Canon 40D glitches

[gary_anthes]

I spent the weekend out with my new 40D and encountered three glitches. Once,

when powering up, I got an error message saying there was a problem with sensor

cleaning and to contact Canon service. Only happened once. Two or three times

(although I may not have noticed when the camera was on a tripod in a noisy

situation), immediately after shooting, there was a tiny whirring and vibrating

sound for a second or two that sounded a little like film advancing! (Could this

be the undocumented jpg plus raw plus film mode?) Then, quite a few times when

powering up I got a message saying that the camera could not power up, to turn

it off, reinsert the battery and try again. Simply turning it off and then back

on cured the problem. These are not show-stoppers but are rather alarming. Any

ideas out there?

 

On a more positive note, I love the large LCD, the quiet shutter and the C1-C3

mode settings. I have C1 programmed for landscapes (tripod assumed, ISO 200,

one-shot, etc.), C2 for normal hand held (ISO auto, etc.) and C3 for fast action

(ISO 1600, AI servo, etc.). Quite handy. Can't say yet how it compares in image

quality to my 20D, but I doubt I will see a difference.

[mars c]

The first time I used a batt. grip on my camera, I got an error message, It turned out that the contacts need cleaning, After I cleaned it, I havent seen the error message since then. Have you cleaned the battery contact to see if the error message occur again?

[bosman]

I got a call from my camera store saying my 40d was in so i went to pick it up. When we

took it out of the package we put a battery in it to make sure everything worked, well it

turned on,yes, but it wouldn't focus. All the same messages came up like remove the

battery and turn off and on. Well we never got it to work, so it was a dud right out of the

box. Luckilly another individual cacelled their order and the only other 40d would now be

mine if it worked. I had no problems with the second 40d thanks goodness. I'd take your

dud back and request a new one iif you are getting all these error messages. I just shot 2

days all day of hockey w/o a glitch.

Good luck with that.

[steve_dunn2]

<p>They may not be showstoppers, but the camera is clearly not working properly. Implied in the purchase of a brand new product is that it will work properly. Yours doesn't. I agree that you should take it back.</p>

[gary_anthes]

Yes, Steve, I think you are right. I don't want to wait and hope that a new firmware release will put things right. I bought it from Amazon.com and, fortunately, they are very good about these kinds of things.

[bobatkins]

Send it back.

 

Since they all don't do it, it's unlikely to be related to firmware. Mine has been 100% fine for almost 3 weeks now. Not a single error message.

 

It could be a battery contact problem, but I'd still send it back.

[eric_bradley]

I bought one a couple of weeks ago and have generally been very happy with it. However, I did get quite a few "Error 99 unable to take photographs" messages that were temporarily fixed by turning the camera off and (I hope) permanently fixed by removing the battery. At least, it hasn't recurred in almost a week. What happened is that I put a compact flash in the camera, formatted it and took a picture - no problem. It was a large JPEG called something like IMG_1303. Next day, I took a shot and it created IMG_1301 then IMG_1302. Basically, that's when the errors started and the camera seemed to have "lost track" of what was on the newly-formatted card and was erroring because of this. Seems like a definite firmmware issue to me but Canon don't seem to have posted any new versions as yet. I am on 1.0.3. BTW, numbering is in continuous mode.

[kent_corley]

I got my 40D a few weeks ago and put it througj the rigors for the last 2 days doing some

down n' dirty product work. Strange occurences on my end:

 

-camera refused to fire on 2 seperate occasions. No error, but also no response. It wasn't

buffering either, just... AWOL!

 

-AF seemed to have a lot of trouble at times if extended to full (28-135 IS 3.5-5.6)

 

-remote strobe firing with slave does not work in live view?

 

I've used a number of DSLR's and was sooo happy to finally get this. Sorely disappointed

today though.

 

It may have to go back to the shop soon. Thoughts?

[big kahuna1]

After MY first weekend with the 40D, I think I am mostly the Glitch. I come from the EOS Film cameras, through a 10D, XTi, now the 40D.

TOO MANY things to remember the first time out. I could not keep the dang ISO off of Auto, every time I switched from one mode to the other, I was fighting to get back to the picture style I want, and I only managed to capture the RAW image on about 1/3 of what I took. Can't blame it on the camera, but I have a lot to learn. Only complaint is LOTS of shutter lag. It seems like sometime you hold the shutter button for 2 seconds before it finally fires.

[gary_anthes]

Charles, I'm a bit puzzled by your post. The 40D should not be THAT much more difficult than the 10D or XTi. And the shutter lag is very weird. No way you should be getting that unless the camera is hunting for focus, which it should do rarely.

 

On my own glitch situation, I did send that camera back and got a replacement. It is glitch-free so far.

[lars_lindgren]

Sometimes after i have been shooting and i turn the camera off. When i turn it on again i only have limited functions available, and i cant shoot or go into the menu... The only features available are the light on the top lcd display, the meter mode/WB and the AF/Drive.. I can change the shutterspeed and apature, but not the ISO/Flash exposure.. If i turn it of and on again, it goes back to showing the settings i had it on when i initialy turned it off.. very strange.. the only thing that helps is to remove the little 3V battery and reset the whole thing.

[android1]

Just wondered if anyone has experienced the same problem that I have with the top LCD screen on the Canon 40D.

 

Basically, the left hand side of the screen looks like there is pressure being applied to the screen causing the same sort of effect as pressing your finger on an LCD monitor.

 

This problem is most easily visible under natural daylight conditions and is a lot less visible indoors or under artificial light. The easiest way to see the problem is to hold the camera in front of you and look down onto the top lcd screen. If you then turn the camera 90 degrees the problem is even more visible.

The problem (if present) is quite easy to see. On all the cameras I've seen it is in the area where the white balance settings are displayed. It desen't even matter if the camera is powered up or not.

 

I've been back to Jessops (where I purchased the camera) where they have acknowledged the problem and are awaiting a response from Canon. All the cameras that my local Jessops had in stock exhibited the same fault. I have looked at 8 cameras and all of them have had the fault, this has resulted in me getting a refund until Canon has acknowledged this problem.

 

Please post here if anyone else here has seen the fault or if anyone else has a 40D could check if their 40D has the same problem as this could be a design flaw.

[bobatkins]

I see something similar with mine. Doesn't really affect anything so I didn't worry about it.

[my website1]

I am seeing the same issue on my LCD too. Has anyone noticed the softness of the images? I think I may have to buy back my 30D.

[tony_petitt]

I have a similar problem to Kent's first one; if I leave camera on tripod and then switch on without moving the camera, it won't fire. No messages - nothing works. If I move the camera, all is OK.

[chuck_simpson]

I just bought my 40D over the weekend. Was working just fine for a few days, but now my "Picture Style" menu randomly appears for no reason. It happens almost every time I turn the camera on. Once on, I can shoot pics fine, but it will still randomly go back to the Picture Style screen. It's extremely annoying when I'm adjusting ISO/Aper/Shutter with the dial, then "BAM", I'm suddenly adjusting Picture Style.

[muhamed_veletanlic]

I just exeperienced the same problem as Lars. Anyone else?

[jeff_c7]

I recently bought a

40D from amazon.

After about a week I

ran into the same

exact problem as

Chuck.

Intermittent picture

style "button

press". I never use

picture styles, btw,

so that button isnt

abused.

Yes, the picture

style screen would

appear randomly

interrupting

anything else I was

doing.

Also, after a while,

the picture styles

button didnt even

work. I.e. the

button would not

bring up the screen.

Instead if I press

slightly on the

power switch the

picture styles

screen comes up.

 

amazon has a 30day

return policy, so I

just had them send

me another camera.

It came 1-day

shipping, and the

new one ~seems~ to

work. The old one

will be going back

to amazon.

supposedly amazon

will refund retrun

shipping.

I'm glad it failed

now, such that I

dont have to use the

warranty service.

 

I'd be interested to

hear any reports of

sending the camera

to canon to get this

fixed, and what the

outcome was.

 

Hopefully the new

camera will not have

issues.

 

jeff

[steve_hovland]

Consider not buying new bodies until they have been out for at least a year.

[hassy501]

<p>I bought a NEW body from Cameta on Nov 22. Today, Dec 17 the body was dead. Dead in the water. Would not power up even with six different fully charge batteries tried.<br>

Mailed it back to Cameta for a refund. </p>

<p>Simply amazing the lack of quality control.</p>

 

[steve_hovland]

<p>So much for the wait-a-year theory.</p>

[joe_gunter]

<p>I bought a refurbished 40d in March. I have had zero issues through the first 2000 or so images. Maybe they have resolved the problems - I hope, I am taking it to Yellowstone in May!</p>