Oh well, D30 flash sync lost

[Pekka]

I've read these stories and of course my D30 got it too, yesterday evening: the flash sync stopped working, so no flash light gets in when shutter is open. Tried it with ST-E2, 2 550EX's and internal flash. I hope Canon would stretch a bit and repair it under warranty. I'll see that on monday.

Maybe they'll return me a 1D by mistake :)

[Rudi]

Great! Another thing to worry about! :(

How many exposures on your D30?

[davenit]

Rudi, how do you check the exposure count?

Thanks... Dave

[Rudi]

Dave,

I've just got my D30 set so that the file numbering increases all the time (it doesn't reset itself when you insert a new CF card). This way I can see at a glance how many exposures my D30 has under its belt. :)

[mrchips]

Good luck with your camera. My D60 was a Canon Professional Services in NJ for 10 days. Every time I called it was the same story "The tecnician has it and it will be a max. of 3 days". I was a little dissapointed in the service I got.
Denny

[Pekka]

Rudi wrote:
Dave,

I've just got my D30 set so that the file numbering increases all the time (it doesn't reset itself when you insert a new CF card). This way I can see at a glance how many exposures my D30 has under its belt. :)


Yep but it goes back to zero after 9990 photos. I think mine has gone "around" at least three times already. I don't really count my shots - that's one of the strenghts of digital right?

[Rudi]

Hey Pekka,

a simple "more than 30,000" would have been sufficient! :)

Seriously, good luck with your camera! Let us all know how it goes with the repair.

[kd6lor]

If I am lucky, Pekka will decide that after 30K mirror filps, shutter trips, autofocus calculations, aperture constrictions, that it is time to buy a D60. Then I can use the generous PS action he will make for it. I can finally use the aftershave action...

Paul



In all honesty, 30 thousand cycles is a hell of a lot considering the mechanical nature of a camera. How many people put their film bodies through 30K cycles.

PJ

[doug1985]

Hi, we use to have a D30 and had the same problem after about 125k photos and i think they just replaced the shudder under warranty

[oops]

Some would argue, me included, that the D30 never had flash sync in the first place.:) Must have been optional equipment on some models and you had to guess which ones.



Chris

[Pekka]

Today I got to the point that they start doing something to my D30. It took them 9 days to evaluate the problem - shutter needs replacing, there were 31000 shots taken. The camera was 8 days waiting for its turn to get this info. I called there and gave my approval to the estimate (309 euros). Now they will actually repair it next monday.

I had an interesting discussion with Canon repair: the guy said that fact is that after Canon D30 shutter does 20000 shots it's out of warranty. The failure treshold info has not been available anywhere else - they knew this info there from Canon Japan. He said that even when you buy a new camera and take 30000 shots and shutter fails in few months it will not be replaced under warranty.

He said that Canon Japan originally thought that D30 was not bought by pro's (not advertised as a pro camera), so the shutter is not pro standard. Now, when they have seen that almost all D30's went to pro use they decided to replace the shutter, whenever it fails, to a new more sophisticated design which is guaranteed for 50000 shots. Some say this is the same shutter D60 uses. In comparison 1D has a "150000 shot" shutter.

When I was flabbergasted to hear the 20000 limit he started explaining how I would have to shoot 1 roll of film a day for 15 years to get to same amount of shots. I obviously told that digital is a totally different concept - I never count shots. In any case a need to replace a shutter almost every year sounds ridiculous.

Other interesting info is that D30 has full shot count there internally, shown by software they only have. So when you want to buy a second hand Canon, get it to repair and have them check that real accumulated shot count. I would love to get my hands on that proprietary software which apparently can be used to calibrate most internal features like shutter speeds in the body.

[miro]

Pekka, was shutter malfunctioning, or they decided to change it based on number of shots taken? In other words, did you notice anything unusual with exposure: underexposed, overexposed, inconsistent exposures etc...? 20000 shots is disturbing. I wonder if extended warranty I bought for the camera would cover that... $315 is a lot of money. I just got 50mm f1.4 lens for that much... :(

[Pekka]

Miro wrote:
Pekka, was shutter malfunctioning, or they decided to change it based on number of shots taken? In other words, did you notice anything unusual with exposure: underexposed, overexposed, inconsistent exposures etc...? 20000 shots is disturbing. I wonder if extended warranty I bought for the camera would cover that... $315 is a lot of money. I just got 50mm f1.4 lens for that much... :(

The problem was flash sync lost, which apparently was diagnosed to malfunction is shutter. Makes sense.

[kd6lor]

Pekka, was the camera out of warranty with respect to time, or only the shutter count? A warranty is a legal agreement, and if it doesn't specify a number of shutter uses they can't just say that it isn't covered.


Paul

[dcornell]

I experienced a similar situation. My D30 lost sync (550EX on full at 2.8 was still dark). Sent it back to Canon and was told by my local repair rep that Canon had to replace the shutter after maybe 25k images. They told him that the next time it goes, I'm on my own. I heard the same "camera wasn't meant for professional use". Right. $3000 camera body and I shouldn't be trying to make money with it.

Sync now works but the camera continues to generate duplicate filenames regardless of the "Continuous Filename" menu setting. Anyone else experience this?

--Doug