Camera Life

[glsammy]

Originally Posted by Ukwildlifeo

Under EU law all electrical goods are have a warranty of 2years so you should be able to get Canon to do it for free

As far as I understood it this is only an EU directive, I didn't think it had been approved and accepted into UK law.
Of course I could easily be wrong, a lawyer I most certain am not!
Either way, the camera is away being repaired. I can't wait for some legal arguments. I may well check with Which? legal services, just to see if I can quote the repairer something that may frighten them to do it for free!

[Jonsfotos]

Graham, From what I understand it seems to me that you have had the problems with your 7D as a result of the firmware upgrade ?. It seems a strange coincidence for the shutter to have failed right after the upgrade, when it was working perfectly before.If the problems were a result of the firmware upgrade then I think you have strong grounds for a warranty repair.

John

[exo]

Originally Posted by Acipiter

Some one told me the other day that digital cameras have a life span, what happens to the camera im not sure, (sensor gives up the ghost possibly) mines a Canon sx is. Does anyone know the life of this type of camera, how many shots is it good for. Does this happen to all digital cameras no matter what the price.

That type of camera (I've got one) doesn't have a mirror to move,
I thought 'proper camera' DSLR life-time mostly relates to number of mirror 'flip-up' operations,
which is the 100,000 numbers being quoted in other posts here (?)
depending what is being meant by 'shutter'.

I can't find any spec. on lifetime for iris-shutter operations for bridge cameras
that don't have the 'reflex' bit, suspect that its very significantly greater than that for the mirror.

More likely it'll go on unchanged for as long as you want to use it,
or maybe until you replace it with a newer model

My SX30 has taken well over 250,000 phots since new Christmas 2010,
mostly automated timelapse shots, without any degradation,
so I personally don't have any expectations of it not lasting longer than any use I care to put it to.

[Acipiter]

Thanks very much for that Exo, seems more likely then ever that it will last me out.

[glsammy]

Originally Posted by Jonsfotos

Graham, From what I understand it seems to me that you have had the problems with your 7D as a result of the firmware upgrade ?. It seems a strange coincidence for the shutter to have failed right after the upgrade, when it was working perfectly before.If the problems were a result of the firmware upgrade then I think you have strong grounds for a warranty repair.

John

It's proving it John. I'm not the only one to have exactly the same problem. There's users on the Canon forum who suffered exactly the same as I did.
I've been out with my 40D today and I can't believe what's happening. The shutter is playing tricks again. There's no way I'm spending another £200-£300 on that one AGAIN!

[tristanba]

Often the shutter button fails before the shutter itself - as happened on my 40D not long after I bought it (still within the warranty period). This seems a well known problem with this model. When the button starts the fail you get a lag between pressing the shutter and taking the shot and generally inconsistent shutter firing.

[glsammy]

Originally Posted by tristanba

Often the shutter button fails before the shutter itself - as happened on my 40D not long after I bought it (still within the warranty period). This seems a well known problem with this model. When the button starts the fail you get a lag between pressing the shutter and taking the shot and generally inconsistent shutter firing.

This is exactly what's now happening on my 40D. I've been able to confirm this as I have a battery grip fitted with a shutter button. Using that if fires without any problems. Using the camera button you get instant focus confirm but unreliable shutter action.
Not sure what to do with the 40D. They charge you just about £200 just to look at the darn thing. I may well just keep it as it is to use with the grip or my macro set up where I can use a cable release.

[tristanba]

At least you can use it with the grip. I've just bought a 7D and plan to keep my 20D and sell the 40D, which I never really got very attached to. Good enough for macro but the servo focus is absolute garbage.

Incidentally I just updated the firmware on my 7D and haven't had any problems. I think your shutter failure is highly unlikely to be related to the firmware update.

[glsammy]

Originally Posted by tristanba

At least you can use it with the grip. I've just bought a 7D and plan to keep my 20D and sell the 40D, which I never really got very attached to. Good enough for macro but the servo focus is absolute garbage.

Incidentally I just updated the firmware on my 7D and haven't had any problems. I think your shutter failure is highly unlikely to be related to the firmware update.

I 100% agree with you on the 40D servo focus. It's always been my biggest complaint about it. I also agree about the 20D. I sold mine and I've often regretted it. In my own test I rated the 20D focusing to be far faster and more reliable than the 40D. The only thing that let it down was the buffer size.
As for the 7D failing, all I can say is that I've NEVER had any problems with the shutter until I updated the firmware. The failure was immediately after, not some time after but the same day. Other's have had exactly the same problem.
Whatever, after only 30,000 or so actuations it darn well shouldn't have failed!

[eeyore]

Originally Posted by glsammy

I've just had to send my 7D in for a shutter repair. This so called semi pro camera has "only" done around 30,000 shutter actuations. It'll cost around the £300 mark to get it fixed. Not bad for a £1,000+ camera that's just 21 months old.
MY 40D also had to have a new shutter fitted, that managed almost 40,000. Neither of these reached the supposed expected failure rate.
For me this is the last chance for Canon cameras. If any further failures happen I'll ditch the lot.

Its a lottery and the 100 thou thing is an average -for example i have a 300D (which had a MTBF of 50 thou ) thats done well over a 100 thou , and a 20D thats approaching 150 thou both with no problem

on the otherhand i had a 350D that failed after about 25 thou