Reporting my 3rd lockup with 20D

I had the 17-40mm on the camera, and I let go into sleep mode. Then I turned the camera off, and switched lenses, to the 50mm f1.4.
Tried again to turn the camera on, but nothing happened at all...no info on the top screen, no buttons worked.
Did the battery removal, and all came back to normal.
I am starting to think that when the camera is in sleep mode, it predicts that when it comes back on it expects to find the same lens attached, but freezes when the lens properties do not match.

I would be curious if you could make it happen again go to sleep turn off change lenses. Then if it does do it again. let it go to sleep wake it up then turn it off and change lenses and see what happens?

Wow... out of curiousity I went to try this...

Thus far I have had ZERO lockups on the 20D.

This morning I went to swap lenses before heading to work ith the 20D along just in case.. and I found that I had failed to turn it off the last time.. so it was asleep.

However I allways switch the camera off before swapping.. so I did.

Then I ran off to work. Now having read this I grabbed the 20D and turned it on ... the first time it has been on since going to sleep with another lens.

Guess what?

My first lockup!

Top LCD says 999 shots,. 00 aperture... I can't shoot or bring up the menu... and of course .. turning it off does nothing.. it stays ON, but useless.

Totally frozen.

MCouper.. this is huge! 8)

I think you may be on to something.

I think what we have here is a failure to communicate. The camera is having trouble dealing with new information.

OK. I tried it again, and it happened again. I now really believe that when the camera is in sleep mode, it doesn't reset, or, doesn't re-adapt its functions/display to a different lens that's later mounted on it, without first waking up the camera BEFORE switching lenses..

Has anybody else have lockups without changing lenses or CF cards? Or lockups that weren't preceded by sleep mode?

I'd test this now.. but I'm work with one lens and one CF...

I really think you have hit the nail on the head here!....

I just put this thread at the top of our 20D "sticky" 8)

So... if this is the case, then you should turn the camera off before swapping lenses.

But even if mcouper's hypothesis isn't correct, you should turn the camera off before swapping lenses.


Hmmm....

I just tried this too and guess what...


No lockup! So it is not consistant.

Actually.. both Mcouper and I DID turn the camera off.. (it's called reading the thread.. look into it ) ...the key may be (more testing needed) the key may be that you need to "wake the camera up" from it's "sleep mode" BEFORE turning it off.

All of this is leading me to believe that Canon was really going down the wrong path with the 20Ds "never really off" feature.

If you haven't noticed yet.. when installing a CF card in a 20D that is TURNED OFF... upon closing the cover.. the CF card read LED comes on for a few short seconds..

I have no Idea what Canon was doing thinking it's camera needed this info when it is turned off... but there it is ..

...and just like the intro of the PC ATX power system that did not provide a true power off switch (unles you had one on the back of the power supply) this oddball "feature" may be the cause of some serious problems.

We definately need to test more. It may not happen all the time.. BUT what if we do discover that this is THE cause of the lockups when it does happen?

OK - now I HAVE to get me one so I can test it too!

:{)#

CyberDyneSystems wrote:
Actually.. both Mcouper and I DID turn the camera off.. (it's called reading the thread.. look into it )

Well I missed it in mcouper's message and I was too lazy to run yours through the spellcheck to decipher your typing....


OK, OK. I apologize. You got me.


PS: Do I *always* have to read the *entire* message before commenting? That would limit my posts severely....

As to the "power never truly off" I'm sure that this has something to do with the 0.2 second start-up time of the 20D. I was pretty darned amazed when I heard 0.2 seconds, so it didn't surprise me when I saw the red light blink upon CF insertion.

So it's not a 0.2 second startup time, but rather a 0.2 second wake-up time. (However, I am *not* complaining!) It just takes a little more thought at times, maybe, like when inserting new RAM into that PC you mentioned. In the "old" days I would never unplug the PC as it was then no longer grounded. But with these new "never-off" PCs you *must* unplug it before installing RAM. Bummer.

I've had 0 lockups thus far after vigourously shooting about 600 pictures last week.
But, I'm going to reproduce what MC and CDS have done, and I will report back.

I thought for sure I'd suffered my first lockup. Turns out the CF compartment door was open.

I'm still lockupless.