1D MkII sudden failure

1D MkII let me down badly tonight. At

www.portfolio.plus.com/diagnose are two consecutive frames of a

burst - the slash of light on the second appeared for no apparent

reason and was on every subsequent picture - I grabbed the back up

and worried . An hour later the "slash" was appearing as a misty

band across pictures - now several hours and jobs later it may have

disappeared altogether - cannot be sure testing with flash. - am I

unsettled by this ?- am I unnerved ? - too right I am - any ideas on

cause anyone ? Did all the usual - remove battery - power down -

change cards - nothing helped. The snaps are full frame - all I've

done is downsize them for web. Yes I've asked Canon - and will pass

on their reply if and when - but you guys got brains and experience

If I had to venture a guess, I'd say that one of the shutter blades may have broken. It looks like a hardware problem rather than a software glitch.

 

One way to check would be to use Mirror lockup and fire off a few test frames with no lens attached at varying shutter speeds. You could look directly into the camera at the shutter/sensor and see if there was anything visibly wrong.

 

Hope this helps!

 

Sheldon

1) Superimpose a few frames - is the slash in exactly the same place?

 

2) Is the 'misty band' you mention, describing the effect growing less distinct on subsequent images you record, or on the previously taken images ie is it 'fading' on previous images already recorded on the card? (I'm assuming the former).

 

3) If its on subsequent images is it variably 'misty' according to the aperture you used (eg less distinct with wider f stop and more distinct with smaller f stop)?

 

4) Looking at shooting data is the 'misty' effect in any way corresponding with the shutter speed used, ie are the more misty images related to a higher shutter speed?

 

The digonal slash is odd though.

 

No expert, but I'd be going down the shutter problem route I think. Its too geometric, has a distinct line and another line inside. I had this problem with a Pentax 67 which developed some severe shutter bounce and ruined a series of images before I realised there was a problem........AFTER the film was processed. Hmmph!

 

Is the 1Dmk2 shutter vertical or horizontal travel? It would have to be vertical to cause this problem.

 

Canon repair centre I think for sure.

Shutter looks likely - the effect isn't fading it's just less pronounced in low contrast light. Long long way short of 200,000 actuations claimed for this camera. In high contrast light it looks like a broken shutter blade. Of course I have a wedding on Monday and not a Canon dealer worth a toss within 200 miles.

thats why some photographers still shoot with the 1v...

best of luck

Dead shutter sounds like a reasonable explanation (especially if it disappeared during flash exposures). I'd avoid running too many tests to avoid scratching the sensor (or at least the filter in front of the sensor).

Good point simply put - the possibility of further damage hadn't crossed my simple mind.Thank you.

Kelvin,

 

"thats why some photographers still shoot with the 1v... best of luck"

 

So a 1V won't break down then? If that's true it will come as news to a lot of us. I've certainly had an early shutter failure with mine. Think about it. Derek was actually fortunate he was shooting digital and found out he had a problem before his wedding shoot. Even though it's a real pain for him don't you think it's better than shooting the wedding with an equally faulty 1V and finding out when it's just that day too late? Nice of you to wish him luck though.