
Today they bumped me up to a senior tech and she said that even though the camera is turned off If I close the card door the camera thinks it is activated and finding no card in slot 1 it switches to card 2. I can see this possibly being true in Auto Switch but shouldn't be true in standard setting. So, in theory, if I leave the card open I won't have this problem.
As I understand it from the comments here, the 1D does NOT have this problem so it is a fixable issue.

[MixKat]

kitmos - Thanks for noting this. I'm going to try it on my 7D Mk II as I haven't had to use this function (even though I do run both cards in my camera at the same time).

[Waddizzle]

Okay, I think too much.  Guilty. 

About this writing to the wrong card issue, though.  What happens if you first remove the battery while you exchange cards?

[RobertTheFat]

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@Waddizzle wrote:

Okay, I think too much.  Guilty. 

About this writing to the wrong card issue, though.  What happens if you first remove the battery while you exchange cards?

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From my tests (on my 5D3 and my wife's 7D2) the error occurs with the camera turned off, at least some of the time.

It doesn't matter how it works if you remove the battery. Putting it in your normal workflow to remove the battery while you change out a card is a non-starter. Period. Aside from the fact that it's a totally horse**bleep** procedure, if you can remember to remove the battery, you can remember to reset the card indicator.

Let's face it. And let's try to get Canon to face it. The current behavior is crazy and should be fixed! If you set the camera to use the cards in a particular order, that setting should persist until you change it. If the primary card isn't there, it should default to the secondary card. But if the primary card is put back in, the camera should resume writing to it. All this is so obvious that I can't believe we're discussing it.

[kitmos]

Apparently Canon is not going to change this stupid behavior so I've trained myself to leave the card door open which solves the problem. My other issue with this is that I don't like leaving anything "open" longer that I have. Just invites dirt getting in as well as the (slight) possiblity of the door getting broken off.

[Waddizzle]

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@kitmos wrote:

Apparently Canon is not going to change this stupid behavior so I've trained myself to leave the card door open which solves the problem. My other issue with this is that I don't like leaving anything "open" longer that I have. Just invites dirt getting in as well as the (slight) possiblity of the door getting broken off.

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Who knows?  Maybe they might.  I agree that they should.  Hopefully, they will see your post!

I wasn't trying to open old wounds with my previous post.  I figured the issue was something simple that the programmers overlooked, and you seem to have hit upon the circumstances that "correct" an easily reproducible error.

[diverhank]

I have both the Canon 5D mark III and the 7D Mark II and they both behave exactly the same way.  Agree with you that this is very annoying.  

You should be glad you don't have the 5D Mark III because it's even more annoying when the SD slot is a lot slower than the CF slot in speed (even though I have fast SD card) and the buffer is small.   When you shoot at high speedthe slow SD card slot  will just sit there flashing after a couple of seconds worth of shots.  This had caused me to lose a few precious action shots.  The 7DII is much better in this department...the SD card slot is just as fast as the CF card slot from what I can tell.

I have worked it in my work flow that every time I turn the camera on, I'd press the Q button and make sure it's on the CF card.  After a few times, it's pretty much automatic for me.

[jrhoffman75]

Exactly Bob. You beat me to it. I don't have a 7D, so I'm not sure of this, but it might be possible to set a My Menu entry to the function. If so, select My Menu, select the option and there it is.