350D Error 99 help please!

First of all hi, my first post here since registering today, have just spent the last hour reading the 'post a picture of your boxes thread'! lol.

Anyway, i am on vacation in China atm and my 350D just died on its 4,094th picture. I was taking some IR pictures using a Hoya 89B filter, 30sec, 400ISO with WB set to daylight... anyway, as i pressed the button on my remote control, the shutter made an unusual clunk sound and then waited the full 30seconds before displaying error 99 when it tried to close. I had to remove the battery to get out of the error. It now takes 100% blank (black) pictures and i have tried the following:

• removed both the batteries for 5min.
  
• reset settings in menu.
  
• reformated the memory (Scandisk Ultra III 1Gb).
  
• updated the firmware to 1.0.3
  
• tried different lenses.
  
• tried no lense.
  
• checked that the shutter is opening & closing correctly when no lense is fitted - and it is.
  
• cleaned the contacts with a rubber for the lense.
  
• tried taking pictures using the usb cable and Canon remote shooting software.

Think thats all. If anyone has any other known tricks that might free this problem up for me, i'd be really greatful as i'm stuck without it

Sounds like you've tried everything I would have done. I would suggest a visit to the repair shop, but since you're in China, that's not going to be much help.

The only suggestion I can come up with is to remove and leave both batteries out for an hour, but I doubt that will help as it seems you probably have a sensor or software problem.

Good luck!

Mark

Going to try that for 8hrs then Mark as its 1am here now and i'll leave them out over night Thanks for the reply

isnt there somewhere.... maybe a site, where you can look up the error codes? that would be really helpfull. if ANYONE is in the know, please post it here.
-zacker-

Err99, unfortunately, is a catch-all which best translates as "An unxpected error has occurred". That's not as funny as it sounds - "expected errors" are those problems for which specific error codes are available. What "Err99" roughly translates to is "wow - that's a wierdie; never seen anything like that before!" All I can think of is a shutter problem. I know OP says the shutter opens and closes fine with no lens, but I'd try running through all shutter speeds (with or without a lens) - if it's really woking correctly, at least the long exposures should produce something other than black. It's possible that in the normal range of shutter speeds, the second curtain is following too close to the first curtain, so massively underexposing everything. If this were so, at some point in using slower exposures you should get some reasonably,or at least passably, exposed shots. If, on the other hand, you still get nothing and a moderate shutter speed lets you see the silvery sensor, there's probably an electronics problem.

Just tried a 30second exposure and its still pitch black, no hint of light in the image Guess i got unlucky... Starting to wish i saved up a bit longer and bought a 20D. Do they share the same sensor technology? I've seen reports of a simlar problems with a few different Canon models now.

Does it expose at all if you take "regular" exposure, for instance in Auto, P, Av, Tv, M mode with faster shutter speeds? My 350D have not had this problem at all (so far, the counter says 7,041 right now) and I've taken many 30 second exposures of Aurora Borealis or other night scenes and this has never happend - even when it was almost -20°C.

Hi Petra, it does it with fast regular exposures at all settings as well as the manual fast ones. It seems to be detecting the light correctly also, as the -2 - +2 apature reading changes in different light when on one of the auto modes.

OK, so it's just the "lock-up" for longer exposures that seem to be out or wack? Have you found the "breaking point" as when it starts this behaviour, or is it only at 30 seconds? What happens if you use Bulb?

You misunderstand sorry. I should have explained better. It does it at ALL exposures, fast or slow at any of the manual or preset modes. I'm not sure what a 'healthy' mirror action should look like when i inspect it during a long exposure or in cleaning mode. I would need to see some kind of high-speed AVI slowed down to watch it do the correct action to enable me to compare... (incase anyones board) I have another cheap 5px camera i could take some shots of the camera with i guess, so you could see it.

Oh, sorry for the misunderstanding! My bad! That really sucks and it sounds like if the mirror do "flip up" when you shoot without a lens - that's not the problem. Sounds more like there's something else that is the problem.... all that electronics can be so tough to deal with.

Not really what you had hoped for on your vacation I'm sure. I mean China is very special. But at least the 5 mpx camera can help save some memories at least.

yeah, the 5mpx is better than nothing, you're right The mirror seems to work ok. I've taken a hazey shot to show it in its rested position.

Do the D20 and 350D share the same sensor technology? and is this cmos failure a common thing?

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The 20D and the 350D, as well as the 5D, 1D IIN, 1Ds II, and basically every other Canon DSLR of the past 5 years except for the original 1D, share the same sensor technology - a CMOS sensor. However they have completely different sensors (they aren't even the same resolution), which means the supporting electronics are somewhat different as well. No, sensor failures aren't common. But the "clunk" you describe sounds like it's a mechanical problem.

Have you tried activatingthe "Sensor clean" mode to see if you really see the sensor and if that makes the same noise? The sensor, unlike the shutter, is silver.When you trip the shutter do you see a smooth silver surface or a black shutter curtain?

What i see when its in sensor cleaning mode is a very dark green shiny liquid crystal like rectangle which has lots of microfine dots around the edge, which i think is sensor. But nothing silver. The sound is exactly as it was before this 1 malfunction.

Sounds like the sensor that you're seeing - compositions vary from model to model.

Um?

And OBTW - your initial report says you were shooting with an IR filter. Does this also happen (for clarification purposes) when you're not using the IR filter?