Signs of shutter death?

Ann McRae · June 28, 2007

Are there any warning signs? (Canon 20d - approaching its third birthday and has been well & lovingly used).

I am noticing a redcedresponse and bility to burst. Now the other thought I've had is that my cf cards are past due for replacement - 2 as old as the cam, and the third about a year younger.

You may know that I primarily shoot soccer and so burst is an important function for me. Having the camera be 'busy' for several seconds is not good. Tonight, I had a point tht required me to shut the camera off to get it to shoot again

If this is a sign of trouble ahead, I could be on the lookout for a 5D......
ann

Skippy · June 28, 2007

Ann McRae wrote:

Are there any warning signs? (Canon 20d - approaching its third birthday and has been well & lovingly used).

I am noticing a redcedresponse and bility to burst. Now the other thought I've had is that my cf cards are past due for replacement - 2 as old as the cam, and the third about a year younger.

You may know that I primarily shoot soccer and so burst is an important function for me. Having the camera be 'busy' for several seconds is not good. Tonight, I had a point tht required me to shut the camera off to get it to shoot again

If this is a sign of trouble ahead, I could be on the lookout for a 5D......
ann

Ohhhhhhhhhhh Lordy Lordy Ann

I hope all is well for September and October, cause your trigger finger will get a real work out over those few weeks girl !

Hope it's nothing too serious girl ...... Skippy

.

ziggy53 · June 28, 2007

Ann,

The problems that aging shutters exhibit usually show as horizontal marks on the image, or streaks or lack of flash sync.

I suspect the main problem you are running into is flushing the camera buffer. Faster cards and not trying to fill the cards to their max will probably help dramatically. For Canon products, I am committed to SanDisk cards, specifically the 2 Gig, Ultra II. These are extremely fast to transfer, reasonably priced, and within a few percentage points of the fastest cards you can buy.

I also forget about RAW during burst sessions. JPGs are much more compact and store that much faster. Save the RAW for those times when the image tonality is more important than the action, like dramatic expressions after the game (hopefully emotions of glee.)

IMHO, the Canon 5D is a poor sports camera. You would be much better served by a used 1D MKII. The responsiveness is just sooo sweet on these cameras, until you experience the sensation, you don't know what you're missing.

Good shooting,

Ed911 · June 28, 2007

Dieing Camera
What does busy mean?

You seem to be contemplating three problems.

1. Shutter is not firing as usual.
2. Slow write times.
3.Camera locks up.

What does "busy" mean?

Are you now shooting such long bursts that you are overloading your buffer?

Have you recently switched from jpeg to raw, or raw/jpeg and forgot to switch back when shooting soccer matches?

Camera locks up. Do you have a BG-E2 Battery Grip...if so, check to see if it is loose...this has been a problem with some cameras and their grips. If so, snug up...but do not over tighten.

Are your batteries three years old?

Most likely it is not your memory cards. Are you formatting them from time to time. It is recommended that you do it every time, to remove artifacts from previous shoots.

You probably know most of this, but with the information that you gave us, this is as helpful as I can get. Hope it is a simple fix...but then...hmmm...a 5D...would that be a bad thing...not.

Ann McRae · June 28, 2007

Yes, skippy, I need to figure this out now rather than in Septmeber! With the recent sale of my 828 I no longer have a second camera....
Will watch the flea market for a good used body, I guess.

ann

Skippy wrote:

Ohhhhhhhhhhh Lordy Lordy Ann I hope all is well for September and October, cause your trigger finger will get a real work out over those few weeks girl !

Hope it's nothing too serious girl ...... Skippy .

Ann McRae · June 28, 2007

Hi Ziggy

Thanks for this info - somewhat reassuring. I have 3 SandDisk cards - 2 extreme, 1 not. all 1 gig. I will upgrade them first.

This is a new problem with a tried and true method, and I am using RAW as these are evening games in variable (sometimes no) light. In full daylight I forget about RAW.

I am clearly filling the buffer. The problem seems to be in recovering from that - it has become much slower, and last night just didn't recover on one occassion.

Good info about the 5D for sports. I am really worried about the size of the 1 series cameras. I struggle with the 20d and the 70 - 200 , it's about as much as I can handle.

Thanks so much

ann

ziggy53 wrote:

Ann,

The problems that aging shutters exhibit usually show as horizontal marks on the image, or streaks or lack of flash sync.

I suspect the main problem you are running into is flushing the camera buffer. Faster cards and not trying to fill the cards to their max will probably help dramatically. For Canon products, I am committed to SanDisk cards, specifically the 2 Gig, Ultra II. These are extremely fast to transfer, reasonably priced, and within a few percentage points of the fastest cards you can buy.

I also forget about RAW during burst sessions. JPGs are much more compact and store that much faster. Save the RAW for those times when the image tonality is more important than the action, like dramatic expressions after the game (hopefully emotions of glee.)

IMHO, the Canon 5D is a poor sports camera. You would be much better served by a used 1D MKII. The responsiveness is just sooo sweet on these cameras, until you experience the sensation, you don't know what you're missing.

Good shooting,

Ann McRae · June 28, 2007

Ed911 wrote:

What does busy mean?

You seem to be contemplating three problems.

1. Shutter is not firing as usual.
2. Slow write times.
3.Camera locks up.

What does "busy" mean?

Are you now shooting such long bursts that you are overloading your buffer?

Hi Ed
I do not think so, but possibly. I noticed it in particular when shooting younger kids last night - much less predictable action so I was probably trying to just keep shooting.
'Busy' is what the camera 'says' ie the word in the info box while it is writing. The problem I guess, is a slow recovery from writing the buffer to being able to resume shooting. One instance where the camera could not switch back from write mode and required me to shut it off, restart, remove battery, restart...

Ed911 wrote:

Have you recently switched from jpeg to raw, or raw/jpeg and forgot to switch back when shooting soccer matches?

No - RAW only

Ed911 wrote:

Camera locks up. Do you have a BG-E2 Battery Grip...if so, check to see if it is loose...this has been a problem with some cameras and their grips. If so, snug up...but do not over tighten.

No grip

Ed911 wrote:

Are your batteries three years old?

Yes!!! That is probably it, then. I will certainly try that.

Ed911 wrote:

Most likely it is not your memory cards. Are you formatting them from time to time. It is recommended that you do it every time, to remove artifacts from previous shoots.

Format every time.

Ed911 wrote:

You probably know most of this, but with the information that you gave us, this is as helpful as I can get. Hope it is a simple fix...but then...hmmm...a 5D...would that be a bad thing...not.

Well, my sports shooting has finally resulted in enough revenue to be able to pick up a second body. What other info might be useful to you here?

ann

claudermilk · June 28, 2007

Interesting problem. My 20D is about the same age--3 yrs 4 months old. Still on the original OEM battery and a Sterlingtek acquired soon after in the grip. I'm also using exclusively SanDisk Ultra IIs, 2 1GB (lost one somewhere after my move--it'll turn up sooner or later) and 2 new 2GB.

I have always run into the buffer limitations of 6 RAW and try to limit my bursts because of that. I've also noticed that as the 2GB cards in particular get near full it takes a while to clear the buffer. Now that I think of it, I'll bet that's a contributing factor to those big 4GB and 8GB Ultra IIs showing up as slower on RG's performance database.

I agree with ziggy on the 5D and that's why I keep swimming upstream on that issue. So many people are completely enamored of it, "ooohhh, it's FF, it's the HOLY GRAIL of DSLRs

"...uhh, NOT. I have to keep pointing out that for action shooting it sucks because all the compromises made to go from 1.6 crop to 1.0 crop are the wrong way for an action shooter. I keep calling it a downgrade from my 20D--which confuses the 5D fanboys.

Truly the upgrade for we action shooters is the 1D Mk II or IIN (or, drool, the III). Anyway, off my soapbox...

Ann McRae · July 1, 2007

Update:
Been shooting tournament shots all weekend. Have this to report:

1. My original battery just doesn't hold a chare poperly anymore. One or two games and it needs recharging.

2. The ultra cards do not hesitate nearly as much as the regular card.

I think I was just trying to shoot large bursts the other night - new teams are hard to predict - and causing the cam to overlaod a bit.

Need to get a new battery, and I thnk I'll get a 2 gig card.

Anybody know if the 40d is on the horizon? Those 1 series are just soooo big!

ann

cwphotos · July 2, 2007

I got an XT you can buy.......

Did I forget to mention im looking forward to seeing you again in Sept ? I miss the accent...

Ann McRae · July 2, 2007

Accent? Dean, what are you talking abooot, eh???????

looking forward to seeing you again too. I'll protect you from the squirrel....I mean bears!

ann

cwphotos wrote:

I got an XT you can buy.......

Did I forget to mention im looking forward to seeing you again in Sept ? I miss the accent...

Signs of shutter death?

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