The Dreaded Error 30 - Canon 7d

My beloved 7d has been giving me grief with an Error 30 message lately and I'm not sure how to proceed. I bought the camera from a user on here in June of 2012 and it has been great since then. There are only around 35,000 clicks on the camera. I have a backup 50d to use, but I've been extremely spoiled by the autofocus system on the 7d (compared to the 50d) so I'm having withdrawals.

In December I purchased a Canon battery grip because I've been shooting a lot of sports for my college newspaper. I shot a bowl game over the winter break with the grip installed and had no issues. The first basketball game after our winter break is when I initially had the problem. It was towards the end of the game, so I didn't think too much of it. Then the following week it happened again while out on a news assignment. This past Wednesday I shot another basketball game, soI brought a camera from the school just in case my 7d went down again. Sure enough, it crashed before the game even started. My 50d + the school's 60d is not my preferred combination for shooting sports, so I really want my camera back in action.

I've tried disabling live view, taking off the battery grip, and doing the slap trick, but nothing seems to be helping. I haven't been able to get the camera to do an Error 30 at home, only at a sporting event or while on assignment. I've read about other people having this happen with battery grips, but I don't know if that is the cause of my problems.

Are there any known solutions besides sending it in to Canon? Could my grip be the cause of my problems? I'd be pretty bummed if this expensive piece of kit is the cause of me spending even more money.

Most of what I am seeing points to me spending around $250 for a shutter replacement. For anyone who has been in the same boat as I am, does this seem accurate? Is it worth it for a camera that you can buy used for about $500? I'll probably just keep the camera forever if I do send it in. I'm just pretty upset that a shutter rated for 150,000 has died so quickly.

Sorry if I rambled, I'm not too thrilled at the moment. I've also realized my username on this site is very reflective of the 15 year old version of me that made the account in 2009.

-- Chadd

Try going to the menu and performing a manual sensor cleaning. I hear that sometimes works.

Mike

Error code 30 indicates a non specific shutter malfunction

P4ulG wrote in post #17432930
Error code 30 indicates a non specific shutter malfunction

Yep. So don't ask me why the sensor cleaning sometimes works but it does. Besides it is not that hard to try.

Mike

Just tried it. I actually had tried that earlier and forgot I did. After a few test shots it malfunctioned again. I think I'm doomed.

ferraridude777 wrote in post #17432983
Just tried it. I actually had tried that earlier and forgot I did. After a few test shots it malfunctioned again. I think I'm doomed.

Sorry to hear that. Yes it sounds like something is caught up or binding in the shutter. Hope it isn't to serious.

Best of luck to you.
Mike

Thanks for trying! Appreciate it.

Sent an email to Canon tech support as well, we'll see what they say about it.

Do the sensor clean again, then lightly bump the camera on the corner with your hand, take the lens off and the cf card out and set camera to shoot with out cf card. Then perform several high speed burst for several seconds at a time. 1/1000 or higher and high speed continuous burst. It seems to be a common problem with one of the shutter curtains hanging up when not used in high speed burst much. You can google 7d shutter curtain sticking and read more about it.

Tried your suggestion, trx125. After 2 bursts the error occurred again, unfortunately.

Mine went to through the same process, with the Error 30 becoming more frequent. Ended up going to Canon repair for a new shutter box, around $300 USD total.

Damn, that's rough. I'll probably be in the same boat in terms of price. Hooray for being poor too.

https://photography-on-the.net …/showthread.php​?t=1194653

http://photo.net …gital-camera-forum/00WcpB

http://www.flickr.com …iscuss/72157627​532873099/

^^^ read further down^^^ use manual sensor clean and then do the long(60-100 frames) rapid burst no cf card and no lens.

https://photography-on-the.net …read.php?t=1125​003&page=2

Thanks for all the info dude. Unfortunately I had to send it off for repair. Some people get lucky and those home remedies work for them, but I guess it just wasn't in the cards for me. Estimate from Canon at $230. I'm just glad I'll have my camera back soon, as I've got a busy shooting schedule ahead of me.

Thanks to everyone else who tried! Sorry to say that I wasn't able to resolve the issue on my own. Good luck to anyone who finds this by searching in the future, there are plenty of resources here to (possibly) fix your own.