7D Overheating

[George Sickler]

What do most of you do when your 7D overheats? We shot for 2 hours today and it overheated 3 times, really disappointing. - At least it is the broll camera, and the 5D is working fine, except for the codec - and 30p issues.

Is there a fix for this?

Has Canon talked about a fix for overheating?

Thanks!

Geo

[Andy Wilkinson]

Never ever had an overheating problem on my 7D - maybe I'm just luck (mind you last week I was using it at -40C in the Arctic!). There is a thread in this section (quick search should find it) that list some good tips like turning if off when it's not needed and especially turning off the LCD (live view) in between takes etc. Some have used fans and shielding from hot lights/sun and some cool packs. Some even use 2 bodies and cycle them.

I guess this is the price us 7D owners pay for 8 frames/second stills shooting capability and stunning build/weather shielding.

[Bill Pryor]

I've never had a problem either, shooting in pretty warm conditions. All the reports I've read of heating have always involved shooting at 60fps for extended periods.

[Chuck Spaulding]

While shooting car footage mounted outside the car I got the "overheating" icon. At first I wasn't even sure what it was, but since it was mounted outside and we had about 10 minutes until I was in a position to stop shooting I just let it go.

The icon stayed on but the camera kept recording and there were no problems with the footage.

I was shooting 1080P24 and had been shooting continuously for about an hour. The camera was sitting in direct sunlight between takes.

It took about an hour to change camera mounts and the camera was fine and the icon was off. I removed the battery and lens while changing the mount.

It would be great if Canon could do something about this, although it has not been a huge problem.

[George Sickler]

Thanks, I looked at the other threads. They were aged, so I thought I would bring it up again, in case there is any new info.

2 bodies is a good idea. We are planning on just using our 7d/5d for fancy broll, and leave the rest up to the Z7u for weddings.

Corporate work ought to go a little easier on the cameras that would be more controlled.

We shot at a university today, with some rough backlighting. - The 7d, of course blew away our Z7u as far as control over the image with the backlighting issue. - Wow, the image was like the windows were not even open. - Amazing.

The overheating was an issue.

Thanks for the feedback. - I wish canon would address this. - The 5d firmware has to come!

Geo

[Liam Hall]

On a recent shoot in Thailand, I had the warning come up when shooting two interviews outside and one inside, it wasn't a major hassle as I was shooting on two cams in a controlled environment, but equally it's not something I would expect with a professional tool.

[Michael Nistler]

Originally Posted by George Sickler

What do most of you do when your 7D overheats? We shot for 2 hours today and it overheated 3 times, really disappointing. - At least it is the broll camera, and the 5D is working fine, except for the codec - and 30p issues.

Is there a fix for this?

Has Canon talked about a fix for overheating?

Thanks!

Geo

1. Change from 720 to 1080P

2. Use faster CF cards

3. Keep the camera, especially the LCD, out of the sun

4. Keep something cool on the right side of the 7D (near the processors)

5. Frequently call for "CUTS", citing problems with the acting, etc and turn off the camera so as to avoid anyone knowing the problem is your 7D is overheating

6. Insist the scene be changed to a nightime shoot, claiming the scene will be more artistic

7. Say your prayers every night, make sacrificial offering to Canon, insist that your AC wildly fan the camera, etc...

Happy trails, Michael

[Nick Hiltgen]

Number 5 is my favorite.

[Michael Simons]

I shoot weddings and have had the overheating problem occur numerous times. Has me scared to death that it will happen at the wrong time. I'm gonna buy the T2i as a backup.

[Jonanthan Carr]

I only owned the camera for about 2 months and I only had it happen a couple of times on set. Mostly cause they were long takes. Shut it off for 5 minutes and when I turned it back on it was fine. Not a big deal. More processors mean more heat.

[Jim Froom]

This issue has been discussed numerous times on many boards. It is an issue.

I returned my first camera because I was having problems in the 40-45 minute range under almost all conditions. Did lots of experimenting and finally took the camera back and got another. Same issues.

One thing I tried that worked was to use a cold pack on the right side of the camera for a few minutes., That worked. I tried the packs that work the opposite of hot pads. Got em from the drug store. They worked fine. I wouldn't use them too long, but a few minutes at a time every 20 minutes or so seemed to hold off the dreaded red overheating icon.

I haven't figured out an elegant way to attach the cold pack, I just wrap it around the handle/battery side with a rubber band and let it roll for a couple hours (on a tripod) using a timer every 12 minutes to maximize load. I tested with both a cold jel pack from the freezer and the drugstore type where you bang it a few times and then it gets cold.

Both worked for 2 hours with out problems.

[Daniel Weber]

Originally Posted by Bill Pryor

I've never had a problem either, shooting in pretty warm conditions. All the reports I've read of heating have always involved shooting at 60fps for extended periods.

I get it at 1080p30 after about 1 hour of shooting. I find that humidity has more to do with it than temp.

Daniel Weber

[Emmanuel Plakiotis]

When shooting in Buenos Aires, I had many instances of camera overheating. I was using the camera all day, for shooting pics and videos of everything I encountered, in a documentary fashion. It is very useful, because you don't have to carry both a still camera and a camcorder. The other benefit is that almost nobody understands that you shoot video, assuming your rig is only for pics.

Here are a few observations:

I also believe it has to do more with other factors besides environmental temperature, but couldn't figure out a pattern. At least in my camera the 50p argument is not valid. It overheats equally in 25p mode.
It seems to overheat less in auto mode. Maybe because the sensor is never overexposed as it can happen if you shoot in manual.
There is no clear pattern when overheating occurs, but if it happens once, probably it will repeat soon. There were days that went on without one instance of overheating and others that I had to turn the camera on/off every 20min or less. Turning the camera on/off seems to cure instantly the problem, but not solving it.
I found out, that opening the battery lid and taking out the battery for a few moments prolonged the intervals between overheating. I thought of changing the battery when overheating occurred, but never really tried it.
Sometimes I just keep shooting with the red sign on. Because it was not a planned work and I had only two batteries, on location reviewing was out of the question, I never figured out if the footage was recorded or not in those instances.

[James Strange]

Thought I'd give this thread a bump as I can forsee the overheating issue becomeing a problem for me.

I've not had my 7D out on a wedding yet, that comes tomorrow (just for some B-cam stuff, nothing major so that if the 7d fails drastically, it wont matter, as I'll be using it as an extra cam to my other 2 HDV cams)


From the tests I've done, I can never get more than 40-50 mins without the overheating icon coming on.


This is at room temp, and I'm in Scotland, out hottest day in the summer is about 30 degres celcius, and thats a hot day! So the whether is not goinf to be a factor I dont think.


I plan on using the 7D as a B-cam to begin with (wide shot of church etc...)

Alot of the time, the service and the speeches run past 40 mins, so its a bit of a worry.

Anyone got any updates on the overheating?

I'm gonna try the coldpack to see how that goes.

I can just about deal with the 12 min clip limit, but if I cant get an hour at a time without overheating, I think I may need to rethink things

James

[Alan Halfhill]

My new 7D overheat twice on a recent shoot doing interviews. One the first intvu it happed at about 45 mins. I shut down for five minutes. We then had lunch so the camera was off.

On the second also at about 45 mins. Shut the camera down for about two minutes.

My setup was: 7D with EF 17-55mm IS USM with IS off and AF off. LSC was off too because I had an external HDMI monitor. It was a little warmer than room temp because of lights.

Alan