"Error 50" on Canon 50D -- Any suggestions?

Good morning-<br />Yesterday while shooting a wedding, I got an "Error 50" on my EOS 50D camera. The following is what happened prior to the message:<br />- About 20 shots prior to the message, my partner inserted a Lexar 8 gb CF card that was giving him an error on his camera ("Error CF" on a 30D) We tried it on my camera and it said "card full". The card was nowhere near full but displayed the message.<br />- I was using a Tamron 18-50 2.8 lens then switched to a Canon 10-20 lens. Got about 5 shots on that lens and then the "Error 50" message.<br />- Camera is completely locked. You can hear what sounds to be the shutter moving everytime you open the battery hatch, the CF hatch, and when you remove the lens.<br /><br />After spending time researching the web for solutions, the following is what I have tried:<br />- removed and reinstalled battery, lens, CF card, even the tiny dime size battery<br />- cleaned the connections with alcohol/q-tip<br />- tried different lenses, batteries, battery grips, no CF card, hooking up to computer for remote use<br />- everything is disconnected to it now (after some needed sleep)<br /><br />I'm afraid that I will need to send to Canon but I thought I'd post here first. Any help would be greatly appreciated! Thank you so much.

<p>A quick search turned up a similar problem for 2010 - not good news, I think<br>

<a href="http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/archive/1369976">http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/archive/1369976</a></p>

<p>On searching, using Google, it sounds as if it might be a shutter failure - others have similar stories.</p>

<p> </p>

<p>Call Canon Support.</p>

<p>Wow! Thanks for the quick reply David.<br>

Yeah- I saw that discussion thread last night and tried everything mentioned. Do you think something with that Lexar CF card mentioned in my original post could have triggered something? Have you ever heard of this sort of problem before?<br>

Thanks again for your help.</p>

<p>I always format my cards before using them at a gig. Switching them from different cameras, even tho they are the same brand, I don't do that. I have a holder for eight cards that I have for each of my cameras. Cards are pretty inexpensive, especially when problems are encountered at an event.<br>

Hope this helps you.</p>

<p>As William does, always format in camera just prior to using. On a personal note, I've loaned cards to both Nikon and Canon users and we have never run into an issue such as this. I'm no expert, but it doesn't sound like something a faulty memory card would trigger. Agree with calling a Canon service center.</p>

This is going to be a reach , but there is a chance , that the CF that came from the 30d has a corrupt file, and the same set of firmware fr

a 30 D , generally wil not intermix on a 50 d , after a significant amount of space Has been used, like all these folks. I would. Suggest yu get a fresh card format it on the 50d and then do a firmware reset ,I also had a 40d do he same thng hen a change in climate came along and I was shooting in auto mode, the mirror kept locking up, and would not come down till I went to manual bt yet I still could not take a shot , so I put the camera in a ziplock bag and put in a average room temp, with a small bag of silicone in the bag to draw out moisture nd after abut 4 hours it was back to normal and I never had the problem again, since then I never. Go anywhere without ziplock bags, on the cameras, and I always let them cool down or warm up depending on the season and location.

<p>I hadn't thought of a reload of firmware - it might be worth doing that as long as you can get it to recognize a card probably. I'm guessing that this is a mechanical problem, perhaps caused by some strange software issue from the card you were given. </p>

<p>It might be worth a try, but I expect that you'll be sending it in for a new shutter. err50 is one of the half dozen or so codes which, if not cleared by a full battery change, indicate that you'll be replacing one of the subsystems in it's entirety. I'm not a Canon tech, but it seems that err50 is the blanket code for internal electro-mechanical subsystems (mirror & shutter), and the fact that it sounds as if your shutter is trying to operate/reset suggests it's the problem.</p>

<p>too bad, but these things happen... let us know what they end up fixing!</p>