I was taking a few pics today and all at once I get an error 99 message and camera goes dark. I took the battery out and it worked fine however it did it again after 5 shots. What are the possible causes and solutions to this?
Thank you
This happens to me on occasion if I'm using a particular lens (50 1.8II - the cheap plastic one). I believe it has to do with a communications fault between the body and the lens. If I remount the lens, it tends to fix the problem. It can also be caused by dirty contacts on either the body or the lens (I should probably clean the contacts on that 50...)
I have had this problem four times on my 20D with my 70-200 f4 removing and reattaching the lens and restarting the camera works. I havent worried too much.
You can google Canon ERR codes to find more info but basically ERR99 usually refers to a communication problem with connected peripherals such as a lens or flash. I've had it happen several times.
Often removing all accessories and the battery and reattaching same clears the ERR message. If it persists try cleaning & checking the contact areas of the accessories.
My 20d gave err99 messages on 2 occasions: with one of my 4 cheap batteries and as a result of a bend pin in the CFcard slot (caused by a faulty, probably fake CFcard). cfslot needed replacement.
Happened once on my 10D, and hasn't happened in a year with the 5D. The 10D did it when I was changing lenses 17-40F4L to a 100-400 Vivitar (ya I know not the worlds best zoom, however the AF does work even after 15 years of use), solved by turning camera off and removing the main battery.
Jim Schemel wrote:
Clean the brass connections on lens and camera with a pencil eraser and see if that helps.
-Jim
With the 20D try Jim's suggestions AND use the pencil eraser on ALL battery contacts on the battery (ies) and camera to battery contacts especially if you have the grip. Crud can build up on the contacts over time and need to be cleaned from time to time.
I had that problem with my 20D. The problem was one lense. Other lenses I had worked fine with no ERR99. The troublemaker continuously had the ERR99 code come up at the most inconvenient time. I had the lense replaced twice by Canon.
the err99 message i got happend quite some times on my 20D. note i had a Canon grip attached. but each time i would turn it off unscrew the grip a bit and screw it back on and it'd work again
