Anyone been able to resolve "Error 30" issues on 5D MKII

Hello all,

I am an electronic technician for over 20 years now.
My 5DMKii do the error 30 now firmly for a couple of days but was ok since a while after I have opened it and found a unscrewed screw inside the body....yes, I don't know why :O
The screw go on the bottom pcb where a lot of supply is located on this pcb.
After putting back the screw, it work for 2 weeks but now I got the same problem.
This screw give ground contact to the frame (not all) and I was thinking it was the problem.

I read many treads on the web and here maybe an answer:

In every mechanical assembly, there is some limit switch to tell the motor "stop".
I tried to do a manual cleaning and the shutter curtain open and work. It open but it cannot stay up and the error 30 is displayed.

I tried, long exposure in manual mode for 5 seconds, the curtain dont open so dont work.
As soon the mirror goes up, error 30 is displayed.

When you take a picture, the mirror goes up then, the shutter curtain open/close and then mirror go down. This is the normal cycling.

As soon the mirror goes up, the error 30 appear so I think there is a limit switch telling the cpu to stop the mirror motor and this limit switch is deffective or intermittent.
Why ? Because when you choose manual cleaning, the processor tell to the the shutter curtain to open because you want to clean the sensor, so it open then the miror motor limit switch have to tell
" ok I am up " but no signal from the limit switch so the motor draw too much current from the supply and then the current limit of the small supply is reach so it go to shut down and the error 30 is displayed.

I am pretty shure of this because it always happen when the moisture in the air are high.
My first problem occur when I do a shoot into a gardern where extreme moisture was there.
After a week since this shoot, the error 30 have started.

It could be too a defective mirror motor drawing too much current and putting the supply in overload state.

POTENTIAL SOLUTION BELOW

Hi,

I have subscribed to this forum with the only purpose of updating this 2 years old thread with my findings, hoping it may help someone in the future. It will be my only post here.

I have a 2nd hand 5D mark II with about 7K shutter actuation only. I have got the error 30 almost every time I leaved the camera without shooting for about one month. Something must be a bit grippy or rusty in there, I don't know what it is but every time I got the error 30 I have been able to solve it by repeatedly trying to take photo, tapping it gently on the palm of my hand, removing battery, swapping card, etc.
Then I let the camera unused for 3 continuous months and it was then impossible to get rid of the error 30. My only option was to send it to Canon for repair (costly !), so I choose to try a solution a little bit more extreme.

Here is what I did :

- Put the camera in manual mode, 1/8000 speed, multiple shots mode, AF off, jpg mode, no CF card , power on (= ready to take pict continuously)
- Leave the camera behind my car windshield (in summer) until 2PM. It was very hot (battery menu reported temperature of 56C), so much that holding the 5D was painful.
- (At this point I tried to shoot a picture but the error 30 was still there.)
- Select the menu option "clean sensor manually", so that the mirror raise. With the Error 30 it would go back down immediately, so as soon as I clicked the menu I had to open the battery compartment and remove the battery rapidly so that the mirror stays up and sensor was accessible if the lens was removed (a cheap 50mm 1.8 btw).
- I drove a bit in the afternoon, with the 5D in its camera bag on the floor, I mention that simply because the car vibrations may have helped a bit, I don't know.
- By 9pm I took the camera back, it was at normal room temperature by then. I tapped it slightly in the palm of my hand on 4 faces. Then I put back the battery (mirror went down at this point) and kept the shutter button pressed so that it took a good one hundred pictures continuously, no more error 30 !

So I guess that simply heating the camera body was not enough. I had to leave the mirror raised during several hours while the body cooled down, and the error 30 went away. It can't be pure luck as I tried many other methods during many days with no success, but clearly YMMV. I suppose that the expansion/contraction of the metal, plastics and joints plus the fact that the mirror stayed raised for many hours have been the key factor to solve the issue.

That's it. If you found this info useful for your 5D (or another camera) that would be nice to mention it below....

Regards,

BM

I have done everything that people on internet have advised to solved error 30. After holidays in the amazons jungle and lost the opportunity to take good pictures with my Canon Eos 5d mark !! I have got to a final conclusion BUY A NEW CAMERA. This camera is not reliable. I lost the money invested on it.

Don't waste time and money reparing it

Bye