My Error 99 Woes

Well, after taking some pics at a friends wedding earlier this year, I decided I enjoyed it that much and wanted to get a bit more serious about my photography so I upgraded my 450D for a slightly used 40D. I couldn't have been happier with the camera and my photography has improved lots in such a short space of time. That was until Error 99 occured with less than 8k shutter actuations. Now the camera is out of warranty but after a few telephone conversations with Canon, and having tried EVERYTHING we concluded it must be shutter related, I agreed to send it to them. It arrived with them last Friday. I received a letter on Saturday saying it has been passed to one of their repair centres to "speed up" my repair. How confused I was when I contacted the repair centre today (Tuesday) to find they knew nothing about it. Turns out, it is still at Canon and awaiting collection for repair from the authorised service centre which will be tomorrow now (Wednesday). What is so frustrating is that I could have taken it to said repair centre as it is a not to distant drive from my house and they would have had it last Thursday, saving a week of messing about. Ahhh well, I guess these things happen but I can't help to be somewhat frustrated that a week will have passed and nothing done about my repair.

So what did it stop doing? What did you try to clear the condition?

It stopped doing everything. Just wouldn't function at all. Code 99 everytime I pressed the trigger. I tried eveything I either read on here or was advised by Canon. Lens swap, clean connections, no lens, battery out, different battery, different CF card, with and without battery grip.

Check in LiveView (mode 2).
If you can make a shot in LV without error, i'm afraid you need a new shutter.

(Usually you can take a shot in LV mode1 too, but if it's a shutter problem, there will be a light stripe at the bottom of the pic or similar. I think because in mode 2 the first curtain is electronic.)