shutter problems ... dead?

Hi all

I have a bit of problem with the 10D i bought 8 months ago. The sutter seems to freeze at one point. the "first click" of the shutter is fine, but it is like if the "second click" was hanging up.

the camera diplyas a err 99 message and freeze completely. the only thing i can do at this stage is to reboot it (switch off and on again). i can take one or two shots sometime, but it always end up in a freezing mode .

so i would like to know if any of you had this problem, and if you think that it could be that the shutter mechanism is dead? i am far from the theoretical shutter cycle limit though.

thanks for your opinion.

Dan

Dan, what lens are you using?

The reason I ask is that I had a similar problem when I bought my 10D which turned out to be the sigma lenses (from my old EOS100F kit). I sent the lenses back to sigma under an exchange deal and the new ones work fine. I have recently had a the same problem with a sigma 125-400 lens which had seemed fine up until now, but gives me a problem whenever I try to use less than maximum aperture. The symptoms are:
- lens focuses OK
- press the shutter button - mirror flips up - viewfinder goes black
- camera stops with error 99 flashing, and mirror locked up.
- turning off camera resets fault and allows mirror to return.

Do you have another lens you could try? (preferably canon if not already)
or, try shooting in manual (or P mode) with maximum aperture selected.
another possible clue is that the depth of preview button has no effect.

If using a different lens or the maximum aperture setting 'cures' the problem then I'd get the lens checked out. (maybe dirt on the contacts??)

hope i'm making sense here

I had exactly the same problem with my EOS 30 when using an older sigma lens. I spoke to sigma about it and the rep said pretty much the same as swampthing, that if the aperture has to be stopped down it will lock the camera up - and it needed re-chipping (£35 quid in the UK as I didn't buy the lens new I decided it was time to buy a decent lens anyway as that sigma sucked.

Hi again.

thank you for your answers. unfortunately i think the problem i have is not related to the lens i use (i wish it was). I have two canon lenses which i have used for ages and with previous camera bodies, and tried both of them with the same result. I have also fired up the camera withtout a lens a couple of time, and had the same problem.

Also the problem swampthing mentionned is a bit different. In my case the mirror goes down before i switch the camera off.

so thank you for your help, i think i ll just send the camera back to canon and see what they say/do.

Thnaks

Dan

Petiot,

I agree that your problem is most likely NOT lens related in this case.
"error99" is reported by the camera whenever there is an error that the camera can NOT diagnose. In essence it means "There is an error and I can not function, but I don't know what is causing it"


Any other error # you may recieve would have a specific identified cause.

The lens issue is indeed a rampant cause of "error99",. but the symptoms were there even in the newest 10Ds. I don't think it is related to your problem.

You could however try make sure that the contacts between lens and body are clean and tight.

I got some error 99 in the last feew months due to the shutter freezing in extreme cold weather.

I have not been able to duplicate the failure since (crossed fingers) but it could have been the cold temperature effecting the shutter itself,.. or it could even have been the cold temps causing a voltage/amperage drop in the batteries??? I did try several lenses at the time,. and like your situation,. it would shoot a few,. then error99 forcing me to "reboot"

Bottom line,. it sounds like your shutter is sticking. This can happen. First,.. recharge your battery. and if you have a second battery try that.. see if you can trace it to a battery failure.

If not,. it's off to Canon service for your 10D

Hi again again

Thanks cyberdynsystems for your insight. I didnt think of the cold as being part of the problem . i will try both batteries i have, sounds like a good idea

thanks again

Dan

I had a very similar problem. Frequent Err 99s, using Canon Lenses. I found rotating the camera from portrait to landscape position caused more frequent occurrence of the problem. Only way I could get the error to clear was to use the internal flash, and somehow that would get everything working again--temporarily. My camera took two trips to Irvine to fix the problem. The first time they replaced the shutter element. I saw little to no improvement in my problem when the camera came back. I then started having problems with the shutter synching up with the flash, both internal and external. The second time they replaced the camera head which is the top part of the camera with the built in flash and the majority of the electronics. Second trip seems to have fixed the problem--no more Err 99s. So, what sometimes looks like a shutter problem, might be an electronic problem.

Go ahead and give up your baby for a week and ship it off to Irvine for repairs. Call ahead and if you are real nice, they may even arrange for UPS to pick it up from you with shipping pre-paid.

well, thank you again. I hope i wont have as much trouble as you had. i also hope that they will try the camera before sending it back to me, and that wont send me back a camera "half fixed". thank you for the tip about being nice!! i usualy try to, but when it comes to the camera gear i can get upset sometime!!

I had the same problem with my original 10d. I sent it back and got a new body. Three weeks later it started again. Sent the body back and got another. Six weeks later it started again. Sent the camera back and got another. So far no problems with this one, and my other one bought at the same time. I have had them for about 9 months. I found that the error 99 was not related at all to lens' or batteries or storage. I tried all combinations of them all and the camera was consistant in its error 99 message. I called Canon several times and they only said send it in and we will fix it or replace it. I never sent it to Canon but returned it to my retailer who replaced it and I assume sent the defective camera to Canon.