SD card stuck in camera (GF1)

[sinophilia]

So... I had the bad idea to put an unreadable SD card with a broken plastic corner in my GF1 to see if I could format it in the camera... and then it wouldn't pop out anymore. I had to pull to take it out. After that I inserted another SD card, a working one, and now there's no way to take it out either. It looks like the eject mechanism/spring is bent or broken or whatever.

Anyone knows how the card eject mechanism works? I guess I'll have to take the camera to some repair shop.

 

[sinophilia]

Judging from the number of replies, it looks like nobody had the same misadventure

Anyway, just wanted to let you know that Panasonic repaired my camera under warranty, I had a local reseller send it away and got it back in 10 days. Brilliant! :smile:

 

[Streetshooter]

This thankfully is not a common issue.
We all here on the forum appreciate you doing this experiment and posting the results.
Thanks for your update on the solution.
Shooter

 

[BBW]

What a relief sinophilia! Gosh, I could almost feel the sweat breaking out when I read your first post. I'm so glad your GF1 is all well again and back in your hands.

You've been missed here!

P.S. I now see what you've been up to via blipphoto! That explains why I haven't seen you on Flickr. Naughty. I hate it when people do that and then I don't know where I can see their photos. Glad to know you've been busy!

 

[A.Tan]

how did you break the corner of your SD card? Glad your camera is fixed now.

 

[sinophilia]

how did you break the corner of your SD card? Glad your camera is fixed now.

I think my cheap SD card reader did something to the card...

@BBW
Thank you, I definitely neglected my GF1 lately but I intend to pick it up more often now! I kept lurking the forum though.

 

[Wasabi Bob]

Had this happen to me.

I had the same problem on my GH1, caused by a cheap card I bought on EBAY. If you force it out you can easily damage the SD card mechanism. Replacing it is not easy as he connections are soldered to the main PCB.

If the camera is in warranty just get it to Panasonic and tell them the card won't come out. They fixed mine at no charge.

 

[sinophilia]

Yep in the end that's what I did Bob, the dealer was very helpful and said the best thing to do was exactly that, even if it was a silly problem there was no way I could have opened the camera myself to fix it.

My card was a standard Sandisk one, but I think it got broken by the card reader. Something to be careful about.