Have I damaged my new 7D and or 70-300L IS USM Lens?

Please make me happy! Have I damaged either the camera or the lens???

I stupidly detached the 70-300 L IS USM. While the camera power was ON!
Obviously I am concerned that I rotated the lens to remove it, while the camera power was on. Concerned that could short something electrical.

I realised the camera was ON as soon as I had removed the lens and turned it OFF before fitting the 50mm lens.

The IS was ON mode 1 I think, but I am not sure whether the AF switch on the lens was set to MF on the lens [But I think it was] but I'm sure AF on the camera was ON.

The lens manual does say under a caution notice point 5. "the image stabilizer operates for about 2 seconds even when your finger is off the shutter button. Do not remove the lens while the stabilizer is in operation. This will cause a malfunction."

I'm pretty certain I'd not pressed the shutter button for 30 seconds or longer as I was messing about getting the other lens out of it's pouch; and the way I hold the camera to change a lens, should avoid pressing the shutter and AF-ON [AF start on the back] buttons [But I can't be absolutely sure]

Does anyone know if the camera has been idiot proofed i.e. does pressing the lens release button cut off the power to the lens? I'm praying it does!

Can this damage either the camera or lens?
Any ideas on the lens manual's comment "This will cause a malfunction" er, is that permenant damage? or just unsettle it and say one has to turn the power on/off to reset it etc.
Any views much appreciated.

I took a few photos and it seemed to work fine [I got no error messages, it seemed to autofocus and the photo looked OK on the LCD] naturally I need to download them and inspect them to be sure.

Weirdly the lens manual says refer to the camera's manual for instructions on how to attach/detach a lens. Oddly IMO there is no specifc warning in the Lens manual about turning the camera power OFF first.
And looking at the Camera manual p.4 it actually says 'all the following instructions assume the camera is turned ON [and therefore this is not repeated at the beggining of each section]'.
The intructions in the camera manual on P.31 'Attaching and detaching a lens' [heading] has no warning or instruction on making sure the camera power is OFF before attaching or detaching a Lens.
In fact the only reference to anything related to this issue is on P.33 Under the 'The Image stabiliser system' [heading] of the kit lens where it says
1. "Switch the IS ON
2.Turn the camera power On". [But by then you'd have attached the lens].

Any views that reassure me, or tell how to test whether I have damaged either camera or lens will be much appreciated.
I'd also like the truth! [even if it's bad news]

Maybe I'm over reacting but its common sense to turn the camera power off.
Love to hear from anyone who actually knows how these systems work i.e. does power only go to the lens when one presses the AF -ON or shutter buttons etc.?

The camera is designed to change lenses while on. There is no need to turn off the camera before swapping lenses. Disconnecting while the IS is on is probably not the best thing, but it's not going to kill the camera either.

gjl711 wrote in post #14621621
The camera is designed to change lenses while on. There is no need to turn off the camera before swapping lenses. Disconnecting while the IS is on is probably not the best thing, but it's not going to kill the camera either.

Thanks JJ, when you say "Disconnecting while the IS is on is probably not the best thing"
Do you mean generically ON [I.e. switch is set to on] or are you refering to actually operating [Buzzing]?

(naturally I'd agree totally sensible to always turn off the IS and the camera power - to be sure)

Submariner wrote in post #14621610
Oddly IMO there is no specifc warning in the Lens manual about turning the camera power OFF first.
And looking at the Camera manual p.4 it actually says 'all the following instructions assume the camera is turned ON [and therefore this is not repeated at the beggining of each section]'.
The intructions in the camera manual on P.31 'Attaching and detaching a lens' [heading] has no warning or instruction on making sure the camera power is OFF before attaching or detaching a Lens.

The reason why there are no warnings about turning the camera off is simple. You don't need to.

My camera gets turned on when it come out of the bag, then stays on until it gets put away at the end of the day. I frequently change lenses, pop memory cards in and out etc. and don't turn off for any of them.

IS and AF can also be left on all the time, just allow the IS a second or two to stop before taking the lens off. As I take the lens off with the same hand that pushes the shutter button, that allows it time to stop while I move my hand anyway.

So, no, you haven't damaged anything. Now go and write 200 lines "my camera is a solidly built tool, I must stop being so paranoid about breaking it"

Submariner wrote in post #14621639
Thanks JJ, when you say "Disconnecting while the IS is on is probably not the best thing"
Do you mean generically ON [I.e. switch is set to on] or are you refering to actually operating [Buzzing]?

He means (or should mean, anyway) whilst it is actually operating. Having the switch in the on position is fine - most people, I suspect, leave it there permanently.

My camera is on unless I'm removing the SD card or changing batteries, or it's stored away in the bag when I'm traveling. Never even considered needing to switch it off to change lenses.

The only issue i can imagine would occur when removing the lens while the camera is on would be that the sensor is active and has a static charge which would make it suck in dustparticles like a vacuum when you remove the lens.

/ Magnus

I love you people, made my weekend!

Lets just hope I didn't inadvertantly touch the shutter or af-on button to kick off the IS system.
I'm interested though more on a technical level, than worried for my camera [as I'm pretty sure this had stopped], does this damage the IS system permenantly?

Obviously it's just a buch of motor counteracting shakes I guess so why would interupting it damage it. Or when Canon says cayuse a malfunction do they mean a temporary one say to the next image?

I hardly every turn off any of my cameras... during lens changes, swapping batteries or memory, even while stored (the are set to go into sleep mode). No harm done to them ever, over ten years using them this way.

I agree, Canon gives warnings to not remove the lens while the IS is operating. But as soon as you lift pressure off the shutter release button, it stops and locks in place. So it's really pretty hard to do any accidental damage.

The only time I've ever had a problem, regretted leaving camera on... once with a 30D I popped open the memory card door while the camera was still writing an image to the card. That caused some corruption of all the files on the card and I had to run a recovery software on it... still lost about 25% of the images, but the rest were fine. Most later cameras I'm aware of either write faster or have other preventions... You can't do any damage turning off the camera while it's writing to the card, for example... But I'd still try to wait until the red LED goes out, showing that the camera is writing to the card, before popping open the door.

For the IS I believe that the reason is that the IS elements go into a parked position where they are prevented from moving.

If you unmount with the IS still operating the elements remain floating and can be heard as a rattle.

Possibly some damage may occur with the floating elements if they suffer some sort of high level shock, unsure about that though.

You are not going to hurt anything. They are designed for quick action, both taking the shot and swapping things around at a moments notice.

I rarely ever turn mine off for anything. Nothing to even think about.

There's an off switch??

Magnus3D wrote in post #14621718
The only issue i can imagine would occur when removing the lens while the camera is on would be that the sensor is active and has a static charge which would make it suck in dustparticles like a vacuum when you remove the lens.

/ Magnus

False...

Sensor has no charge unless the shutter is open.

Submariner wrote in post #14621639
Thanks JJ, when you say "Disconnecting while the IS is on is probably not the best thing"
Do you mean generically ON [I.e. switch is set to on] or are you refering to actually operating [Buzzing]?

(naturally I'd agree totally sensible to always turn off the IS and the camera power - to be sure)

sandpiper wrote in post #14621650
He means (or should mean, anyway) whilst it is actually operating. Having the switch in the on position is fine - most people, I suspect, leave it there permanently.

Yes, I mean when it is actually operating. Keeping the switch in the on position is fine. It does not actually turn on until you 1/2 press the shutter button.

rookies.