The 7D is rated for 150,000 shutter actuations by Canon.
I'm somewhere above 18,000 shutter actuations on the 7D. Around 15,000, I started to get the "Error 30" message resulting in a frozen body; black last frame shot (visible once camera is live again); battery empty indicator blinking on the top display.
"Error 30" is claimed to be a shutter problem.
This is the link to the official Canon error list for the 7D.
This happens, as far as I can tell, independent of climate (humid, dry, cold, hot), battery (or multiple batteries with Canon's dual battery grip), CF cards, firmware versions, lens attached, flash attached, shooting raw or jpg or both, horizontal/vertical position, LiveView on/off (although I use it only in video mode), Av Manual or Custom modes, focus mode - or any combination there of.
The most frustrating part of this, is that I've not been able to instigate the issue. It comes and goes - and you know how that goes - it comes at the worst possible moment.
Out of warranty, and on the road, I did various searches for resolving this and have found the following suggestions:
1. Firmware update - currently at 1.2.2 - will try updating to 1.2.5 today.
I'm rather conservative on software upgrades - try to be late to the game to make sure the masses have gone through and tested any changes. Especially mid-project. This goes for all gear - field audio recorders, cameras, editing workstations, mixing consoles, even notebook (especially concerning operating system updates).
2. Slapping the body (pretty hard from what I gather) - from the bottom to get things moving again.
Tried this, but not really knowing how hard is hard - well - I'm a bit skeptical in regards to beating up the camera. No change noted.
3. Changing batteries / CF cards / lenses.
As this is a recurring issue, changes have been attemtped. Attempts at swapping out CF card, battry, lens, etc seem to have no effect. Only thing I could not readily change was the climate. Can't really get to the sahara from scandinavia or carribean in a heart beat to test this.
4. Turn off, turn on, remove battery, reinsert battery.
This seems to do the trick, but can take as many as 5 iterations to actually get the 7D back to operating mode.
From the Photo.net forumes: Once its up and running, set for a LOOONG exposure, and pull out the batter mid shot - giving a jolt to dislodge the shutter. Shoot off a burst of 50 or so frames for lubrication.
Tried this as well, but the problem returns at some point. Is it worth it? Probably not.
5. Remove battery (batteries), and use an eraser to clean the contacts.
Done. No change noticed.
6. Resetting the camera - removing battries *including the "lithium coin" battery - activate shutter to make sure you juice it out completely. Settings, clock, etc - need to be reset.
This did not help at the time of the error - but now that the camera is operating as it should (about 3 hours later) - I really don't know if it helped. Ps. - make sure you get any of your custom settings (color profiles, etc) down on paper so that you can get your camera configued back the way you had it before the hard reset.
What I've learned so far / or course of action in case of incident:
1. Removing and re-inserting battery seems to get you more-or-less back to work to finish off the day.
Keep a spare, fully charged battery handy.
2. This could corrupt your CF card. So if it happens, swap it out to make sure you don't damage anything already on the card. Make sure you reformat the card that was in the camera after getting your data off.
3. For critical events - have a backup body (good for any serious job / trip anyway) - at least until this is resolved.
Most obvious - as all the above seem to be "patches" until the next strike -
4. If you have the time, get it to a service center asap - especially if you are still under warranty.
Please commend below if you've had success with any of the above, or other solution.
I'm somewhere above 18,000 shutter actuations on the 7D. Around 15,000, I started to get the "Error 30" message resulting in a frozen body; black last frame shot (visible once camera is live again); battery empty indicator blinking on the top display.
"Error 30" is claimed to be a shutter problem.
This is the link to the official Canon error list for the 7D.
This happens, as far as I can tell, independent of climate (humid, dry, cold, hot), battery (or multiple batteries with Canon's dual battery grip), CF cards, firmware versions, lens attached, flash attached, shooting raw or jpg or both, horizontal/vertical position, LiveView on/off (although I use it only in video mode), Av Manual or Custom modes, focus mode - or any combination there of.
The most frustrating part of this, is that I've not been able to instigate the issue. It comes and goes - and you know how that goes - it comes at the worst possible moment.
Out of warranty, and on the road, I did various searches for resolving this and have found the following suggestions:
1. Firmware update - currently at 1.2.2 - will try updating to 1.2.5 today.
I'm rather conservative on software upgrades - try to be late to the game to make sure the masses have gone through and tested any changes. Especially mid-project. This goes for all gear - field audio recorders, cameras, editing workstations, mixing consoles, even notebook (especially concerning operating system updates).
2. Slapping the body (pretty hard from what I gather) - from the bottom to get things moving again.
Tried this, but not really knowing how hard is hard - well - I'm a bit skeptical in regards to beating up the camera. No change noted.
3. Changing batteries / CF cards / lenses.
As this is a recurring issue, changes have been attemtped. Attempts at swapping out CF card, battry, lens, etc seem to have no effect. Only thing I could not readily change was the climate. Can't really get to the sahara from scandinavia or carribean in a heart beat to test this.
4. Turn off, turn on, remove battery, reinsert battery.
This seems to do the trick, but can take as many as 5 iterations to actually get the 7D back to operating mode.
From the Photo.net forumes: Once its up and running, set for a LOOONG exposure, and pull out the batter mid shot - giving a jolt to dislodge the shutter. Shoot off a burst of 50 or so frames for lubrication.
Tried this as well, but the problem returns at some point. Is it worth it? Probably not.
5. Remove battery (batteries), and use an eraser to clean the contacts.
Done. No change noticed.
6. Resetting the camera - removing battries *including the "lithium coin" battery - activate shutter to make sure you juice it out completely. Settings, clock, etc - need to be reset.
This did not help at the time of the error - but now that the camera is operating as it should (about 3 hours later) - I really don't know if it helped. Ps. - make sure you get any of your custom settings (color profiles, etc) down on paper so that you can get your camera configued back the way you had it before the hard reset.
What I've learned so far / or course of action in case of incident:
1. Removing and re-inserting battery seems to get you more-or-less back to work to finish off the day.
Keep a spare, fully charged battery handy.
2. This could corrupt your CF card. So if it happens, swap it out to make sure you don't damage anything already on the card. Make sure you reformat the card that was in the camera after getting your data off.
3. For critical events - have a backup body (good for any serious job / trip anyway) - at least until this is resolved.
Most obvious - as all the above seem to be "patches" until the next strike -
4. If you have the time, get it to a service center asap - especially if you are still under warranty.
Please commend below if you've had success with any of the above, or other solution.
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