Frequent Error Messages

Went out shooting today with my 20D and 70-200L f/2.8. Initially things went okay until I got my first Error message. I shut off the power and turned it back on, and everything went back to normal -- except the Error messages started popping up every few shots. What could have gone wrong?

I think I just made a suggestion on this in another thread. Try cleaning the contacts of the lens and camera, either with a pencil eraser or some kind of clear alcohol - not the kind you drink! If it doesn't fix it the lens and maybe the camera will have to go to Canon to be serviced

tim wrote:
I think I just made a suggestion on this in another thread. Try cleaning the contacts of the lens and camera, either with a pencil eraser or some kind of clear alcohol - not the kind you drink! If it doesn't fix it the lens and maybe the camera will have to go to Canon to be serviced

Both my camera and the lens are only about three weeks old, so I doubt that the contact area has become dirty in that short time period. I'm gonna do some more testing tomorrow as the weather looks pretty good for outdoors...

It would help a lot if you said WHAT the error messages were.. There are more than one and often you can track the problem down to the lens or CF card.. The list of errors that the camera displays should be in your owner's manual..

I sometimes get ERR99 problems with my 20D when I use my 70-200 f2.8L. I think that it's due to the weight of the lens flexing at the mount causing intermittent connections or signal spikes. If I support most of the lenses weight with my left hand, I don't seem to get the problem. Of course, I could be wrong about the cause, but that's how I've learned to deal with the issue.

Mark

Well, believe it or not, I made a mistake of just turning the power off as soon as I saw the ERR part without looking at the number that follows. When you got two little boys, who can't just stand still and constantly running around, it's kinda hard to pay attention to every detail. Tomorrow's weather looks promising, so I'll do some more shooting with the same lens and see whether I get the same issue.

Tim is right. The same thing happened to me with my 85mm when it was new. I cleaned the contacts on the lens very gently with a pencil eraser and have never had the error occur again.

Hmmm... very interesting. Do you (or Tim or anyone else) use a pencil eraser that comes at the end of a pencil or some other, softer kind?

I caution y'all to NOT use a standard pink pencil eraser on delicate gold-plated contacts. It will cause problems because it is too abrasive.

What I recommend is using a clean lint-free cloth, moistened (NOT dripping wet) with ordinary rubbing alcohol to wipe the contacts clean. Then wipe the contacts dry with a dry portion of the cloth.

I've been servicing industrial control systems electronics for 35 years, and know of what I speak.

Thanks for the advice, Skip!