Eos 5D, strange behaviour

[massimiliano_manzan]

Hi,

 

I am a happy user of a Canon 5D since about a year. Last month, shortly before

my holiday, I sent the camera to Canon Germany for a professional sensor

cleaning. They charged me 100 Euro/135 US$ for that. The cleaning was plain

miserable, there was still much dust especially on all 4 corners and even dried

up stripes of cleaning liquid on the sensor surface. As I complained about it

on the phone (a pay-hotline) the Canon lady told me: "You could have cleaned it

on your on". Thank you.

But, worse comes; now I am home again and I am looking at the pictures I took

on holiday, and this: in photos taken at shutter speeds from about 1/400 sec.

and faster there is on the left side of the photo an area (arc-formed) which is

brighter than the rest. You don't see it in every picture, but it becomes

obvious if a homogeneous surface is photographed (for e. sky).

 

Ever experienced something like this?

 

Thank you<div></div>

[rainer_t]

The pattern you see is very likely the beginning of a shutter failure.

[tommyinca]

Wasn't shutter slit rectencular and not circular? More like they have a new on the job sensor cleaner that day. I hope your 5D is still under warrenty. Send it back with the picture attached.

[mark u]

Rainer is right: the lever that moves the shutter curtains makes an arc. The shutter needs to be replaced.

[tom_murray2]

There's a lesson for you Manzan--if you want something effed-up, do it yourself!

[PuppyDigs]

Maybe the noob that cleaned the CMOS accidentally cleaned the closed shutter first. Good employees are hard to find.

[PuppyDigs]

Try a long bulb exposure in low light, e.g., 30 sec. If the pattern is still there it might be a cleaning pattern on the CMOS rather than a south-bound shutter.

[dcheung]

^ The problem only exists for 1/400s or faster.

[ben_goren]

If this was an authorized Canon dealer, me thinks they owe you at least a new shutter and

sensor. Perhaps even a new camera.

 

Be prepared to work your way up the chain; if the manager / etc. at that location isn't

supportive, contact somebody in Canon Europe directly.

 

Good luck....

 

Cheers,

 

b&

[dogbert]

Canon Australia scratched the LCD screen on my camera and then refused to admit is was them.

[jimstrutz]

Definitely a shutter issue. Probably caused by the cleaning, but that might be hard to prove. Is it still under warranty?

[massimiliano_manzan]

Thanks to everybody for your answers.

 

As many pointed out, it is very, very likely a shutter issue, that is to say a very expensive issue. Back in May I sent the camera to Canon Germany, so to THE authorized centre for Germany, to have the sensor cleaned. And it was very probably then that a noob at Canon effed-up the shutter. I'm with Ben Goren in thinking that they owe me a new shutter (and yes, the camera is still under warranty), but Jim Strutz is right in saying that it might be hard to prove, because, as Geoff Francis experienced, I myself expect, based on my own experience till today with the Canon Service here in Germany, that they will never admit it is their fault.

 

In this last, unfortunately very likely case, what would I be supposed to do in your opinion?

 

I called the hotline of the Canon service centre today, but as usual it was no help at all, they just told me to ship the camera (what I've already done) and then "they'll see". When today I've told the employee on the phone about the story of the sensor cleaning, his answer has been that "sensor cleaning is just a maintenace opearation, so we don't give any warranty on it because it's not a repair service". This shows a clear attitude on their part: at this point it extremely obvious that dust on the sensor is not the problem anymore since something much more serious has now emerged; but the Canon guy had much care in stating that they are not willing to take any responsability even only for the slipshod cleaning-job. What would you expect from such people?

[walang_pangalan]

<i>What would you expect from such people?</i>

 

<p>When they said they don't warrant the cleaning, that's all they meant: they won't guarentee the sensor remains dust-free for any period of time. And how the heck could they?

 

<p>I'm absolutely sure that if you can demonstrate their cleaning efforts damaged your camera, they would be quite happy to repair it for free though. Remember Murphy's Law though, and that coincidences happen. (In particular, the chances are good that a low-quality employee would likely have been dimissed before he saw your camera -- but of course, maybe you are the unlucky one, as someone has to be!)

 

<p>In any case, I'd recommend that when you make your case to Canon -- you can gather up some circumstantial evidence from your own image collection, pre and post cleaning -- that you not immediately assume they are out to rip you off. Your chances of a free repair will increase quite a bit, even if your case isn't 100% air-tight.

[massimiliano_manzan]

Walang, thank you for your answer.

Of course they cannot give a warranty on the cleaning, and that's ok to me, but in this case it has become obvious that this policy can be abused to make a foul job and claim "dear customer, it's your problem" afterwards. I don't *guess* they did a bad job, I stick to the facts. But even this is not the point now.

When I say that such a claim on their part shows a general attitude it's because this, unfortunately, coincides with the experiences I had in this last year with the Canon service in Germany: they did not show a serious, responsible, professional and customer-friendly behaviour, at any time. Once again, I stick to the facts. And then again, how would you call the answer I got: "You could have cleaned the sensor by yourself"? Do you think this is a fair way for a serious service-company to treat paying customers?

 

> I'm absolutely sure that if you can demonstrate their cleaning efforts damaged your camera, they would be quite happy to repair it for free though

 

I'm sure too. The point is: how can I 100% prove it? I did send photos before/after to show the problem, but as you said the case is not fully air-tight: is it then MY fault? Of course I've taken and I'll keep on taking any effort to make my point clear to Canon Germany, be it with pictures or anyhow. But such is the fact, if they want, if they simply want, they don't have to recongnize my claims.

By all the proofs (which hopefully might indeed help), in the end I can only appeal to their seriousness. But, *fact* is, not my assumption, they haven't given much prove of it, at least until today. I strongly hope this can change.

Believe me, I don't want to immediately assume they are out to rip me off. I simply count the cases which make up my experience with them until now. That's it.

[shawn_hooper]

If you sent you camera to a factory service center and can't get help from them, go to Canon as a corporation. It's what I had to do once. They are always willing to help correct Canon problems. Good luck!