Complete 20D Failure

I was shooting with a 70-200 IS on the 20D body when the shutter release locked

up. Checked my settings- no error message at this point, popped the battery out

and put it back in. Take another shot, works fine- go to take the next and it

has locked up again. Now I've had my 20D freeze before with an error 99- usually

no big deal- but this one felt different. The shutter release wouldn't depress

that little extra to actuate the shutter.

 

Did I mention that this was all taking place with the bride and her father

standing at the back of the aisle waiting to walk down?

 

So I pop the battery out again with the camera turned off- and this is where it

gets scary. The instant that the battery came into contact the terminals in the

camera (I didn't even have to close the door)the mirror started to flip up and

back at a rate of about 2x/sec, whack, whack, whack, whack. And the only way to

get it to stop is to pop the battery out again- remember that the camera is in

the off position.

 

Bride starts to walk down the aisle- I throw the 70-200 IS on my second 20D (oh

praise the back-up body) and get a few shots of them walking down the aisle.

Once there is a lull in the ceremony I try putting a different lens and battery

combo on the 20D- no luck, just the mirror flopping like crazy (and guests

turning around to see what the heck I'm doing making all that racket). Nothing

comes up on the LCD on the top of the camera while in the on position except for

once out of every 10 attempts- and then it displays the aperture as 00 and will

not respond in any way.

 

I have changed all the batteries, tried every lens, but I think that somehow

something got fried in there. My internet search only turned up one other post

mentioning this problem but there was no resolution posted. Anyone ever hear of

this happening?

 

Thanks for reading,

 

Rob

I've not seen it but recall a post at FM about a runaway 20D shutter. You might want to do a

search there. Whenever my cellphone or camera goes bananas I do a total reset: remove main

and PRAM batteries and let set for a an hour or so. If often fixes it. Sometimes a firmware

install might heal it although it sounds like that won't work with a runaway shutter.

and the 20D sure has a loud shutter noise too! Try firmware update or re-installation, might fix something... but probably not. Sounds more like a short in the shutter release somewhere, did you get the camera wet?

The camera was dry as a bone- absolutely nothing out of the ordinary. The lens had been on the camera for the previous 2 hours without a hint of a problem.

 

And I'm not sure how I would update the firmware when I can't get the thing to respond at all. It's going into Canon to get fixed but I thought I'd try here first as well.

 

Thanks for your replies.

Oh, and 15 pages into a search on FM hasn't yielded anything yet...

Rob, there's a current thread at DP for exactly the same issue:

 

http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1019&message=18723452

 

Apparently his 20D spazed at a wedding as well--runaway shutter and the works. Maybe

Canon is having all 20Ds self-destruct so they'll sell more 30Ds?

<P>Another poster, suffering the same fate, spin this sad tale:</P>

 

<blockquote>I sent it back for service. Turns out that one of the pins at the bottom of the CF

card compartment was bent, touched another pin, and short circuited something on the

board. They had to replace the board. I have no idea how a pin at the bottom of the

compartment could have bent, but that was the problem. Fortunately, the camera was only 3

weeks old and still under warranty.</blockquote>

Would a 1 series be more reliable? I don't know but I suspect it will. As you are a working pro, you might consider investing in a pro body.

 

Happy shooting,

Yakim.

the CF card pins can be bent if you try to force the CF car in the wrong way round (back to front, for example).

Sorry to hear that Rob. This story is the exact reason I just bought a new 30D a couple of weeks ago. I fear the day when my body goes nuts or worse. Now I have the 30D with the 20D as a backup. I have had a couple of err99 but that is it. Good luck on the repair!

After the battery changes have a go at switching the mode switch a few times and flick the shutter button. It could just be the switches are stuck with all the wedding Champagne splashes! Sorry, only joking about the wine but most failures in equipment like this occur from something mechanical wearing or breaking, it is very unusual for it to be software only.

Good luck with the camera.

"I sent it back for service. Turns out that one of the pins at the bottom of the CF card compartment was bent, touched another pin, and short circuited something on the board. They had to replace the board. I have no idea how a pin at the bottom of the compartment could have bent, but that was the problem. Fortunately, the camera was only 3 weeks old and still under warranty."

 

Puppy,

 

Sometimes duing the first week of my 20D, I went to walgreens to print from card. After several tries, their computer was not able to read my card. Finally I found, there card reader need to go to dentist. PIN was so horrible, I decided not take the memory card out from my camera unless absolutely needed. I have a 4GB card, after that I never had to take the card out of my camera. I am really scared about those pins.

 

Mohammad

What version of the firmware did you have ?

<p>

<a href="http://web.canon.jp/Imaging/eos20d/eos20d_firmware-e.html">http://web.canon.jp/Imaging/eos20d/eos20d_firmware-e.html</a>

<p>

From the site :<br>

"(...)<br>

Q: Are the previous versions of the firmware included in version 2.0.3?<br>

A: Yes, the following improvements from the previous version are included:<br>

<br>

Version 1.0.4/1.0.5 changes:<br>

<p>

1. Fixes the problem of shutter release not working.<br>

2. Improves reliability when using some CF cards.<br>

3. Improvements in the firmware update program itself. <br>

(...)"<p>

Thanks everyone for your comments:

 

-I have (had) the most current firmware installed

 

-All the CF pins look nice and straight

 

-Puppyface, thanks for finding that link for me- I'm hoping it's the $200 shutter and not the $718 fix (I have a bad feeling though)

 

-It might be time to move up to a Series 1 body but I shoot one-handed a lot (flash in the shoe as a master and the other as a slave in my left hand for more interesting flashwork) and the extra weight might kill me there. I just bought a 5D to replace this one though. I would have rather bought a new MacBook Pro......

 

Any other comments? Bob A., any insights?

 

Thanks,

Rob

I've no idea, but I will comment that there's really no reason to be paranoid out removing and resinserting CF cards. I do it all the time, sometimes 20 or 30 times a day if I'm doing lens testing and I've never had any problems either with a 10D or a 20D.

 

Bent pins are very rare. Sure, it can happen, but you can also get struck by lighting or hit by a bus if you go outside your house, but that doesn't stop most people from leaving home!

 

DSLRs are electronic devices and they are thus subject to random electronic failures. While they are rare, they happen. That's why carrying a backup is so important, especially if you're doing paid work.

 

Just out of interest do you know how many shutter actuations the cameras has on it? If you're up in the 50,000 plus range and certainly if you're anywhere near 100,000, shutter failure is always a possibility. I suppose the shutter might fail in a way that shorted something out and caused erratic behavior.

Thanks for weighing in Bob. I agree that one shouldn't worry about CF card (or changing lenses, etc.)issues- just use common sense and it'll be fine.

 

No idea how many actuations on the shutter- I just bought the thing less than two months ago from a landscape photographer who I believe treated it well and didn't really put too much mileage on it (you never know, though). FWIW I don't think he was trying to put one over on me, he seemed on the up and up. Wish he'd get back to me about when he bought it though...

 

Rob

I've shuttled a LOT of CF cards in and out of digital cameras (multiple P&S and dSLRs), card readers, MP3 players, etc.; and never had a pin bend ... I don't even consider the possibility when inserting these cards.

 

But clearly, it can happen! I'm a big fan of the CF form factor, but this is one area where SD cards and the like pose an advantage: no pins to bend. And even though I think SD cards are too dang small, they now make miniSD and microSD, as well!

I've heard of this exact thing happening to 20d' s at weddings all over the place. One poor

woman had it happen to both of her 20D bodies at the same wedding!, Maybe two back-ups

is the answer.

Thanks for the heads up Rob. I have the identical problem on my XT. I picked up a spare body, used. Looks decent, minor minor wear from use. As soon as I put in the battery, the shutter clicks, which you can see! The thing doesn't turn on, nothing on the LCD or the smallscreen. Looks Dead, but every time I insert the battery, the shutter clicks. I called a local shop today, they said it might be the mainboard. I also checked the CF Pins, all look straight and true.

 

Its a good thing this XT is my backup! #1 is still going strong!

Hi Rob:

 

I�ve had a similar problem as you described on my 20D just very recently except error 99 showed on my display. First let describe to you my problem and how I manage to resolve it.

 

I was using my 20D camera with a Canon 70-200 2.8 IS lens in the P mode, multi frame shutter setting , AI focus mode and after a few pictures, the shutter/mirror combo on my camera went berserk. The LCD display on top showed error 99. I took out the battery a replaced it, hopping it will reset itself but that didn�t work. The shutter continued to click away a few times per second erratically. When the shutter did manage to stop, I figured it might be the IS lens not being able to keep up with the multi frame shutter action, so I tried same lens with IS off and it still didn�t work.

 

Next I tried another older Canon 35-135 zoom and the problem still persisted. In the single frame, mode it worked fine for a few shots then the camera was possessed just like in the multi frame mode, the error 99 returned and shutter clicked away uncontrollably.

 

When I got home I went on the internet to see if others have had this same problem and hopefully find a fix. There was no one with the exact problem but variation of it until I saw your post today. It appears that these might be the possible problems: 1. communication between lens contact and the camera not functioning. 2. writing of data to CF card. 3. firmware corrupt or not loaded properly.

 

I should note that I did share my CF card between my 10D and 20D which is probably a no no, and also I did not reformat my CF card after updated my firmware to version 2.0.3 on my 20D.

 

Here�s what I did to fix my problem.

 

1. Reloaded the firmware on my 20D with version 2.0.3

2. Cleaned both the camera and lens contacts with isopropyl alcohol 99%

3. Deleted all my files using my computer and then reformatted my CF flash cards using my 20D camera with the updated firm ware.

4. Recharged my battery to make sure it was at full strength.

 

With my fingers cross, I put my camera through its paces and viola, every worked just fine. No more error messages and high speed multiple frame shooting worked just fine.

 

This fix has worked for me for now and I hope it will work for you as well.

 

Good luck!

 

Dave

Just to update- it was a bad shutter. Will post back with more info when it becomes available.

Rob,

Did you send it to Canon Service Center? How much did they charge for replacing the shutter?

happened to me on friday. camera constnatly clicks with a battery in. I was using the BG-E2 grip. some of the folks at the dpreview.com forums think that it might have been due to the grip being used.

 

I'm sending it in to mack for repair...