I'm so upset right now ...

I

ICD Films

Well-known member
I've got a total of THREE broken 5dmk2's during the past years, and now my 550D won't start. It just died, just like two of my 5D's. Red light flickers on power-on, then... nothing. Great, here I'm trying to finish my movie already out of money and my only camera breaks...

Last time around I paid eq. over 100 usd for a Canon repair only reaching the conclusion that "there's nothing wrong with it..." and had to sell the camera on fleabay as defect.

Please tell me I'm not the only one having bad experiences with Canon. I'm so f'cking done with this company to be honest... we're paying thousands of dollars for stuff that breaks after 2 years?

...maybe the Nikon God wants me to switch to his religion...
 
Cameras brake. I've had cameras of all makes and budgets brake over the years, but then I do abuse my gear with the amount of traveling I do and some of the extreme environments I shoot in. On balance I've found Canon very reliable. You might have been a little unlucky with your cameras, but you should look at how you are using and caring for your gear to see if there's anything you can do to avoid future issues.
 
Agreed with others. Another single data point is that I've owned over the last five years a number of Canon gear, such as 5Ds, 7Ds, EOS-M, XF105 and XF305, (I horsetrade a lot for the right tools), and the only thing I've ever broke or had fail is my EOS-M LCD because I had not properly put it in a suitable case on an 8 day raft trip down the Colorado through the Grand Canyon and I threw my backpack down on a rock with the camera in the bottom of the bag. It still took great pictures.I had bought a repair warranty on it, send it in, and it came back fine with no charge. I now have a good small case for it. As another data point, my buddy has had his GH2 fail and his experiences with Panny repair was so bad that he refuses to buy any more of their gear.

Canon gear is used by pros all over the world. If it was uniformly as bad as your experiences, I think we'd be hearing a lot more complaints.
 
There are protective cases available on Amazon.com that you can use. These cases give you access to all functions of your camera but protect the body and lens from shock in case of falls or bumps. Do a search. Considering what these FF cameras cost, a little more spent to protect them would be worthwhile. I don't have personal experience with any specific brand of protective case.
 
Maybe it's the battery or the sd card not inserted right or the sd card door is not fully closed or you have it on non manual mode.
 
mdifilm said:
Maybe it's the battery or the sd card not inserted right or the sd card door is not fully closed or you have it on non manual mode.
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I'm thinking the same thing.
My D800 will work if the card door is open while my 7D will not turn on if the card door is open. It could be an issue with the door contacts.

Sorry to hear about your issues but even the "Nikon gods" slap us in the face from time to time... It's the nature of the beast.
 
I have to chime in here too that breaking that many cameras in any span of time is extremely unusual. I've shot with many different Canon SLRs and DSLRs professionally for years in extreme climate conditions with no major failures. Other than a single 60D that got hit too many times, I haven't heard of many failures of the pro gear from the people I know using them professionally or as hobbyists.
Now that we've chastised you, let's take a look at what you could be doing that is causing these failures. First, batteries. Use the Canon ones. Second, cards. Use SanDisk or other reputable and well reviewed cards. Third, handling. Don't leave your camera in a car ever. Take the battery out if you're going to leave it on the shelf for a month. Don't leave it in a damp basement.
 
Your experience is foreign to me. Over the past 7 years I have been using Canon exclusively. 3 DSLR bodies, 2 Film SLR Bodies, a 430EX flash, and 8 Canon lenses. Out of that gear the only problem I had was I wore out the shutter button on my 30D after 30,000 shots, and probably 50,000 to 60,000 presses. That button was replaced in a $100 repair. Heck, even the original BP-511 battery that came with my 30D in 2006 lasts longer than a new off brand battery.

If you switch to Nikon just be aware that they have a bad reputation in customer service and they have a recent track record of releasing cameras, etc. with serious faults. Examples of this are the D800, D600, and the SB-900 flash. The D600 and SB-900 were so bad they had to prematurely release updated models with the flaws (hopefully) fixed. That would be the D610 and SB-910 models. Those only exist because there were unrepairable problems with the originals. The D800's focus problems have been so bad for some people they have taken losses and switched to the Canon 5D Mark III.

Here is one man's experience with Nikon http://www.dpreview.com/forums/thread/3563181#forum-post-52380883

I'm not saying Canon doesn't make mistakes and that Canon cameras don't break, but the general consensus is that Canon is the better company when it comes to customer service.
 
ICD Films said:
I've got a total of THREE broken 5dmk2's during the past years, and now my 550D won't start. It just died, just like two of my 5D's. Red light flickers on power-on, then... nothing. Great, here I'm trying to finish my movie already out of money and my only camera breaks...

Last time around I paid eq. over 100 usd for a Canon repair only reaching the conclusion that "there's nothing wrong with it..." and had to sell the camera on fleabay as defect.

Please tell me I'm not the only one having bad experiences with Canon. I'm so f'cking done with this company to be honest... we're paying thousands of dollars for stuff that breaks after 2 years?

...maybe the Nikon God wants me to switch to his religion...
Click to expand...

Maybe somebody where you live has been messing with your stuff while you're gone.
 
ICD Films said:
Please tell me I'm not the only one having bad experiences with Canon. I'm so f'cking done with this company to be honest... we're paying thousands of dollars for stuff that breaks after 2 years?

...maybe the Nikon God wants me to switch to his religion...
Click to expand...

NO. It is not Canon. It is YOU. Treat your equipment with care.
 
Darren Levine said:
Having repeated cameras break suggests a serious look at how you treat your equipment.
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Could be or just bad luck. I've never had a failure in four years with any of all 4 of my Canon DSLRS, but I did have some really bad repete problems with a Canon video camera in the past where is would only record B&W. $250 and 2 weeks later I got it back from Canon. less then a year later the same thing happened. I take very good care of all my camera gear, but this was just bad luck.
 
Bubble said:
NO. It is not Canon. It is YOU. Treat your equipment with care.
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Haha. I love how everyone is bashing me for equipment mistreatment!

Well I'll just put it this way... I'm usually the one that inspires others when I show up on set with professional hard cases. I store EVERYTHING in unbreakable pressure cases.

...and yes battery + memory card door issues is likely the thing. But the camera should still start with the card door open. And no I don't use pirate batteries...

Yeah, I'm having bad luck. Doesn't make me like Canon any more though. If I'm buying something I expect it to work -- too much to ask it seems!

edit: can't spell at all today. Also I'm wondering if video recording has something to do with the drama at hand... I'm a photographer as well and never had such issues with cameras only used for stills. I'm just thinking old Canon's (pre-5dmk3) might just be a little bit sh*tty in terms of heat, circuits etc... maybe? Who knows... sure as hell haven't had any luck with it.
 
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I tend to agree with the general thread sentiments, but just to balance out the heavy Canon aspect of it all and some of the stories about Nikon and Panasonic...I have extensively used a 7D, 5DII, 1DC, Gh1, 2, and 3 as well as a D800 in the last few years, often in jungles or on boats, or traveling to some far flung spot. I got a bit of a rep for treating gear roughly once in New York when a rental tilt-shift got a knob knocked off *after* I'd returned it, and a pin bent on my 5D in the same week. GH1 had a few issues. Sun-spots are burned into most of the older cameras LCDs from loupes. The 7D would die immediately if I opened the flash after awhile. All in all, I'm amazed by all of these brands and all of these gear, on a daily basis.

Definitely something whack going on with OP.
 
TimurCivan said:
Are you using off brand batteries?
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This is right question. When battery goes empty camera writes setup file to the memory and safely turned off. if you have cheaper batteries (like Phottix) then camera can turn off when saving this info. It can get your camera bricked.
 
Odd, but I used a 550d as solely a video camera for several years, hours and hours of shooting. Yes, I'd get the "heat" warning outdoors (texas in August anyway). Never inside. One canon battery and 4 or 5 Amazon batteries. I never let the camera go dead though - that icon does flash pretty noticeably. Sold it recently and it was running like new.

Thousands of video projects have been shot on pre-MkIII bodies, so the idea that this is a factor is absurd to me.

That said, every one of my t-shirts gets holes around the belt line as if I'd been blasted with a shotgun. Thought it was my belt, switched belts, stopped wearing belts, etc. My wife's decided to just keep buying T's. I have an, i dunno, acidic navel. I used to have an energy field around me that drained batteries at twice the usual rate. There's something about me that throws off metering in AF-era Nikkor glass - but only zooms. You may be possessed or something.
 
Michael Carter said:
Odd, but I used a 550d as solely a video camera for several years, hours and hours of shooting.
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Several years? The camera came out in 2010. I know if feels like forever ago, but it couldn't have been longer than 3 years. :)

That being said, no- I've never had a bad experience with the build quality of any Canon DSLR, even their cheap "budget" models like the Rebels. Aside from subjecting my camera to things like winter snow timelapses and kids, I used to spend a lot of time playing with Magic Lantern's untested releases. All recipes for a potential early retirement for my camera. But I've gotta say, I've been pretty impressed at how solidly built these are, how much abuse mine has taken and still running strong (albeit demoted to a B and special uses cam lately).

I'm also surprised Canon sent back the camera and said nothing is wrong- Were they unable to recreate your problem? Another one of Canon's strengths compared to other camera manufacturers (*cough* PANASONIC *cough*) is that they have pretty excellent service, especially if you are under warranty. Something feels fishy about this story.

Bottom line, as far as I can tell, is that you may have had a series of bad experiences but Canon does not have a reputation to be that way. Maybe you just got super unlucky? If so, perhaps the next Canon will be the charm. If you are actually doing something that is inadvertently hurting your gear, it will likely happen no matter who you switch to.
There are plenty of reasons to pick a camera other than Canon in my opinion, but this wouldn't be one of them.
 
3 broken 5DIIs? This seems really bazaar. I could accept bad manufacturing in one unit but 3 bad 5DIIs with the same user? This just isn't the reputation of this camera, and I've read many threads with many users that have used this camera since its release. I also have one and it just works. I'm generally inclined to hang with Canon after having been with them since 1982 with good experiences with the AT-1, A-1, F-1, Rebel (film), Rebel XT, Rebel XSI, Rebel T2i & 5DII.

I can't say if it's you or your gear. Just responding to your post. I don't keep my cameras in Pelican cases, Just camera bags. I don't deem them nice enough for a Pelican case. I am curious about the cause of these 3 5DII failures though.

Don't get me wrong. Of late canon has frustrated the hell out of me with there reluctance to compete with the GH3 with its superior IQ and things like a headphone jack.
 
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