Why is part of my frame black?

I have been shooting my 5Dii for about 11yrs and 60k actuations. I recently noticed, intermittently and at high shutter speeds, the top of the frame (left in portrait) may remain black. This almost mimics a flash sync speed problem, but these shots are in open sun. So I'm concerned my shutter may be failing.

These particular photos were not going to win any prizes with or without the blacked-out portion, but I'm thinking of future shoots. Does this align with shutter failure? Is it a sign that the shutter or another component is ready to fail completely, or can I just avoid the high shutter speed and be ok?

Thanks for any tips!
Luke

I suspect that a curtain of the shutter is not moving exactly parallel to the top/bottom of the frame opening, but is hanging up at an angle.

You can remove the lens and look into the front of the opening into the body, while firing it at any speed slower than x-sync speed for your camera, so shutter opening is a slit that moves vertically across the frame, to try to see which curtain is not parallel to top/bottom of the frame as it moves across.

Although Canon may not service your model any longer, you can find an independent shop which can replace your shutter box with a working unit from a donor camera. Or just upgrade yourself to a good used 5DIII or 5DIV

I suspect the same.
As long as you don't care if a photo of some kind of activity actually comes out good or bad, you can keep on using it. Since it's digital, you'll know right after the shot if it worked out or not.
If it didn't, just shoot again.

But if you try to take photos of some action, then it's of course pretty useless, as there will not be time to take a new shot.

sadly it looks very much like a failing shutter - the leaves are held on by two rivets and I'd say one of the leaves has a broken rivet causing the leaf to rotate at an angle.

You may be able to see it if you take the lens off & fire off a couple of shots with a couple of seconds exposure - but then it's possible you may not
(I had a 1DII shutter fail like that & you couldn't see anything wrong until it was all apart)

If you can see the leaf on an angle, best stop using it as you don't want to add a scratched sensor-filter to the list of required replacement parts...

part number for 5DII shutter is either CG2-2219-000 (as per parts catalog) or CG2-2219-010 (as per some parts advertised elsewhere)

what they look like with a broken rivet...

Wilt wrote in post #19502213
I suspect that a curtain of the shutter is not moving exactly parallel to the top/bottom of the frame opening, but is hanging up at an angle.

You can remove the lens and look into the front of the opening into the body, while firing it at any speed slower than x-sync speed for your camera, so shutter opening is a slit that moves vertically across the frame, to try to see which curtain is not parallel to top/bottom of the frame as it moves across.

Although Canon may not service your model any longer, you can find an independent shop which can replace your shutter box with a working unit from a donor camera. Or just upgrade yourself to a good used 5DIII or 5DIV

Thanks, Wilt! I've been eyeing the 35f/2is but maybe it is time for a body upgrade

joeseph wrote in post #19502265
sadly it looks very much like a failing shutter - the leaves are held on by two rivets and I'd say one of the leaves has a broken rivet causing the leaf to rotate at an angle.

You may be able to see it if you take the lens off & fire off a couple of shots with a couple of seconds exposure - but then it's possible you may not
(I had a 1DII shutter fail like that & you couldn't see anything wrong until it was all apart)

If you can see the leaf on an angle, best stop using it as you don't want to add a scratched sensor-filter to the list of required replacement parts...

part number for 5DII shutter is either CG2-2219-000 (as per parts catalog) or CG2-2219-010 (as per some parts advertised elsewhere)

Thanks for the visual and PN info, Joeseph! Any idea how involved a DIY repair is?

dunnewold wrote in post #19502472
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Thanks, Wilt! I've been eyeing the 35f/2is but maybe it is time for a body upgrade
.

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I've had several shutters break on Canon DSLRs. . No need to replace the body, ever. . A shutter replacement only costs $250 to $300 from an independent repair guy.

Sensible people don't get a new car because the tires or breaks wear out on their current car, so why would they get a new camera just because the shutter wears out? . Doesn't make sense from a practical standpoint, no matter what math they try to throw at me.

And Wilt, please let's not take the way-too-obvious path of comparing the cost of a camera to the cost of a car, and the prices of said repairs relative to those costs ..... that is hardly creative or insightful thinking. . In other words, the cost of a $300 shutter on a $1,200 camera really is exactly the same as the cost of a $500 set of tires on a $15,000 car, despite the proportional differences in the dollar amounts relative to one another.


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Given the great decline in used prices of dSLR due to many wanting mirrorless, the cost of replacing a shutter (which has not changed) is closer to the cost of upgrading to a newer model used dSLR with various improvements over the venerable 5DII. The economic cost differential of repair vs. upgrade is very different from what it was a couple years ago.

I recently purchased a very low shutter count 7DII rather than send my existing 7DII in for replacement of the intermittent rotary dial (near the shutter button) because the economics of repair vs. replacement had changed! (The R7 is not 'equivalent' to a 'prosumer' class body...that has yet to come.)

I wouldn't put money into an 11 year old body.

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Yeah I didn't realize this was a 5D2 the OP is talking about. . A perfect 5D2 is probably not worth much more than the shutter replacement cost, so what you're saying kinda makes sense. . But if a shutter is $300 and another 5D2 is $400, then it would definitely make the most sense to get the shutter replaced.


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dunnewold wrote in post #19502473
Thanks for the visual and PN info, Joeseph! Any idea how involved a DIY repair is?

I haven't had a 5D2 apart (I did do the shutter on my 1D2 though, and have done a few IR conversions)

Looks like the 5D2 shutter should be reasonably straighforward if you're handy with a small screwdriver & looks like all the connectors are delicate plug/unplug types (unlike the 1D's that have a couple of awful solder connections to deal with)

Essentially for a shutter replacement, you take everything off the camera & you're left with a shutter on the camera frame - unscrew that & swap and then reverse the process.

If you can determine the shutter is definitely failed, then it's really a case of if you can get a replacement part cheap enough to be worth having a DIY go at it, and be prepared to scrap it if the repair goes wrong.
Going down that path, have a look at various online tutorials before you get started (e.g. https://www.youtube.co​m/watch?v=ihx1-S-u-PI )

Haven't seen a 5D2 service manual but if you can find one they are a great help. Printing off the parts catalog (quite common online) is useful for numbering all the screws in order that you take them off.

Just to put another suggestion out there, I have had this happen with aftermarket batteries. I would check that out too.

Jimconnerphoto wrote in post #19503027
Just to put another suggestion out there, I have had this happen with aftermarket batteries. I would check that out too.

Interesting... it does seem intermittent and I’m sometimes using 3rd party batteries. I’ll keep an eye on that, thanks!

Thanks everyone for the informative feedback! I really appreciate your help