Living with a 1DMK3 "Err99" ..

Home · Register · Search · Software · Hosting · Software · Join Upload & Sell

FM Forum Rules
Canon SLRs, primes, and zooms lenses reviews

FM Forums \| Canon-mount SLRs \| Join Upload & Sell
end

Mike Mahoney
Offline
• • • • •
Upload & Sell: Off

p.1 #1 · Living with a 1DMK3 "Err99" ..

My 1DMK3 has been throwing out an "Err99" message on startup. I can get things working by turning the camera off, then removing and reinstalling the battery. Turn it on after doing this and it's best kind.

I've done all the usual remedies like cleaning contacts, trying different lenses, reinstalling firmware, reinstalling the date & time battery and the Err 99 persists.

Just wondering if anyone else had this problem and if so did it get worse?
It's busy season for me so I'd keep doing the battery reset just to get me through a couple more weeks .. unless someone tells me that in their experience it's only going to get worse

Sep 08, 2012 at 04:16 PM

Mescalamba
Offline
• • • •
Upload & Sell: Off

p.1 #2 · Living with a 1DMK3 "Err99" ..

Have you bought it second-hand?

Is your 1DMK3 "blue-dot"?

Otherwise, you can upgrade to latest firmware and it should give you more info about "whats wrong". Err99 usually meant its mirror issue (needs to be fixed by Canon, sorry), but ofc it might mean something else, unfortunately beyond our reach to find out "what is wrong".

It might or might not go worse. I wouldnt push it personally..

Sep 08, 2012 at 04:48 PM

Mike Mahoney
Offline
• • • • •
Upload & Sell: Off

p.1 #3 · Living with a 1DMK3 "Err99" ..

Mescalamba wrote:
Have you bought it second-hand?

Is your 1DMK3 "blue-dot"?

Otherwise, you can upgrade to latest firmware and it should give you more info about "whats wrong". Err99 usually meant its mirror issue (needs to be fixed by Canon, sorry), but ofc it might mean something else, unfortunately beyond our reach to find out "what is wrong".

It might or might not go worse. I wouldnt push it personally..

Thanks .. It's a yellow dot, and I did buy it used. It had 1.23 firmware and I upgraded to 1.3 a few days after first noticing the Err99 thinking that it may clear the problem, but it didn't.

And I think you're right about it being a mirror issue as after getting the message and turning the camera off the mirror goes up (like it would with MLU or sensor cleaning) .. then goes down again when you turn it back on.

And it does not have any problems on startup with no lens attached .. it just starts right up and works fine.

Sep 08, 2012 at 05:22 PM

Grantland
Offline
• • • •
Upload & Sell: On

p.1 #4 · Living with a 1DMK3 "Err99" ..

my 1d2n had a err99. it was the shutter motor that went bad.

not too sure about the 1d3

Sep 08, 2012 at 05:28 PM

Mescalamba
Offline
• • • •
Upload & Sell: Off

p.1 #5 · Living with a 1DMK3 "Err99" ..

Mike Mahoney wrote:
Mescalamba wrote:
Have you bought it second-hand?

Is your 1DMK3 "blue-dot"?

Otherwise, you can upgrade to latest firmware and it should give you more info about "whats wrong". Err99 usually meant its mirror issue (needs to be fixed by Canon, sorry), but ofc it might mean something else, unfortunately beyond our reach to find out "what is wrong".

It might or might not go worse. I wouldnt push it personally..

Thanks .. It's a yellow dot, and I did buy it used. It had 1.23 firmware and I upgraded to 1.3 a few days after first noticing the Err99 thinking that it may clear the problem, but it didn't.

And I think you're right about it being a mirror issue as after getting the message and turning the camera off the mirror goes up (like it would with MLU or sensor cleaning) .. then goes down again when you turn it back on.

And it does not have any problems on startup with no lens attached .. it just starts right up and works fine.

No lens attached without problem? Hm, might be some problem in AF circuit, but its just wild guess.

Have you tried fast shutter speeds at high f-stop? 1/8000 at f11-f16 - It can sometimes show if shutter is fine or not. If theres light-streak across pic, its dying shutter. But I think it doesnt work always, just saw it few times.

Really hard to say, service is best idea right now I think.

Sep 08, 2012 at 05:53 PM

Mescalamba
Offline
• • • •
Upload & Sell: Off

p.1 #6 · Living with a 1DMK3 "Err99" ..

Grantland wrote:
my 1d2n had a err99. it was the shutter motor that went bad.

not too sure about the 1d3

It can say same, unfortunately err99 can say numerous other things. It simply says "that photo isnt possible right now". Not much about reasons.. :/

Sep 08, 2012 at 05:55 PM

Andrew J
Online
• • • •
Upload & Sell: On

p.1 #7 · Living with a 1DMK3 "Err99" ..

The MKIII has an ERR99 recall notice, so send it in.

Sep 08, 2012 at 06:58 PM

Mike Mahoney
Offline
• • • • •
Upload & Sell: Off

p.1 #8 · Living with a 1DMK3 "Err99" ..

Andrew J wrote:
The MKIII has an ERR99 recall notice, so send it in.

That's what I thought but I called Canon Canada and they said no recall .. and $300 flat rate to repair

Sep 08, 2012 at 07:27 PM

Mescalamba
Offline
• • • •
Upload & Sell: Off

p.1 #9 · Living with a 1DMK3 "Err99" ..

Andrew J wrote:
The MKIII has an ERR99 recall notice, so send it in.

Im not super-sure but I think that was only for blue dots. Yellow dots should be free of issues.

Sep 08, 2012 at 07:50 PM

Mike Mahoney
Offline
• • • • •
Upload & Sell: Off

p.1 #10 · Living with a 1DMK3 "Err99" ..

Here's something .. I realized that I had been only using two lenses during my Err99 period, those being a 70-200 IS and the 24-105 IS. I also cannot get the Err99 with just a body cap on (no lens attached) .. and after reading the Lens Rental Err99 write up which suggests that many Err99 causes are battery voltage and or / lens voltage requirement drain related I decided to put a non IS lens on, my Sigma 85 1.4 and voila

.. no Err99 at all.

So it seems a voltage issue or a lens issue .. both are not likely as my batteries are new and fully charged and the chances of two lenses developing problems at the same time are pretty small. I'll clean battery contacts just to be sure.

Interesting.
http://www.lensrentals.com/blog/2008/12/canons-error-99-the-man-the-myth/6

Sep 08, 2012 at 07:55 PM

Andrew J
Online
• • • •
Upload & Sell: On

p.1 #11 · Living with a 1DMK3 "Err99" ..

You won't solve any Canon issues by believing dots.

Sep 08, 2012 at 08:08 PM

rscheffler
Online
• • • •
Upload & Sell: On

p.1 #12 · Living with a 1DMK3 "Err99" ..

Canon Canada still lists the 1DIII Err99 recall on their site: http://canoncanada.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/11617

If it's still up, and I don't see it listing an expiry date, you should point it out to them, as it was a recall and they should still honor it. They did try to get out of fixing one of mine back in Aug. 2009 saying the actuations on my camera were on the high side, but they did indeed fix it for no charge.

It's possible though that there could be more than one problem that triggers the Err99 code.

Sep 08, 2012 at 08:16 PM

Mike Mahoney
Offline
• • • • •
Upload & Sell: Off

p.1 #13 · Living with a 1DMK3 "Err99" ..

rscheffler wrote:
Canon Canada still lists the 1DIII Err99 recall on their site: http://canoncanada.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/11617

If it's still up, and I don't see it listing an expiry date, you should point it out to them, as it was a recall and they should still honor it. They did try to get out of fixing one of mine back in Aug. 2009 saying the actuations on my camera were on the high side, but they did indeed fix it for no charge.

It's possible though that there could be more than one problem that triggers the Err99 code.

Thank you for that! .. I knew I had seen it but the lady at Canon assured me that there were no current 1DMK3 Err99 recalls.

Sep 08, 2012 at 08:53 PM

Andrew J
Online
• • • •
Upload & Sell: On

p.1 #14 · Living with a 1DMK3 "Err99" ..

Customers who are polite but firm about not paying for recall repairs are not charged. Almost everyone else will be charged.

Sep 08, 2012 at 09:35 PM

Mescalamba
Offline
• • • •
Upload & Sell: Off

p.1 #15 · Living with a 1DMK3 "Err99" ..

Andrew J wrote:
Customers who are polite but firm about not paying for recall repairs are not charged. Almost everyone else will be charged.

Heh, unless you buy Sony.

Sep 08, 2012 at 09:40 PM

RobertLynn
Offline
• • • • • •
Upload & Sell: On

p.1 #16 · Living with a 1DMK3 "Err99" ..

I'm not sure about an error 99 recall.
I've owned a few.

I know error 60 is shutter related.

Error 99 can be a bunch of crap. Anything from minor to major. Sort of like a check engine light, nothing more than
Being able to piss you off,

Sep 09, 2012 at 12:45 AM

melcat
Offline
• •
Upload & Sell: Off

p.1 #17 · Living with a 1DMK3 "Err99" ..

Mescalamba wrote:
It can say same, unfortunately err99 can say numerous other things. It simply says "that photo isnt possible right now".

That is no longer the case with the latest firmware (I have 1.2.5 in my 1D Mk III). Error 99 was split up into half a dozen codes starting with 80, and rather foolishly reusing 99 as a specific error. I don't have a bookmark handy on this machine, but I think they are listed in the firmware release notes. Error 99 now means the shutter can't complete its cycle.

If you don't have the latest firmware I'd put it on there. And I'd do it with the AC adaptor rather than the battery if you have that (it came with my camera new).

I've had an Error 99 in one session and it was caused by a bad battery. That battery (genuine Canon and less than a year old) was known to have high self-discharge on another body and barely gave 500 shots on the other body. On this occasion, I was tracking a bird in AI servo at high frame rate with a super-tele, converter, IS running, early in the morning in 4°C. A quick search showed that the shutter sometimes can't complete its cycle if the power sags in the middle.

Clearing the fault with a good battery did require removing the CF card and cycling the shutter without it ("shoot without CF card on"). This was part of the Canon diagnostic procedure I found on their site.

Sep 09, 2012 at 08:53 AM

Psychic1
Online
• • • •
Upload & Sell: Off

p.1 #18 · Living with a 1DMK3 "Err99" ..

There was a US recall for "oil spots" after the shutter recalls.

Sep 09, 2012 at 08:58 AM

melcat
Offline
• •
Upload & Sell: Off

p.1 #19 · Living with a 1DMK3 "Err99" ..

OK, here's the page at Canon Europe with the new error codes and link to the 1.2.5 firmware:

http://cpn.canon-europe.com/content/news/eos_1d_series_checks_and_firmware.do

and from that:

"Error 99 – Malfunctions related to the mechanical charge mechanism have been detected."

EDIT - self-discharge+consumption at OFF on a good battery installed in the camera is 1% per day when fully charged, not 5%, which was what my bad one was doing.

Sep 09, 2012 at 10:07 AM

Mike Mahoney
Offline
• • • • •
Upload & Sell: Off

p.1 #20 · Living with a 1DMK3 "Err99" ..

Thanks again for all advice & suggestions .. very helpful.

So it's been a day's shooting with a Sigma 85 1.4 and zero problems .. startup is fine, no Err99.
And while it seems unlikely that two lenses (both IS) would be giving problems at the exact same time that is certainly a consideration since the error code only shows when those two lenses are used.

Normally I would just send to Canon but it's my busy season and although I've other bodies and backups I'll wait a month or so and send in then. In the meantime I'll avoid using the two lenses that gave the error code.

My suspicion is an electrical or battery power malfunction of some kind.
Thanks again

Sep 09, 2012 at 11:06 AM

end
FM Forums \| Canon-mount SLRs \| Join Upload & Sell end