My 20D Has Died

[woobiex]

Well I found out something interesting today. Did any of you know that the shutter on the 20D has a life span? Maybe 90% of you right now are saying "Of Course it does!". I found out the hard way today, at almost the end of parade portion of the San Francisco Love Fest (used to be called the love parade), my camera won't shoot, and it giving me an ERR 99. Now many of us 20D owners have seen issues like this, we just pop the batteries out then back in and everything goes back to normal. Not this time unfortunately. Nope, this time, the camera just starts popping off the shutter by itself, and won't stop. I did everything I could think of to make this stop, but to no avail. So I come home and start googling terms like "Error 99 20D shutter", and low and behold, the shutter on my camera has gone bad. All of the posts that I bothered to look at, were solved by Cannon replacing the shutter. I am not sure what expense this might be. I have to send it down to Irvine tomorrow to get it evaluated by Canon (Luckly their customer service was still open at 4:30 PM PST). From what I can tell it could be between 200-400 dollars to get this fixed.

This sucks for a number of reasons, mostly because it means that I am going to have to pull money from places that I really should not pull them from, because I am currently only working part time (only because I believed my current employer when they said "Sure, be a consultant for this one client for 25 hours a week, and we can find you another 10-15 hours a week with various other clients"... but that additional work has not come, and this has been since june...). So I guess it is better than not having the money at all, but part of me wonders if I should spend the money at all right at the moment, since I am unsure of my future here and today. Now it could all change on Tuesday, when I have an interview with a different consulting firm (a competitor to the one I currently work for) who wants me to work as sort of a supervisor for consultants who are out in the field for them. So it would be full time work again, which would make this money for this repair much easier to swallow (not that any of you really give a damn, so pardon my blabbering). Hell if I were rich, I might be thinking this would be the perfect time to upgrade to a 30D... dream on...

Anyway, for the other 20D users out there, just know, if your camera won't stop firing off the shutter, and is otherwise unresponsive (no lcd, no display on top except for the ERR 99), your shutter has gone out and will need to be replaced. I doubt it will be comforting when it happens, but at least you will know what is going on.

So why this sucks even more, is in 2 weeks the Blue Angels will be in town and I was hope to shoot there, and now I doubt I will have my camera back in time for that event. Now I just have to hope that my much older, used much much more Digital Elph does not go out as well.

Oh, to answer people's questions, based on the behavior of the camera, and the research I have done, I am sure that it is the shutter that needs to be replaced. I have owned the camera since May 2005. I would say that I had somewhere around 60-70K shots on there (sounds like a lot I know, but it is how I shoot, which is bad quite obviously ), but still less that the 100K the shutter is supposedly rated for. I have not dropped it, let it swim, or have I let any 5 year olds near it, so this is not from abuse. A homeless guy did come up to me and bent over and put his face right into my lens... but he never touched it, maybe he put a curse on it or something. Like one of my earlier posts said, weird stuff happens to me.

I have included the last shot that my 20D took with it's original shutter. It looks crappy mostly because I was just testing it to see if it would work after I took out the battery, one shot... then it went crazy.

[Vitahappy]

it's truely a sad day in the photography world. hope things work out for you as in getting the new job and replacing the shutter. so sad

at least it was the END of the parade.

[TwistedFocus]

I guess the lesson here is, make every shot count you never know when it will be your last! So lets so those shots of the parade!!

[Telephoto Ink]

Sorry to hear that man, at least it was at the end of the love fest and not the beginning but it's still a bummer. Oh, thanks again for giving me the heads up about the parade. It was a blast. I don't think I saw that girl in your picture either. Good luck with the new job.

[BigCityScene]

Sorry to hear about the camera troubles. At least you can say that you got your money's worth out of that camera and didn't let it just sit there!

[Viking Steel]

It is the reason I never bought an 20D

[mate68]

Thats bad with the cam ... I`m sorry!
You bought this cam in 2005?
What`s up with the guarantee or warranty in the USofA?
Here in germany we have two years ... so anything is out of commission it will be repaired by the producer.
Of course only it is a mechanic problem or something ... not when I smash my, for example cam, on the ground or throw it in a fish tank.

[woobiex]

mate68- Only 1 year here in the USA. Although some camera stores sell extended warrenties, but I am not sure if it would cover something like this.

Viking Steel- I am wondering what kind of Cam that you have?

[Viking Steel]

Originally Posted by woobiex

Viking Steel- I am wondering what kind of Cam that you have?

Here is the camera I use on the streets..

[mate68]

I`m asking me what happend, when I buy a cam in the USofA in my holidays and the shutter has an error here in germany??
Maybe we can do something here ... or rank among the rules for guarantee and warranty of the USofA?