camera shutter locked again

I posted a thread not long ago. My shutter locked and I had to turn camera off.
At that time the battery was flashing and almost dead. Attributed that to battery.

Happened again awhile back, the battery had just dropped from 2 bars to 1.

Happened today on a NEWLY FULLY CHARGED BATTERY. So I'm guessing I have more than a battery issue.

It always happens when I am taking action shots. Sometimes even my lens locks and won't find focus when eh subject is moving.

When it locks its after a series of photos, it locks the screen is black and the red error light is on. I have to restart the camera. This time it lost all my pics.

Is it

1) the card
2) camera
3) some issue with lens?

Thanks in advance

You might want to include some more info, like what camera????

5diii I also believe every time it was the 50 1.2.

I am sorry about that.

anyone?

Wild guess, but can you try another battery? Maybe the battery is getting old.

Like "cats" I'd be suspect of the battery, especially if it is a few years old. "Fully charged", as indicated by a charger's indicator light means little if anything with respect to battery capacity.

Thx for the responses i was wondering if it could be the card possibly?

Sandisk 30 mps write speed

Should I be concerned about possibility it's the new lens?

I'll try different battery.

Do you only have one card? Try another card to eliminate a fake card issue. But really, it sounds like a power issue, the battery isn't supplying enough power (amperage) to operate everything and you end up crashing the computer at peak load, thus the files don't get fully transferred. I would seriously buy a good quality new battery and run that for awhile. Worn batteries will typically charge up quicker than normal, which indicated they are not really receiving as much energy input, and fall flat on their face quickly, especially under peak loads. Car batteries do the same.

A camera is a box with 2 or 3 computer systems, a network, multiple sensors (CMOS and Focus etc), and at least one electric motor. Nope, usually no film involved.

The Camera and Lens do not have a reputation for failure, unlike batteries of any brand do.

I've had weird battery issues with my 5D. (Uses different battery) When the old ones were getting really old, they would show FULL on the meter when freshly charged. 50 shots later one of my wheels wouldn't work, or it stop writing to the card, or refuse to focus. New batteries fixed it all. It's a possibility. Try the easiest things first: card & battery.

I noticed that you said that "The Red light error is on " I dont have that Body but as far as I know the red light indicated the data is being written to the card , also if I missed it not sure how long your Camera locks up for what could be happening is that after a burst of shots and filling the buffer it takes time to send all of that data to the card and in that time your "Red light " will be lit .

Just my 2 ¢

David

Do you regularly format your memory cards in the camera? that's the first thing you might try.

The "red error light on" statement also suggests to me that the memory card is not writing correctly for some reason. There is no such thing as a "red error light". As David wrote, the red LED on the back of the camera indicates the memory card is in use. It could be an issue with the camera, but much more likely it's with the card itself.

You state the card is "30 MPS", so I am assuming you are talking about a Class 10 SDHC card. That was a "fast card" in 2008. Today it's sort of on the slow side. Sandisk has a half dozen or more cards that offer faster 45 MB/sec, 60 MB/sec or 95 MB/sec.

So I suspect you are simply bumping up against the buffer, since you say this occurs when shooting continuously. In other words, after shooting a series of 20+ MB images, it takes a while for the camera's buffer to move all the images onto the memory card, and the camera halts while doing that. If you are shooting RAW, the files might be 30+ MB. If you are shooting RAW + Large JPEG, each image might be generating both a 30+ MB CR2 file and around a 15 or 20 MB JPG file. That's a lot of data to move quickly.

You might try using a Compact Flash card instead. I don't know if they can be compared directly, but the slowest CF cards typically being sold today are around 45 or 60 MB/sec. Faster ones are available up to 120 or even 160 MB/sec.

So, ultimately I suspect you're just seeing an issue due to a slower card, not a real problem with either that or the camera. Get better, faster memory and you'll likely solve the problem (but still might be able to fill the buffer and see the camera pause to clear it, if you rapidly take an extended series of RAWs or RAW+JPEGs).

If you do try a CF card, don't leave the slower SDHC card in the slot... the camera might slow itself down to match the slowest memory card in the multiple slots.

anyone ?

alfarey wrote in post #16478566
anyone ?

Clarify

Not sure what Alfarey is referring to.

Re battery. I have 3 batteries. One came with my 7d 2 years ago, I also have another and then the one that came with my 5diii. I rotate them all. The issue happens sporadically so it's hard to say if it's the same battery. I will take this one and mark it with marker and keep a watch.

Re card and the "red light". The camera locks and I've waited more than what should be sufficient time for it to write. Because the camera quit working and the red light stayed on I assumed that was an error, but you are correct now, I do believe that means it's writing to card. So that is when it's locking, when it's writing to card.

I do format card regularly, but not all the time. I also have 2 cards that I use, and I couldn't tell you if it happens on the same of the 2. I will have to keep a watch on that.

Obviously there are a lot of variables. I just hope it's not the actual camera. I read about this issue with the 5diii and with certain cards, and also with issues like "I Love Cats" Explaied. I also saw on Flickr this happened and the person was advised to send his camera back. Gosh I hope not.

I am going to order a new card now and I will post back to keep everyone updated. Every thread I found on other forums there was no "update" as to what actually happened.

Should I buy a faster card than 30 mps

Further Update: put in a different card and just held the button down while shooting sports to see if it'd lock. it didn't
it did take awhile to write to the card however I noticed a difference:

when I have an "error" the lcd goes black and the shutter seems to lock. The camera goes silent aside from the red light.

Tonight after just holding down the button, the red light was on blinking while it wrote to the card, but the LCD remained on. When it was done writing, I was able to use the camera.

This is not what happens when I have an error. The LCD goes black and I can not take another picture or do anything but shut it off.

I did order a new card today from adorama.