Neil Duffin Blog

I’ve now upgraded my Canon 40D to version 1.0.8 of the firmware. When I searched the ‘net I couldn’t find anybody saying it was a bad thing - I always give the upgrades a few weeks before installing just in case Canon pull it. This happened recently with a Nikon upgrade.

It seems to be working fine but it’s not cured my continuing "ERR 99" problems. I found a Canon test on Deal Time, see this link (at bottom). Just in case they delete it, I’ve copied it here too…

TIP: CANON EOS Error 99

This catch all error message can have many reasons, but an old lens can be the culprit if your body seems to be working fine. This is likely to be an issue if you’re trying to use a lens that more than 5 years old with a new camera. To determine if it’s your "old" lens or the camera, follow these instructions (from Canon) …

To isolate the cause of the issue, we [Canon] suggest that you do the following:

1. Turn off the camera.
2. Remove the lens, battery, and CF card.
3. Allow the camera to sit without power for approximately 20 minutes.
4. Insert a fully charged battery, and turn on the camera.
5. Depress the shutter button as you would to take a picture.

Does the “ERR 99″ message appear? If it does, then the camera should be serviced. If it does not, then please proceed to the next set of steps:

1. Turn off the camera.
2. Insert the CF card.
3. Turn on the camera.
4. Format the CF card in the camera.
5. Depress the shutter button as you would to take a picture.

Does the “ERR 99″ message appear? If so, then the CF card is the most
likely source of the issue. Try using a different card.

If the message does not appear, please complete the following steps:

1. Turn off the camera.
2. Clean the lens contacts by gently rubbing them with a pencil eraser
or soft cloth. Be careful that you do not let any debris fall into the camera body.
3. Reattach your lens.
4. Turn on the camera.
5. Depress the shutter button as you would to take a picture.

If the “ERR 99″ message only appears when one particular lens is attached, then that lens should be examined by a service technician.

If you see the “ERR 99″ with a different Canon lens attached, then the camera should be serviced.

I found my 40D failing recently with a newly purchased EF 24mm f2.8 but only when woken from sleep mode. It failed about 10 times on one shoot of 150 shots.

Having run the test I could not get the same lens (or the camera / memory card) to fail despite taking about 40 test shots, including waiting for the camera to enter sleep mode.

My only conclusion is that the 40D does not like extremes of temperature. When I’ve had these "ERR 99" failures it’s been either cold or hot. It failed on Derwent Edge at dawn (probably about 0 to -5 degrees C), on a recent trip to Seville and on a couple of very hot days in the UK (both about 25 to 30 degrees C).

If this is outside the "normal" temperature range for the 40D I don’t know. My old EOS 1Ds never failed like this (well perhaps once or twice in 10,000 shots) but that model is a Professional camera. Of course it could just be the lens but it’s happened with both the 24mm f2.8, a 17-40mm f4 L and a 24-105 f4 IS L.

I think I’ll just clean all the contacts on the camera / lenses and, should it happen again, contact Canon.

Update

I’ve just returned from a holiday to the Lake District (June ‘08) and taken about 1,000 shots. The camera performed faultlessly in hot, cold and wet weather (I wouldn’t advise the latter, the camera is not sealed). I used my 24mm f2.8, 50mm f1.8 (mk1) and 17-40 f4 L without any issues.

Does this mean that “Err 99″ has gone way? I wouldn’t like to say but perhaps the continued use of multiple lenses has cause the contacts on the lenses to clean up due to the action of removal / fitting.

This entry was posted on Monday, May 19th, 2008 at 8:10 am and is filed under Photography, Knowledge. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.