5D Mirror Question

Don't tar and feather me if the answer is somewhere in this forum. I did try a search, but couldn't find what I wanted.....

I've got a 5D that was purchased in December 2007. I've emailed Canon with the purchase date and serial number asking if the one I have was one of the affected cameras or had the problem been fixed prior to this date. I got back a response that was generic more or less stating that if the mirror had not fallen off don't bother to send it in, but if I'm really concerned they would send me the mailing label so I could send it for the fix. Also mentioned it could be a long wait, as mirrors that were broken took priority.
Anyone know if all 5D's had this problem throughout manufacture or just those of certain dates of manufacture.

Also does the mirror problem cause total failure or can it be partial and cause occasional dark corners in an image? I had a few 5D images that had some varying degrees of dark corners, but there was also a possibility the camera strap may have found its way in front of the lens and caused it.

1 - All 5D's had the potential problem with faulty mirror hangers.
2 - The mirror falls off the brackets. I would call that total failure.

The problem normally seems to occur in hot/moist climates which causes problems with the glue.

For the fix they replace the mirror brackets. Here in western Canada it took 3 weeks - had to ship to Toronto.

There are at least 10 threads in the last 3 months about this topic. Search for 5D mirror and you should get them

The retrofit didn't exist until Feb. 1, 2009. So, yours would not have it. Try calling the number below. I had excellent customer service when I called about the mirror. When I sent my 5D in I got it back about 2 weeks after I dropped it off at UPS. My mirror had not fallen off. I was just being proactive and the CS rep. said that was fine. I don't think there's any partial failure. If the mirror were to fall off it would render the camera unusable.

Contact Information for Inquiries:
Customer Support Center
1-866-422-2965 (toll free)
8:00 a.m. - Midnight, EST - Monday to Friday
10:00 a.m. - 8:00 p.m., EST - Saturday

mine came back from jamesburg in a week

I had that problem a month ago and ended up having a good experience with the repair. I went to Canon's website and printed out the press release regarding the mirror problem so I could quote it to the guy on the phone if he wanted to argue with me about the repair being covered. He was actually quite helpful but did mislead me when he said the repair would take 3 weeks to allow the glue time to dry. That was an outright lie as you will see below but I didn't really care at the time as I had to send the camera in ( my mirror did detach and I have a 20d as backup so it wasn't like I would be without a camera). They emailed me a shipping label the next day and I printed it out and gave it to my local UPS store. I got an email from Canon when it arrived n NJ a couple of days later, another 2 days later saying they were done and the camera was on its way to me (3 weeks? Huh?). They shipped it back via FedEx overnight and the only glitch was that no one was home to sign for it when they dropped it off so I had to go to FedEx to pick it up. I sent it off on a Friday and got it back on Thursday, so the whole process took 6 days, which I thought was pretty good. This pretty much reinforces my previous experience with Canon service, which can be found here. Although I do find it a little disheartening that both my Canon DSLRs have needed warranty repairs. Also, be aware that all your custom functions and other settings will be reset to the original settings by the repair center.

And to answer your question about failure modes, when my mirror fell off, the camera suddenly stopped focusing, I was able to take one picture which was blurry and had a big black blotch from the mirror sitting in front of the sensor, and then I was unable to see anything in the viewfinder. As soon as I took the lens off the problem was obvious.

Canon recently tried to deter me from sending mine in, I had to insist they fix it. Once in the repair was very fast.

Thanks all... I think I'm going to give them a call this week and arrange to send it in. If I wait, the mirror will probably fall off at a time when I really need the camera the most, at least that's the way it usually happens.

I sent mine in prior to having the mirror fall off...Why wait for it to break and possible damage something else too. It`s not a problem to send it in and have it done even if it hasn`t failed.
Don`t ship it in the original (you wont get it back) box, remove everything from the body including the strap, battery, CF Card and lens. Pack it in a brown box and have canon generate a shipping label and identification number by contacting them through they`re website.