20D gone goofy & 550EX flash too.

Well I must say, to all those that have ever wondered if you need

back up equipment let me tell you YES! I was shooting a small

wedding tonight and first one of my 550ex flashes started acting up,

then during the formals my 20D went haywire and did not reset itself

until 1 hour later at home. I had a 1DMKII that I was shooting with

and an additional 550ex so I was ok, but man that pisses me off. I

took the batteries out of the 20D and replaced and nothing changed

until an hour later when I got home I removed the batteries again

and then it started working propery. Has any one had this sort of

problem with a 20D? The 550ex is just completely messed up.

My 20D has suffered a similar schizophrenic behavioral problem. I popped the batteries out and back in, to no avail. I then replaced the (in my case a 580) flash batteries and prestO-changeO, back to normality. For whatever the reason, my 580 likes to eat bat.'s when they are left installed. If they go low, the whole rig acts up. Almost like some sort of Nikon set-up. wink-wink!

I've had a similar experience with my 20D, and also at a critical moment. I was shooting some graduation ceremonies, when suddenly my Canon EF 200mm f/2.8L wouldn't auto focus at all. My first reaction was to check to see if I'd accidentally hit the manual/auto focus switch, but it hadn't changed. I popped the lens off and put it back on, but still nothing. I switched to manual focus, but the 20D would still not fire. No error warning either, and when I tried to shut the camera off, it would not power off. I had to pop the battery out and replace it (twice) to get it working again. After that, it worked fine, and the problem didn't re-occur. I was using the 420EX flash, but I've never had a problem with that flash before, so I don't think it was part of the problem.

It's a well known fact that event photographers need backup equipment.

 

Happy shooting,

Yakim.

<i>"It's a well known fact that event photographers need backup equipment."</i><p>

Exactly! And especially when you're being paid or using some older equipment. My 2nd backup is film, if all else fails whip out the 10S.

<p>

Will the new 35D (just 13 days away) fix these too-commonly-reported 20D glitches? (please don't answer this as it entirely rhetorical, completely non-epistemically speaking)

Another thing I have to address is the Focus on my 1DmkII seems a bit soft. I found myself using the 20D most of the night. Although I like the robust body of the 1D, the 20 focused faster and better. What the ****!

I use two 20Ds on the job and at any given moment either one will start acting stupid for no apparent reason. I've had continuing problems with my 580EX flash even after repairs. I don't blame Canon and I don't blame digital, I blame all the freaking little computers inside these cameras. I wish someone would make a completely manual digital camera. I want as few automated features as possible. If my job didn't require it, I swear I would go back to film and manual cameras, i.e. my Leica M6 and maybe a rebuilt Canon F-1 or Nikon F-3 for longer lenses.

I know what you mean, it is as if you are in the middle of the bermuda triangle or something. I replaced the batteries in the flash and it is working properly.

Recently while travelling in Thailand & Australia I found my 20D went bananas due to the DOF preview button being either stuck, or worse, when condensation caused it to short circuit. It was obvious because the aperture was clearly stopped down, disabling AF, playback, but not exposure control or the actual shutter. I could use MF, but it's not so easy with the AF cameras!

 

I first noticed the problem in an air conditioned taxi, so I went outside into hot weather with the camera and the problem remedied itself, but as soon as I went back into an Air conditioned room it went mad again. This never happens in Ireland, where I live as it's always colder outside here!

 

Has anybody else experienced this? I rarely use DOF preview anyway so I'd prefer to remove it altogether rather than compromise the shot.

My 20D behaved oddly a few evenings ago. In this case, I was not using flash, and had only my 28 f1.8 lens on, taking available light shots at an artists' opening night.

 

Everything seemed to be working, except the shutter wouldn't fire. I was getting the confirmation dot, the AF was working, etc. etc. It just wouldn't take a picture.

 

I tried switching the camera off/on (aware that on the 20D that it really only puts in 'sleep' mode), to no avail.

 

Finally, I switched off the camera, and removed/replaced the lens (this forces a pseudo-reset, to read the changed lens parameters, simlar to opening/closing the compact flash door), and voila, the shutter started working.

 

This is the first time I've seen this, but both the body and in particular the lens are pretty recent acquisitions, so I'm unsure of which unit, if either, may be the root cause.

 

One other item of possible interest. I had just been using the depth of field preview button to determine my best aperture/shutter tradeoff of a small sculpture I was shooting. The lock up may have occured immediately after that frame, or soon after. Considering that the depth of field button is used to trigger modeling flash on those Speedlites that support that function, there may be some link twixt the useage of the depth-of-field preview and folks that have seen lockups when their dedicated flash units have run-down batteries (which would look like non-responding, but present flashes, kind of like the built-in flash, when it isn't popped up?).

 

In the two years and 3000 frames I had my 300D for, I never got a lock up of any sort. To only be a few hundred frames into the 20D, and have a lock up occur, is unnerving, to say the least.