Odd Mark 2 n problem - has this happened to you?

Hi folks,

I was using my camera today and all was fine until all of a sudden the camera wouldn't shoot.

The lens would stop down then I got Error 99 then a few seconds later the shutter went. The mirror however didn't move at all.

I took the batteries out etc and changed lenses but I was still getting Error 99.

I'm now back home and I was about to send it to Canon but before I did I decided to try setting MLU to see if the mirror would flip. It would and it would also take a shot. Now having turned MLU off again the camera is working again.

To me it seems really odd and I just wondered if anyone had heard of anything like this before?

Cheers

Neil

Guessing not then. Weird. I hope it doesn't give out, its only taken 30,000 shots

Mine went on a permanent ERR99 vacation and needs service. 25K shots.

But, tonight, based upon your post, I'm going to try your solution.



EDIT: Tried it on mine, no luck, ERR99 always. Off to the shop.

Strange....hopefully just a glitch that doesn't return.

Had mine for a month now and no such things happening to it, and hopefully it never will. Good luck and I hope it continues to work for you without any more glitches.

To make sure it's not the shutter, take several super high speed shots like at 1/2000 or higher and see if you see anything weird on the photos.

This may sound odd to you, but i would check the battery.

I have noticed that from the original 1D Classic and the 1DMkII/1DMkII bodies that i had, as battery voltage dropped, the behaviour of the cameras would be a little erratic.

my 1D classic AWB would be a little inconsistent and some shots would look pretty yellow when the battery went weak. shot to shot the white balance would shift a fair bit more. The battery indicator would indicate a full battery, but on my old batteries, the voltage have a tendency to dip and then recover.

The 1D NP-E3 battery is a NiMH 10/AA pack. this means inside the pack there are 10 cells in series, and each cell is an industrial AA battery. over time these cells go out of balance. some may be 0.2-0.3V off from each other. some cells just won't support the current and this makes the overall voltage dip during use. there's also a PTC and a secondary safety fuse to prevent a short circuit and a cutoff for excessive temperature. These can also trip prematurely and reset itself.

when you push the refresh button on the canon charger, it discharges the battery to a relatively low point and then slowly recharges the batteries. i'm pretty sure it's a delta peak charger, and NiMH batteries when old tend to false peak. the charger think it's reached full charge and then stops charging. a higher charging rate also makes the batteries peak earlier. I also use an RC hobby type battery charger that lets me set the charge current and i set it to a really low rate (0.4A) for charging my 1D batteries. it also has a charge counter and i see that after the canon charger indicated the battery is full, i'm still able to top off the charge with another 200mAh or so.

my MkII recently went ERR99 on me right in the middle of a wedding. I had made the mistake of refreshing all the batteries a couple of days earlier, and all my batteries went flat on me in the first half of the morning. i had 5 batteries so i could still complete the first half of the day between my MkII and MkIIN. I lived nearby so i managed to go home to grab my charger and charge my spares while shooting in the evening. what happened was all but 2 of my batteries false peaked and i got the ERR99 lockup. i swapped out batteries and it happened with the next battery. when i managed to recharge all my batteries later in the afternoon my batts were fine and i did the whole night on a single battery in each of my 1D bodies.

this may or may not be the cause of the problems you see, but it worked for me. the shutter takes a lot less power to actuate than the mirror so you could have reached that point where the camera had enough power to do everything BUT lift the mirror mechanism. i would recharge all batteries with a "refresh, charge and charge again" cycle and pop the battery back into the MkIIN and then try to replicate the problem.

Last Friday I was shooting a Dodgeball tourney (my 1st ever, interesting event to shoot) with my 1D mk2 and 40D, and after a few shots with the 1D I started to get a similar symptons as the OP described.

I would get a a noise like MLU, then an err 99, and then the top display showing no battery charge. Turning on and off would return the battery to a full charge displayed, pressing the shutter would then release the mirror. I could then get a shot or two and then it would repeat.

I replaced the battery with a fresh one, though I knew the current was all but new and fully charged, checked the lens contacts and went to it again. And after a couple shots the same occurred again, there was no obvious issue with the images. So with the camera locked up again, removed the lens and found the mirror in the up position and with a close inspection of the closed shutter I found one of the shutters panels slightly out of line.

It had apparently released from one side and was slightly binding the shutter. Turning the camera on and off again dropped the mirror and it went into the bag. Finished up the event with the 40D and the backups backup, the 30D.

Sent it off to Canon in Irvine, CA Monday, they got it Tuesday my quote was back of $387.12, $180 labor and $158.78 for parts the balance for return shipping and taxes.

This includes the shutter replacement, clean all, adjust all and repair all to good working order per the estimate. The camera was/is in perfect order prior to this instance with no issues for me. I should have the camera back by mid next week.

And for those curious the, the last image shot at the event was number 38,776, well below the expected life. Thought I might get a quote without the labor charge and pay only for parts because of this some what low shutter count but it doesn't seem like that will be the case. Age probably has something to do with it I would suppose, regardless this $400 plus expense ($65 to ship it to CA) is a unwanted expense but the camera is a beloved part of my family and I miss her dearly.

Well I had a shoot today and the camera behaved itself. All very odd.

Quick update folks. The problem returned and became more and more frequent so I sent it off to Canon at the start of last week. Got it back today and they have repaired the release circuit.

Total cost £121.90 (90 quid repair plus 16 dispatch then plus VAT)

Neil