p.1 #1 · Now that my 5D Mark 3 is broken....how do I?
My brand new Canon 5D Mark 3 is broken. Through no fault of my own. It has been lightly used for a few weeks. Now I get an error 30 every time I take a photo. It still records the photo....but......I get an error message every time. Plus I have to wait for the error message to go away before I can take another photo. It makes taking pictures infuriating.
My question is. I have never had a Canon product fail on me before. What steps do I take now to get this thing repaired?
p.1 #3 · Now that my 5D Mark 3 is broken....how do I?
Just to make sure.... did you try another CF/SD card in it and have you reset completely? What I mean by the later is that you remove the back up battery and let it sit for a few minutes....
p.1 #4 · Now that my 5D Mark 3 is broken....how do I?
AGeoJO wrote:
Just to make sure.... did you try another CF/SD card in it and have you reset completely? What I mean by the later is that you remove the back up battery and let it sit for a few minutes....
Yes, try a different card, but as far as resetting goes, I'd rather get it looked at by Canon. You should not to have to reset anything on a new camera and might be a sign of something loose on a circuit board. Better have it fully checked by Canon than have this problem come back when your camera is out of warranty.
p.1 #5 · Now that my 5D Mark 3 is broken....how do I?
AGeoJO wrote:
Just to make sure.... did you try another CF/SD card in it and have you reset completely? What I mean by the later is that you remove the back up battery and let it sit for a few minutes....
I tried another CF card. Same problem.
Please explain the "reset completely" portion of your advice. What is the "backup battery"? I removed the main battery that Canon ships with the camera. Is there another battery in the camera that I don't know about?
p.1 #6 · Now that my 5D Mark 3 is broken....how do I?
Yes, there is another battery that does the backup of your setting, date, etc. when you change the main battery. I believe it is in the bottom of your camera and you have to use a screw driver to remove the cover. I believe there is a description how to do that in the manual. Sorry, I got to run....
p.1 #7 · Now that my 5D Mark 3 is broken....how do I?
chez wrote:
Yes, try a different card, but as far as resetting goes, I'd rather get it looked at by Canon. You should not to have to reset anything on a new camera and might be a sign of something loose on a circuit board. Better have it fully checked by Canon than have this problem come back when your camera is out of warranty.
I tried a few CF cards. Same problem still exists.
Chez......I like your advice. I think I have no choice but to let Canon take care of it.
How does the whole process of getting it fixed by Canon under warranty work? What do I have to do?
p.1 #10 · Now that my 5D Mark 3 is broken....how do I?
Tom K. wrote:
Please explain the "reset completely" portion of your advice. What is the "backup battery"? I removed the main battery that Canon ships with the camera. Is there another battery in the camera that I don't know about?
Read your camera manual. Here, I'll even give you the page number: 343.
Really useful helpful important information can be obtained by reading the camera manual. It is also a good place to look first.
p.1 #11 · Now that my 5D Mark 3 is broken....how do I?
Not sure on the legal side over the pond but in the UK if you buy something and it goes faulty (especially within a few weeks) you return it to where you bought it for a replacement.
p.1 #12 · Now that my 5D Mark 3 is broken....how do I?
Monito wrote:
Read your camera manual. Here, I'll even give you the page number: 343.
Really useful helpful important information can be obtained by reading the camera manual. It is also a good place to look first.
Thank you. I read that. I want a dependable camera. I shouldn't have to reset anything that cost over 3 grand. I'll talk to Canon tomorrow. This has been a massive disappointment. Now I will have no camera until they fix it. Ridiculous for a brand new expensive camera. Outrageous really.
p.1 #13 · Now that my 5D Mark 3 is broken....how do I?
Tom K. wrote:
Thank you. I read that. I want a dependable camera. I shouldn't have to reset anything that cost over 3 grand. I'll talk to Canon tomorrow. This has been a massive disappointment. Now I will have no camera until they fix it. Ridiculous for a brand new expensive camera. Outrageous really.
Sure, we all want dependable and a round-trip to Canon is a big imposition. But there is a chance that a reset might dependably fix the camera without the round trip. Worth a try. Leave the date-time battery out for 30 minutes to be sure.
Surely you have a backup camera, with cameras being so inexpensive these days? When I got my 5D2, I kept my 5D classic for backup and traded in my previous backup (a 20D).
It surely is disappointing, but it is not "outrageous" that an expensive camera or expensive car or expensive computer or expensive home theatre system or expensive house turns out to have a problem or a severe problem. Stuff happens. No camera company or car company or home building company is perfect. Perhaps you are perfect; in which case it would be "outrageous" that a camera company was less perfect.
If it is so outrageous, buy Leica. I hear they are "perfect".
p.1 #15 · Now that my 5D Mark 3 is broken....how do I?
Something is likely wrong but having to do a PRAM reset is not that unusual and not not always Canon's fault. I've needed to reset my 10D and 5D (not 5D3) a few times after shooting near strong RFI (generators, radio towers, etc.). And they were fine thereafter as long as I didn't return to that area! In fairness, that particular tower made my car stereo crackle and overwhelmed my iPod with static. I also needed to reset after trying to use an old Sigma lens...
p.1 #16 · Now that my 5D Mark 3 is broken....how do I?
Gochugogi wrote:
Something is likely wrong but having to do a PRAM reset is not that unusual and not not always Canon's fault. I've need to reset my 10D and 5D (not 5D3) a few times after shooting near strong RFI (generators, radio towers, etc.). And they were fine thereafter as long as I didn't return to that area! In fairness, that particular tower made my car stereo crackle and overwhelmed my iPod with static. I also needed to reset after trying to use an old Sigma lens...
I could do this "reset"......but.......the feeling of dependability on this camera is now gone. Keep in mind I traveled all day to get somewhere to shoot only to have the camera give me an error 30. I don't want this to happen again. How would you like to climb a mountain and be faced with an error 30 situation?
My Canon 5D Mark 3 is completely and utterly undependable right now. Not what I expected when I dropped all that money on it.
p.1 #19 · Now that my 5D Mark 3 is broken....how do I?
I hope you realaize that if you send it to Canon, the first thing they may do is do a reset, and if that fixes it, they may send it right back to you with out doing anything else to the camera. Have you ever had to reboot your computer because it locked up? Stuff happens and these are complex computerized machines that can upon occasion need a reset (reboot).
I think that you should talk to Canon, but do not be afraid to do the reset if that is what they advise. You have your symptoms documented, and if you just did a reset now, and things are then fine, you could then watch for a second occurance of your error code problem. If you get it again soon, then with that documentation, you have what you need to tell Canon to actually fix something.
I am not sure if the 5D3 has the feature, but the 1DX has a System Status Display you can select from the menu, and it has a new feature in there to view previous Error and Caution messages that have occured in the camera, along with what lens and flash was in use at the time of the error. This is likely of great help for service issues. You may want to look for that feature on the 5D3 and view the history. One note of caution is that if you do a reset on the camera, it may or may not keep the history informaiton, so if you have the feature, you may want write down a summary of the contents of the Camera Status Log before you do anything else, just so you have it.