C200: Changing lens on a C200

G

guerriglia

Active member
Hi.
Is it mandatory/recommended/useless to switch off the camera when changing lens?
Can there be a damage if I leave it on?
Thank you.
 
I read one horror story about someone blowing out a fuse and needing repairs on their brand new, then-$16,000 C300 while changing a lens on an active EF mount. Even since then I power down the camera first. It's not a long time to wait for peace of mind and I've gotten in the habit.
 
I always power off everything before swapping anything; lenses, batteries (hot-swappable in this case), cards...even support accessories.

You could tell me again and again that having the camera ON made no difference, but I was never able to mentally bring myself to do it.
 
Fahnon said:
I read one horror story about someone blowing out a fuse and needing repairs on their brand new, then-$16,000 C300 while changing a lens on an active EF mount. Even since then I power down the camera first. It's not a long time to wait for peace of mind and I've gotten in the habit.
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If I remember, it was a Zeiss lens and the contacts got touched as the person was changing the lens....just a good idea/practice to turn it off....

Jim Martin
CinemaWorks
 
Jim Martin said:
If I remember, it was a Zeiss lens and the contacts got touched as the person was changing the lens....just a good idea/practice to turn it off....

Jim Martin
CinemaWorks
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Pretty sure that was soon after the first cinema eos camera was released, and I haven't heard of any incidents since then.
 
Active lens mount with electrical contacts = ALWAYS power down, why would you not?
Dumb mount like passive PL or film cam mount = Who cares? Nothing to short out so go for it.
 
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It was one of my customers that had the original C300 six years ago that the Zeiss lenses kept blowing the fuse when hot swapped.

I've only heard of it happening on that particular customer's C300. Best and Canon recommended practice is to power down for lenses swaps.
 
I've been changing lenses on a bunch of EF mount cameras for more than 15 years without any problems, and given that C200 is very slow on boot it is not practical for me to turn off the camera every time, I change lenses very often on a shoot.
 
Completely unacceptable design to require a shut down.

What about keeping rolling for audio or synch reasons during a lens swap. I do that often.
 
Jim Martin said:
Fahnon said:
I read one horror story about someone blowing out a fuse and needing repairs on their brand new, then-$16,000 C300 while changing a lens on an active EF mount. Even since then I power down the camera first. It's not a long time to wait for peace of mind and I've gotten in the habit.
Click to expand...
If I remember, it was a Zeiss lens and the contacts got touched as the person was changing the lens....just a good idea/practice to turn it off....

Jim Martin
CinemaWorks
Click to expand...
I always find it weird how one isolated example sends such fear into so many. Let's do some math here on risk. Say there are 20,000 C300s in existence, 10,000 of them, the owners hot swap lenses. Out of those 10,000, one guy once had an issue which cost him say $2,000 to repair the camera. So, statistically speaking, it costs 20 cents to hot swap lenses. (Plus, I seem to recall Canon may have repaired it free of charge, but I'm not sure.)

Clients pay us to take risks with our gear. This to me is a much smaller risk than, oh, me filming with my camera from a kayak, or walking into the ocean with my camera, holding it out a car window, etc. Hot swapping speeds up the filming process and helps avoid missing shots. For any shoot that isn't slow paced, this is important. And if one's clients don't pay them enough to take 20 cent risks, then they're not charging enough.

Here's a risk for speed; I don't put lens caps (while in the bag) on my primary lenses as it slows down changing lenses.
 
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I prefer to shutdown and change lenses. However, it is not easy to do so when you are in the midst of a shoot or when you are in wildlife shoots. If the bootup time would have been like DSLRs then it would have been easy. I am not sure why cinema series cameras are so slow as compared to DSLRs.
 
My understanding is that the reason to turn off the camera is actually due to the chance that the sensor could electromagnetically attract dust. Mind you, the sensor actually has a screen over it so I am not sure how much risk is involved. In any case, I regularly expose my uncovered DSLR sensors so I am not too worried. I also use my camera in the rain where water has shorted out the lens connection on one occasion without permanently damaging the camera. Even more egregious, I don't regularly black balance the camera. I guess I am a rebel.
 
puredrifting said:
Active lens mount with electrical contacts = ALWAYS power down, why would you not?.
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Because lens changing goes from 10 seconds to about 45 seconds. If you're following action, that's often too long to wait to start rolling again. I've been hot switching my C300 Mk I for 5 years now. My C200 for for 3 months. There's hardly been an issue. I've had lenses, once in a blue moon, lose iris control, but that's extremely rare. And is rectified by either remounting or power on/off.

That C300 Mk I story about shorting is almost urban legend at this point. Happened once. Everyone knows about it. I'm not sure it warrants abundance of caution.
 
cpreston said:
My understanding is that the reason to turn off the camera is actually due to the chance that the sensor could electromagnetically attract dust. Mind you, the sensor actually has a screen over it so I am not sure how much risk is involved. In any case, I regularly expose my uncovered DSLR sensors so I am not too worried. I also use my camera in the rain where water has shorted out the lens connection on one occasion without permanently damaging the camera. Even more egregious, I don't regularly black balance the camera. I guess I am a rebel.
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Infact that is one of my main reasons for not powering down the camera for lens change. I had dust issues in my C300 Mark I in 2012 and then once again in early 2013 before the dust fix for sensor was introduced. I often use deep depth of field and don't want the dust specs to be visible.

PS: with the high res and clean files these days in cameras, I guess soon DPs would be blowing fine dust into the sensor as putting a cloth for filtration behind the lens or infront of the lens is not going to be sufficient. :laugh:
 
If you're that worried about missing a shot while you're changing lenses, there is a simple solution: Don't. Shoot with a zoom.
 
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