5d3 issue - wont turn on

Hi all,

Im away on holidays and have been enjoying my 5d3. However, last night, I tucked it into bed as per usual. Then this morning, I grabbed it and went to take a shot, but it gave me nothing. "Damn it" I thought, flat battery. I grab another that is fully charged, nothing. Take mem cards out, battery out, change lens, reinstall. Still nothing. Remove and clean memory battery (I don't have a spare with me), again nothing.

I left it on and it turned on after a minute. Oh sweet, I turn it off, then on. Sweet! Took a shot, SWEET! Turn it off, on... nothing... Dagnammit! I've tried all three of my LP batteries in it, two are genuine canon, one is aftermarket, that has shown no issues previously.

It is very wet here at the moment, had approximately 150mm of rain in the last three days. 125mm of that, was yesterday. The camera hasn't been wet, or exposed directly to the elements. Even if it was sprinkling it was under my jacket. It's had the one lens (16-35 F4L) attached to it the whole time.

Info you need to know;

- Body is approx 2 yrs old if I recall.
- I bought it second hand and it is in visually excellent condition, except for a small amount of corrosion under the flash slide. It has approx 8000 actuations.
- The body has shown no faults or errors in the last 4 months and 2000 shots of owning it.
- The switches all feel very normal and click the way they should, except for the still/video switch, that is very hard to get from video to still.
- Pretty sure it's still under extended warranty.

My thoughts;

- Would a flat memory battery cause it to not turn on?
- Could the damp conditions cause this? (I'm thinking not, due to its weather sealing and not having the lens off, since it was dry.
- I'm presuming there are no tricks I can try to bring her back to life?ߙ

Has anyone else had a similar problem?

What was you issue and how was it solved?

Please help!!!

Try pulling the main and CMOS battery out for a few hours, reinsert them and try to turn the camera on without a card in it or battery grip attached (if you have one). If that fails you could try to replace the CMOS battery. I think it is a CR1616 which should be pretty easy to find. Given the age of the body I doubt it is the CMOS battery but you never know. My 5D3 has seen extremely wet conditions for prolonged periods and I routinely shoot in very cold temperatures. It has never been a problem but you never know. If all else fails the camera might need to take a trip to Canon. Hope it works out for you.

Thanks for the quick response. I'll give that a go. I'm going in to town tomorrow, so I'll grab a new cmos battery if this doesn't work. Lucky I have my Swiss Army knife to get the cover off.

It's a TINY little Philips head screw that you will need to remove. It's located under the rubber covers for the USB etc. all the way at the bottom.

It's a CR1616

No idea if it will help, but it's one of those things that we always seem to suggest/try in desperation! Good luck.


How to with pics;
http://protogtech.com …battery-location-removal/

Thanks for the info cyberdyne. I really hope it's a simple fix.

I don't know what is the matter with your camera, and suggest you try the suggestions made by the others. But you mentioned moisture. If water condensed in the camera, that might be a factor. The mm of rain doesn't matter directly, but the humidity does, and so does the temperature.

If the humidity was very high and the camera was relatively cool when stored, then that could have caused water to condense inside the camera. The amount of water would have to be very small because the camera was sealed, so the chances that this is the cause doesn't seem that high. But I don't think it is zero.

So if nothing works and you are without a working camera on your vacation, and looking at repair hassles and expense, then you might want to try something. Try warming the camera up. Do it safely so you don't replace one problem with another. You could try in a warm car during the day, but obviously checking to make sure it doesn't overheat. You might need to leave it for a while. Then give it a try.

Simple stuff first. Try jiggling the closed battery and card doors with the power switch turned on. Both have micro-switches that shut off the camera when the door(s) is open. If the power flashes on/off, you may have found an easy fix.

Put the camera in a bag of rice for a day or two, then see if it works normally. If so, then moisture was most likely to blame. If it still acts up, then there is undoubtedly a repair due on the camera.

Where to repair it may be an issue. I swear I've heard that Canon won't repair water damage.

Bassat wrote in post #17845168
Where to repair it may be an issue. I swear I've heard that Canon won't repair water damage.

I have heard a lot of stories about Canon refusing to repair water damage under warrantee but if you are going to pay for it they'll repair it. Been down that road a couple of times with Canon USA and Canon Canada.

Bassat wrote in post #17845168
Where to repair it may be an issue. I swear I've heard that Canon won't repair water damage.

Sure they will repair gear with water damage, and have done so for several Potners, including me. But -

They won't repair water damage under warranty, because it is not a manufacturing defect. And if water damage is discovered after they have estimated repair costs, they won't honor that repair estimate.

TeamSpeed wrote in post #17845142
Put the camera in a bag of rice for a day or two, then see if it works normally. If so, then moisture was most likely to blame. If it still acts up, then there is undoubtedly a repair due on the camera.

But take the lens off and open the battery door so the water has a chance to migrate out and absorb into the rice. And make sure no rice dust gets into the body.

Archibald wrote in post #17845341
They won't repair water damage under warranty, because it is not a manufacturing defect. And if water damage is discovered after they have estimated repair costs, they won't honor that repair estimate.

That is a standard disclaimer with all out of warrantee repairs, water damage or otherwise. Canon can't provide the actual cost before determining exactly what kind of repair is involved. The estimate is always subject to change.

Thanks for the advice guys.

So I pulled the cmos battery and left it over night in the car.

This morning, I replaced the cmos batt, fitted a lens and installed freshly charged battery. Switched on, nothing. Pressed a few buttons and it came to life. But it's glitchy as hell. Switch it off, didn't come back on. Tried again, on it came. So I took it out for some shots, top and rear dials worked intermittently and the viewfinder info was flashing and where the numbers normally show, all of the digits were a single dot going in circles and doing this only when half pressing the trigger.

- So to clarify the weather, the humidity was over 90% all day yesterday (24hrs).

- The camera was always either in the car or the tent, so i would be pretty confident it wasn't internal condensation. Temp was 21-22 for whole 24hrs. Just a lot of rain.

My thoughts,

- Is it possible for me to do a firmware update? (I don't know why, just an idea, as it feels to me like it's a program issue rather than a mechanical issue)

- if not, it's off to canon. If it goes there, I'll get them to sort out the flash slide corrosion and the difficult video/still switch.

I'll report back if it comes good.

Firmware most likely won't affect the on/off functionality, that switch is first and foremost a physical/mechanical switch. But yes you can reload the same firmware if you think it will help.

The camera isn't air tight, so humidity, whatever it is, would also be at the same levels inside the camera.