Canon 5D Mk2 freezes, locks up.

[jakob_lagerstedt]

<p >My camera randomly locks up/freezes after taking shots (I normally shoot in aperture mode but it happens in manual mode as well). It simply becomes unresponsive. It’s not the shutter freezing as the shutter has closed when this happens. I realize it has locked up when I press the play button to review my shot or when I attempt to press the shutter for another shot – nothing happens. The freeze/lock is only interrupted by me moving the focus ring on my lens or by waiting for 5-10 seconds and moving the lens around. I even had the camera body replaced by the seller - which means I can eliminate the body as the issue. Having worked in tech support previously and realize the logic of deduction in troubleshooting, I am unable to reproduce it consistently - it's completely random. It can happen several times a day, or it doesn't happen for a day or two. The issue occurs regardless of memory card or lens. I have been using fast UDMA (lexar, sandisk) memory cards and two different lenses (Canon 135L & Sigma 50). Although I tend to shoot more indoors, the issue occurs indoors in low light as well as outdoors in day light. The problem also occurred with any focus distance - it has occurred at 3 meters as well as 20-30 meters. I don't have anything attached like a battery pack or flash. Memory cards, battery and lenses are the only variables. Any ideas? I've seen some users experiencing similar issues: <br>

 

<p ><a href="http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1032&message=32282310">http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1032&message=32282310</a></p>

<p ><a href="http://www.photo.net/canon-eos-digital-camera-forum/00SXtB">http://www.photo.net/canon-eos-digital-camera-forum/00SXtB</a></p>

<p ><a href="http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1032&message=34027814">http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1032&message=34027814</a></p>

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<p >Canon says they'd be happy to take a look at it but given that my camera body was replaced and I'm still experiencing this issue, I don't see how they can solve it.<br>

 

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[sattler123]

<p>Who else, other than Canon could resolve this for you? Send your camera to Canon!</p>

[ken schwarz]

<p>Weird. Perhaps there is some contamination on lens contacts that gets on the body contacts and causes the glitch?</p>

<p>Alternatively, as an experiment, what if you stop using the Sigma for a week and see if the problem, random as it is, doesn't show up. If so, then you can suspect that the Sigma/Canon body interaction is the source of the trouble.</p>

[jakob_lagerstedt]

<p>Ken, that's my strategy for this weekened actually altough I am not sure it's a valid conclusion to believe the Sigma "contaminates" my 5D but it's worth a shot at this point.</p>

[ken schwarz]

<p>I was thinking of two, completely different, explanations: one is that contacts are dirty, which could only be explained if one of your lenses is sharing its contamination with the body since you have experienced it with both lenses and two bodies. It seems pretty far-fetched, but do take a look and see if there is some goo on the contacts somewhere.</p>

<p>The other thought is that there is some kind of protocol incompatibility between the Sigma and the Canon body that causes the problem. Maybe some kind of error condition that is discovered and causes some kind of reset operation in the body? This is pure speculation, but if the Sigma lens is giving the body grief, then not using it for a while and seeing if the problem goes away would at least give you a clue.</p>

 

[jakob_lagerstedt]

<p>Thanks Ken - appreciate it!</p>

[philip_wilson]

<p>I suspect it is either as ken says a lens issue - try a different lens to isolate this. Or the other thing is you may have long exposure or high ISO noise reduction turned on. Long exposure noise reduction takes a second image with the shutter closed to remove noise - this doubles the exposure length. High ISO noise reduction requires a lot more processing time and slows doown the camera burst rate quite a lot. Of the two I suspect it is long exposure but check your custom functions.</p>

[jakob_lagerstedt]

<p>I've tried my nifty fifty a few times and it hasn't happened but I haven't shot enough with it to make sure it's an issue with both my 135 and 50 Sigma.<br>

I have standard noise reduction on and I don't have long exposure noise reduction activated.</p>

[g dan mitchell]

<p>Odd thing is that I experienced something like this on rare occasions during the first few months of owning my 5D2. I had forgotten about it since it has not happened in a long time now - I wonder if it might be resolved by downloading the latest camera update?</p>

<p>Dan</p>

[jakob_lagerstedt]

<p>I have the last firmware update. Thanks though.</p>

[philip_wilson]

<p>Jakob - does this happen with every lens?</p>

[jakob_lagerstedt]

Yes although not on my nifty fifty but I haven't used it much on the 5D.

[philip_wilson]

<p>I have never had this issue with my 5DII and if it is not the software, the lens, the CF card or a noise reduction setting I am at a loss. Experiment with the 50mm Canon as it may be the Sigma lenses. It is unlikely but you never know - I have an old (very poor) Sigma 14mm lens that I once bought to save money (ha ha - I should have paid 2x as much for the Canon as it would have been cheaper!) that will only work on film bodies or EOS digital at full aperture. Sigma has a history of EF lens mount issues that is not shared by Tamron or Tokina. If it does not happen with the 50mm then it is the Sigmas</p>

[jakob_lagerstedt]

Ok so Ive isolated the issue to only occur when I hit the play button to review my shot - when I press it, the camera locks

up which makes me think my two memory cards are faulty. I did have a card reader which recently died on me and when

I inspected it, it had a couple of bent prongs. I'm hoping this is the issue because it's making me mental. I'm off to buy a new

memory card.

[jakob_lagerstedt]

Ok so it's not the memory card but I have narrowed down the problem further. The camera can lock up by me simply

pressing the playback/review button, I don't even have to depress the shutter button. When I press the playback button, it

will not display the last shot taken and it just locks up until I move focus ring or wait for about 10 seconds. Still

mindboggling considering it happens with any lens or memory card and I'm on my second body with the same issue. It's

going back to Canon.

[jakob_lagerstedt]

<p>A quick update. Canon has had my camera since last Wednesday and just began testing it this Tuesday. Apparently, my package was left unattended and they didn't realize they had it until I called and asked for a status update. As of today, it's still in testing which is frustrating since the issue is reproducable within a couple of minutes. So far, I am far from impressed by their technical support. </p>

[xta]

<p>jakob, what was the outcome of canon's service? am having the same problem on my 5D... thanks!</p>

[jakob_lagerstedt]

<p>My index finger kept rubbing up against the DOF preview button which caused the issues. A little embarrassing but glad I figured it out.</p>