Canon 20D FREEZING?

[britt777]

I have owned my 20D since September. The camera has been great, but on some occations I have experienced the camera freezing. It has a display and I get a meter reading and thats it. I go to take picture and camera does nothing. Just locks up! Is anyone having this problem. Any info would be great thanks

[Jon]

How do you get it unlocked? Does it turn off, or do you have to pull the battery? Have you upgraded the firmware (current version is 1.1.0, I understand they're working on aother version)? Do you have the grip attached? Does it happen with any particular lenses, or after the camera's gone into sleep mode? If you search here for 20D lockup you'll find a lot on this. It was reported a fair bit when the camera first came out, but decreased with the 1.0.5 and 1.1.0 firmware upgrades (original firmware was 1.0.2).

[robertwgross]

I have owned my 20D since September. The camera has been great, but on some occations I have experienced the camera freezing. It has a display and I get a meter reading and thats it. I go to take picture and camera does nothing. Just locks up! Is anyone having this problem. Any info would be great thanks

You know that this is exactly what it should be expected to do under certain exposure conditions and modes. You didn't say what mode it was in, or what those conditions were, so it is difficult to figure out whether it was camera error or user error.

For example, did you have a focus lock?

---Bob Gross---

[fotografer10]

Listen, I've had my 20D since Christmas and it just recently started to lockup when I place my Sima 24mm wide angle on it. The shutter just locks open when you fire a shot and I get an ERROR 99 code in the display window. I called Canon and the rep told me that canon does not recomend off brand lenses and Sometimes my off market batteries won't indicate they are charged even though they are. I told him that both the lense and the B511 batteries work fine on all my other cameras including the D60. He first suggested I update to the latest firm ware which is th 1.1.0 VER, but then he decided that maybe I should send it in since its still under warrenty. We will see what happens. as I have just returned it to the service center. By the way it seemed to only lock up with the Sigma lense and with my Canon lenses it was fine.:(

[robertwgross]

I guess you know that this is a common symptom on some older non-Canon lenses, especially when opened up to wide aperture. The body reports Err 99.

---Bob Gross---

[badrotation]

sigma seems to have that problem with their older lenses. You need to send the lens in to be re-chipped so it will be compatible with the 20D

[JATPhotos]

Mine has locked up only once and nothing I did including taking out the batteries helped. I took off the battery grip and installed just one battery and it worked fine after that.
I just shot over 4,000 pictures this weekend during dance competition with the battery grip on and it didn't lock up once. It must have been a loose or bad contact on the grip the time it did happen.

[Bsmooth]

Mines locked up too,using canon's own kit 18-55 lens.No focus lock and in manual on camera and autofocus on the lens.Had to shut it down and take out the battery and CF card.Not sure which one brought it back,but I lost 3 images in the process.
Hopefully it won't happen too often,but I still have no idea what caused it to happen. Sounds typical of most companies who market things and let the public take care of trouble shooting there products in the field.This is a problem that should have been taken care of in the testing of the product.But its so difficult when so many diiferent types of CF cards and different aftermarket lenses are involved.
I'll wait and see what happens with mine,may just be an problem I have to deal with once in a while.

[Andy_T]

It should no longer be a problem now.

We have April and the temperatures are rising :D
However, don't leave your camera out in the car again next winter...

Best regards,
Andy

[StephenJames]

Ive had my 20D for less than a month and it locks up the same way, for no apparent reason. This isnt the same old Error 99 problem. On mine i took out the batteries, removed the lense, put them all back (i have the battery grip BG-E2) and I turn it on and its STILL locked. I just have to redo it a few times and it was okay. This is some new problem i think has to do with the battery grip. It happened to my colleague on 2 different 20D bodies with a grip. He had replaced it replaced twice by Canon Canada for this specific problem. Weird. I hope the battery grip replacement program by Canon addresses this issue.

[FlyingPete]

It should no longer be a problem now.

We have April and the temperatures are rising :D
However, don't leave your camera out in the car again next winter...

Best regards,
Andy

30 seconds in the Microwave also does the trick :D

[drisley]

Ive had my 20D for less than a month and it locks up the same way, for no apparent reason. This isnt the same old Error 99 problem. On mine i took out the batteries, removed the lense, put them all back (i have the battery grip BG-E2) and I turn it on and its STILL locked. I just have to redo it a few times and it was okay. This is some new problem i think has to do with the battery grip. It happened to my colleague on 2 different 20D bodies with a grip. He had replaced it replaced twice by Canon Canada for this specific problem. Weird. I hope the battery grip replacement program by Canon addresses this issue.
Yup, this is caused by the loose fit of the BG-E2.
On occassion it will cause the grip to pull away just enough to cause a temporary power disruption. Sometimes, this quick disruption will result in an ERR99.
I'm on my second BG-E2 with the same problem, and so are many others. It appears to be a design flaw with the grip. I'm sending my second one back to Canon service again, because they said they now know of a fix. However, I have a funny feeling the fix they refer to is the the one that they posted on their website this week, about the AA batteries, and the improper led indicator... 2 different bugs altogether.
The BG-E2 has more bugs than a Fear Factor pizza! :evil:

For the others having ERR99's with sigma lenses, blame sigma.

[trumansmomma]

My 20D froze. I didn't know what to think - I shoot weddings and this scared the heebie jeebies out of me! Luckily, I was at home when this happened, and I was having CF card issues at the same time, so I took the card out, downloaded the images, replaced the card in the camera, reformatted and we were good to go. I didn't touch the battery.

[FlyingPete]

Hmmm it seems most people have freezes with non Canon lenses and the BP.

Has anyone here actaully had a Err99 with a Canon lens, no BP and a recent firmware? Perhaps there is a poll in this?

[drisley]

I've had an ERR99 without the grip and with Canon lenses. But that is not at all abnormal with any Canon SLR. I had the error with my 300D too, and it happens with the 10D, 1DMKII, etc.
This is not a 20D issue.

[ChrisG]

I have two 20D bodies and ONLY Canon lenses and have had numerious lockups where sometimes I had to remove the battery and sometimes just turning it off and on again fixed it. I had more errors when I had the grip but got rid of it due to the problems. I shoot weddings as well and have only had one lockup during a wedding. :evil:

Chris

[drisley]

I had 3 lockups ERR99's with my old DRebel in 6 months.
I've only had one ERR99 with the 20D in 7 months, and that was due to the battery grip.

[Titus213]

dlove posted this just today:

The 20D worked fine at -45 f, but the remote release cable froze solid

Maybe he could help.

[ROY]

20D is 3 months old, locked up with canon lens and no battery grip. I have removed the battery and card etc etc etc etc - still locked.

[TTP]

I have had this problem too.
My camera is a month old. Firmware 1.1
I do use the battery grip.
I had the Canon EF 50mm lense on the body at teh time.
When the camera froze,,I did not remove the battery's etc..
It unfroze itself after about 2 minutes.
Works fine now,,however will never know if or when
it will happen again.

This is a serious issue as it is common amoungst many 20D owners.
I certainly hope Canon is addressing this with some sense of urgency.

[drisley]

TTP, the problem is more than likely with the battery grip.

[rbrannen]

I have had my Canon EOS 20D for about two weeks. The first thing I did was check the Canon Website for Firmware update.... They had released 2.0.0 on 4/19/05. I downloaded the file to the CF card and then uploaded to the camera. I have not experienced any problems.

[TTP]

TTP, the problem is more than likely with the battery grip.

I would have thought the same thing too.
However, some have posted here that they
do not have a battery grip , yet have experienced the
camera malfunction.

[drisley]

This is not specific to the 20D.
ALL CANON DSLR'S WILL EXPERIENCE LOCKUPS, ERR99's from time to time.
However, the 20D is probably the most popular DSLR right now, so there will be more posts about the problem from that camera than any else.

[FlyingPete]

This is not specific to the 20D.
ALL CANON DSLR'S WILL EXPERIENCE LOCKUPS, ERR99's from time to time.
However, the 20D is probably the most popular DSLR right now, so there will be more posts about the problem from that camera than any else.

There must be a sequence of events that triggers this. We know that grips and non Canon lenses increase the chance, but what about the other times? My 20D has never locked up or Err99'd, and it has now taken over 9000 shots, am I just lucky, or do I do something different?

Can anyone remember what they were doing when they had the Err99? I am not worried about this, it is just my engineering problem solving background finds this interesting!

[Neens_wa]

Oddly enough, I came to the forum tonight looking specifically for Error 99 information.

I've had my 20D since mid-to late march, and am shooting images in the 3k range. Today, while shooting a senior portrait, my rig starts locking. No error, no nuthin. I turn it off, then back on. Several times. Remove the battery - nothing. Remove the lens. Nothing...

Finally, I remove the batteries and switch places (these were fully charged right before I left the house, and had only been shooting about 2 hours, roughly 150 images). The camera powered up.

Off and on all afternoon, error 99s. I'm shooting with a grip (never had any issues before), using a 24-70mm 2.8L, 580EX flash with a diffuser. I was in both Manual and AV mode. I even tried auto... At times, my lens was on manual and on autofocus - nothing seemed to matter. My exposures were SOOOOOO off today, everything was over exposed - though my histogram started out displaying like all was hunky dory! As the errors started, I could not get a histogram to display with my information when chimping. I don't chimp for images, but rather to constantly keep an eye on the histogram - especially with the weather we're having, and going from DARK clouds to BRIGHT sun, to mid-point, etc...

Yesterday afternoon, I shot about 3 gigs of rugby images - nary a problem.

I am furious. I didn't shell out this kind of money to have my equipment sporadically function. The more complaints I read, the angrier I get... I know, I'll simmer down in the a.m.... but this really irks me.

I'm off to find out what the scoop is on grips, and firmware.

nina

[robertwgross]

Some 20D cameras will go into this unstable mode without any battery grip or any non-Canon camera involved. Mine seemed to do it once (single shot, evaluative) and I switched the lens to manual focus, which then allowed me to shoot. This is no solution, and it was only one isolated experience.

---Bob Gross---

[drisley]

Neens_wa, the battery grip has a design flaw that causes it to temporarily pull away from the camera and cause a "flicker" power disruption. In my experience, this mainly happens when I have my 420EX flash attached and the camera is held by the grip. With a 580EX you would surely experience this problem, and it will in fact cause all sorts of problems.
I now have tried 2 new grips with the same experience, and just tried another at a local store, same problem. There is a long thread in the accessory forum about this. Many others have experienced the same problem. I bet if I went and tried 10 grips, atleast 9 would show this problem (although I firmly believe all 10 would). The reason most people dont notice a problem is because the temporary nature of the power disruption. I think many believe the power turns off completely, but in fact it only flickers off for a second or less, then the camera turn back on. The only way to notice is attach an external flash, turn on the LCD, hold camera by grip, and give a little shake. The LCD will turn off.
I bet while carrying your camera around with the attachments, the power was disrupted many, many times without you knowing it. FInally it would cause the camera to seize up.
Canon Canada couldnt even fix my initial grip (as they said they could) and finally just sent me a new one, which as I mentioned, did the same thing. When I contacted them about the same problem, they said the Canon just announced that there was a problem with the grip, and they will be recieving parts to rememdy the problem in the next couple of weeks. I tried to tell them that this announcement was related to the 2 other bugs with the grip - aa battery usage and led battery indicator, but they insisted it was about the poor grip contact. I hope they are right, but I doubt it.
The 20D is an awesome camera. I have one of the very first batch from September, and it's been flawless! However, the BG-E2 is a dud in a big way, and is causing intermittent problems that people may be describing here.

[ajkphoto]

First time poster! Got a 20D one week ago after sending in Digital Rebel becuase of consistent error99 code. Shoot regularly with Canon EF 28-105II. First day using the 20D with this same lens got the error 99 code. Discerned that maybe it was the lens so sent that in. Today, doing a shoot with the Canon EF 50mm once again got the error 99 code....after about 500 frames. Turned it off and came right back on just fine! It may be like the whole computer problem....it freezes so you turn it off and it works fine for a while after you turn back on....but not twice within the first week and only second time of using it!!!!! I love everything else about the camera, but this issue is really getting under my skin! Everything has been new except the lens...have a new Canon 85mm coming tomorrow so we will see if things work better then!

I have heard that not all Canon EF lenses are compatible with digital camers....even the Canon ones. I was told they will work most of the time but problems like this will be likely. Has anyone else heard anything like this?

I would love some advice!

[Jon]

Error99 is a catch-all. There could be a problem with the camera, with the lens, with the card, or with user action causing it to show up. Or maybe all of the above working together. If you press the "review" button while the camera's still writing to the card, for instance, you may cause this error to pop up. I've seen it in a lens where the IS has packed up. I haven't heard of anyone experiencing it due to a Canon brand lens being incompatible with a DSLR, just from when the individual lens had a real problem.

[tommykjensen]

The 20D is an awesome camera. I have one of the very first batch from September, and it's been flawless! However, the BG-E2 is a dud in a big way, and is causing intermittent problems that people may be describing here.

My 20D is also from september and I got the grip soon after that. Since then I have only experienced lcokups 3-4 times which I consider no biggy since I just popped the batteries out then back in to solve it.

I have had no problems at all with my grip and I just tried to provoke the problem You described by attaching my 550ex and holding the camera by the grip only. The camera did not freeze.

[BONE1]

I've just got my canon 20d and brought a new Canon: EF 75-300 mm f4/5.6 MK3 NON USM lense for it took a few shots and got an error 99 i did notice the lense motor making a noise whilst attatched even though the camera was not turned on. i took my battery out for a while as suggested in the user manual and still no joy, i put my 18-55 lense back on and it worked fine so i tried the 75-300 again and it errored straight away. i was in manual mode but tried others, firmware version 2

[Jon]

Sounds like a lens problem. Is it under warranty?

[TTP]

First time poster! Got a 20D one week ago after sending in Digital Rebel becuase of consistent error99 code. Shoot regularly with Canon EF 28-105II. First day using the 20D with this same lens got the error 99 code. Discerned that maybe it was the lens so sent that in. Today, doing a shoot with the Canon EF 50mm once again got the error 99 code....after about 500 frames. Turned it off and came right back on just fine! It may be like the whole computer problem....it freezes so you turn it off and it works fine for a while after you turn back on....but not twice within the first week and only second time of using it!!!!! I love everything else about the camera, but this issue is really getting under my skin! Everything has been new except the lens...have a new Canon 85mm coming tomorrow so we will see if things work better then!

I have heard that not all Canon EF lenses are compatible with digital camers....even the Canon ones. I was told they will work most of the time but problems like this will be likely. Has anyone else heard anything like this?

I would love some advice!

Ha!
I wonder if Microsoft had anything to do with designing the camera's internal software then?

[drisley]

My 20D is also from september and I got the grip soon after that. Since then I have only experienced lcokups 3-4 times which I consider no biggy since I just popped the batteries out then back in to solve it.

I have had no problems at all with my grip and I just tried to provoke the problem You described by attaching my 550ex and holding the camera by the grip only. The camera did not freeze.
Well, you wont get a freeze.
Turn your LCD on, and give the camera a shake. See if the LCD turns off (meaning power disruption).

[tommykjensen]

Well, you wont get a freeze.
Turn your LCD on, and give the camera a shake. See if the LCD turns off (meaning power disruption).

The lcd did not turn off. Maybe I am just too carefull in my handling of the camera.

[Stosh]

I didn't have any freeze problem with my 20D (except with my mirror lockup fiasco) until I got my 70-200 F4L about 2 weeks ago. So far 3 times, I take the camera out of the case, try to shoot, and find the aperature reads 0.0 & the camera unrespnsive.
Turning it off does nothing, but I reattach the lens and it seems to solve my problem. I leave my camera on most of the day, & I'm guessing that a tiny amount of flex on the lens mount may move the lens contacts causing an internal fault (just a guess).

I haven't had this problem with my other lenses (all Canon), & the 20D w/ 70-200 f4L mounted is quite a tight fit in my bag (Lowepro Nova 3).

Other than this, shooting with my first L lens has been a blast.

[ssim]

I must consider myself lucky. I have had my 20D for a few months now and have put a few thousand images through it and have not had any lockups on mine. I don't have the batter pack for mine and I use only Canon BP511 batteries.

I am furious. I didn't shell out this kind of money to have my equipment sporadically function. The more complaints I read, the angrier I get.

I'll agree wholeheartedly that these lockups are frustrating and can and will happen at the most inopportune times. I think that we need to take a step back and realize that what we are dealing with here is a mini computer with software. How many times have you had your software on your computer just stop for no good reason. It happens, you restart your computer and life goes on. If it continues you take it to the next level to deal with which is normally the vendor system support.

I had a few Err99 on my 10D when I used it alot. Haven't had any on my MKII but did have and Err02 which is a bad CF Card.

[ROY]

My 20d locked , use only canon lens, downloaded latest software ver 2.0.0 and it is now in the workshops, only 3 months old. This is obviousley more of a problem than canon are letting on.

[drisley]

The lcd did not turn off. Maybe I am just too carefull in my handling of the camera.
Good to hear. Actually with mine it didnt take much of a shake with the 420EX to get it to power off. It happened very easily.

SSIM, I'm like you. I've had the 20D for almost 9 months and it's been flawless (except for the crappy BG-E2). I've had zero lockups in thousands of shots.
My 300D had 2 or 3 lockups (err99's) in just over 4 months.
The 20D is definately rock solid.