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Jan. 6, 2006
I just discovered that my coffee addiction has been messing with my ability to take digital photos—in a very obtuse way. I already knew that too much caffeine makes it hard to hand hold a camera at low shutter speeds without causing blurry photos. To prevent that from happening, I don't drink less coffee--but I always carry an image-stabilized lens with me.
Switching to tea (with half the caffeine) isn't really an option for me either—I just end up drinking twice as much to compensate. In any event, I still put sugar in my tea…and that's the real culprit. It seems those extra sugar packets I occasionally place in my pants and jacket pockets (to tweak a strong cup of java) have a tendency to leak. And loose sugar can cause a Compact Flash memory card to slip into a diabetic coma.
Hold up any CF card and you'll notice two rows of itty-bitty holes along one edge. For somewhat obvious reasons, these are known as the “female” contacts on the card. And yes, they join with the “male' pins on a camera or CF card reader. Those holes are small enough to keep common pocket-held items, and most dirt and dust out. But look closely and you'll notice that they're each about the size of a fine grain of sugar. See where I'm going? What happens if a grain of sugar or two gets in there? Well, it might prevent the “male” pins from making good contact and cause a card reading error, or worse—permanently bend a pin inside your camera or card reader (otherwise known as a sweet tooth?) In the last year, I've had three or four CF cards (including a 4GB favorite) fail on me for no apparent reason. This is an astronomically high failure rate according to the manufacturers.
Fortunately, I had put aside my treasured 4GB card after it failed, instead of tossing it in the garbage. When I figured out the sugar problem, I placed the card in a glass of warm water for a few hours to dissolve any sugar that might be blocking the contacts, then let it dry overnight. Next day it was working perfectly. Lesson learned? From now on, I'll keep those sugar packs out of my pockets, and add a shot of insulin to my camera bag.
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