Strange behaviour of 1D X

Hello, this is my first post to this forum, which I like and intend to be an active part of . It looks like it is formed by very competent and polite people.

For now, a question to the group, have anybody ever noticed the auto sensor cleaning starting after waking up from stand-by?
Sometimes it happens to mine, just sometimes and if i wake up the camera pressing the play button...
Not a big deal, I can live with that but I would be very curious to know if this is a feature or a bug or whatever else...

Try looking at the sensor cleaning settings. On my bodies its wrench menu 3. Your 1DX might be different. Do you remember it doing this when new? If not then do a reset to original default settings and see if that clears it.

Yes I have checked, it is set to clean on power on and power off.
But I never saw cleaning after waking up on any Canon camera I have owned.
I started seeing it from time to time from the beginning as I got the camera pre-owned .
Now I upgraded the firmware from 2.0.3 to the latest 2.1.0 and this issue has not shown up again.
If it happens again I will try a total factory setting..

Well, if it actually does do the cleaning on wake-up, just let it do that. The more frequently, the better.

If you go back to the Canon web site usually they say what the latest firmware addresses. Perhaps random sensor cleaning was on their list. Good to hear that it hasn't done it since updating.

This "issue" is not listed among the one reported fixed. But usually not all the fixed bugs are reported just the major ones.

And I'm not so sure it's an issue at all. Maybe the camera does this if it has been sleeping long enough.

I don't own a 1Dx but I suggest you check your auto power setting. If I accept the literal description from the 1Dx manual, the camera may not go into a "standby mode" as you describe things but actually turn OFF. See the graphic below that I've extracted from the manual. There is no mention of standby or sleep mode. Further, if you search the PDF of the manual for "sleep", "stand by", "stand-by" and "standby", none of the terms exist further supporting that the sleep mode doesn't exist, the camera actually powers down just as if you hit the power off switch. Thus when you "wake" the camera, the sensor automatically cleans itself.

Just for an FYI, the Canon sensors are described at http://cpn.canon-europe.com …_image/sensor_c​leaning.do. Note that the article is actually three pages.

I guessed the same thing but since there is the option of power off time in the menu I assumed that power off, stand by and sleep mode are all essentially the same thing.
But I was thinking something different, maybe the firmware shakes the sensor from time to time, accordng to some unknown algorithm, for the reason there are many people who never switch the camera off (turnung the ohysical switch off). In the latter case, even if one sets the self cleaning on the sensor would never get automatically cleaned.

desertglow wrote in post #18563384
I guessed the same thing but since there is the option of power off time in the menu I assumed that power off, stand by and sleep mode are all essentially the same thing.

I don't believe there is a standby or sleep mode like in a PC, where the circuitry remains powered and thus you avoid boot time. The 1Dx, based on the wording in the manual is automatically powered OFF, just as if you moved the power switch, it just does it based on a preset time interval. If you have the sensor clean to activate when powered ON, then it goes through a clean cycle when it powers ON after hitting the shutter for instance. But it doesn't come out of "sleep", it turns ON.

I tried to point out that nowhere in the 470 page manual is there the use of "sleep" or similar terms related to any form of "standby" terminology. There is simply auto power ON and auto power OFF thus I think the circuity is powered between those two states just as if you used the power switch.

John from PA wrote in post #18563447
I don't believe there is a standby or sleep mode like in a PC, where the circuitry remains powered and thus you avoid boot time. The 1Dx, based on the wording in the manual is automatically powered OFF, just as if you moved the power switch, it just does it based on a preset time interval. If you have the sensor clean to activate when powered ON, then it goes through a clean cycle when it powers ON after hitting the shutter for instance. But it doesn't come out of "sleep", it turns ON.

I tried to point out that nowhere in the 470 page manual is there the use of "sleep" or similar terms related to any form of "standby" terminology. There is simply auto power ON and auto power OFF thus I think the circuity is powered between those two states just as if you used the power switch.

There is obviously a difference. If you use the power switch to turn the camera off, it will not power on again with a half press of the shutter button, or by pressing the Play button as the OP described.
So even if Canon does not describe a different state, we know there is one.
For any device to be able to be powered on by use of a momentary button that is not connected to the power source, power is being consumed (albeit very tiny amounts of power) by a circuit to allow those momentary buttons to power on the device.

The switch seems to simply prevent the camera from coming out of standby with button presses. As we also know with the switch off, the camera still has power being utilized to at least monitor things and finish tasks, so just putting the switch to OFF doesn't mean the camera is completely dead and that power is completely cut from the system.

Many people never turn the switch on or off with no adverse battery life issues. Those that do found out they had equipment crammed into a bag that caused a button to be pressed inadvertantly, constantly waking up the camera.

The current required for a momentary switch on circuit is a few micro amps.
Using 5uA, it would take 10 days to reduce the battery capacity by 1 mAh.
So 3mAh per month, 36mAh per year. LP-E6n is 1865mAh. 51 years to drain the battery!
No adverse battery life issues expected.

Try this. Turn the camera on then let it sit until it shuts down. Then tap the MENU button. If the camera starts up then it was “sleeping”. If it doesn’t start it actually powered down. The manual for my 1D4 defines this clearer than the above post from the user manual. My manual says “to turn camera back on tap shutter button or any other button”. When I do this on my 1D4 the camera wakes up but doesn’t activate the sensor cleaner. So either Canon changed for the 1DX or your body has a trouble. Any other 1DX owners here than can check theirs and report back?

Sure, but again, even with the switch off, power is being consumed internally as needed to finish tasks and monitor the camera. There is no way to know whether the battery usage is the same or reduced with the physical on/off, but we know it isn't zero.