I pulled out my camera tonight to test another problem I wrote about a few months ago and found that I cannot set the shutter or Aperture in any mode.

The shutter is "set" to 1/30 and the aperture is set to F1.0. So in Manual mode I see both those settings. In TV mode is show 1/30 and in AV mode F1.0 and in all three modes neither dial does anything.

I read in the forum that this happened to some one last year and Canon "fixed" it but didn't know what caused it.

Anyone have any more information on this before I send my camera to Canon?

BTW - It is not the exposure lock, per se, I have checked it several times. There is no E. Lock on the screen, in fact nothing seems to happen when I press the E.Lock button. So that may be messed up too.

Try pressing the "reset" button (with a toothpick or similar) located under the LCD screen recess, forwards of the speaker, sounds like it may have had a cardiac arrest.


CS

Chris,

I did thee reset, had to remove the battery first, then pressed the button.

Put the battery back in and all the information displayed was in Japanese.

I figured how to get it back in English, then tried the shutter and aperture again.

Darn, still the same problem.

I'll try the XL-XH series owner's club hotline tomorrow.

Howard

Well, it was worth a shot.


CS

Yes it was. Thanks.

Howard

Irvine there in Orange Co. will be your nearest service center. Good luck and let us know how it goes,

I got an email from Canon Service tonight. They want $267 to fix it, but didn't say what "it" was.

I will call them in the morning to find out what "it" is and see if I can get them to lower the price too.

Howard

That's the standard charge for breaking open the camera, diagnosing whatever the problem is, and fixing it. I don't think the price is negotiable.

Thanks Chris, that makes me feel a little better, though there is supposed to be a 10% discount for members of the XH club. So I will ask for that.

Update 9:01 AM
Just got off the phone with them. Yeah, that is just the base fee for opening it up. They haven't even looked at it yet to find out what is wrong.

Howard

Howard, just wondering if you have a after market warranty, like Mac or SageMax Protection Plan. I have the 4 year Pro Video Mac warranty, I have never used it, and hope it's not ever needed. Please keep us informed of the fix and total cost.
Rob

Got the camera back today. It was nice to have a 4 day turn around. It helps that I am one shipping day from the repair center.

Good News: The camera is working correctly again.

Bad News is: They have no idea what was wrong. This is what they said (this is exact wording):

"We have examined thee product according to your request, and, upon close inspection the exact cause could not be identified but it was found that causing incorrect exposure. Electrical adjustments were carried out on the pcb assembly... update firmware-> 1.0.2.0"

I called to see if I could get any more specifics and though they were very nice, he could not tell me what was wrong, just that the benched the camera to factory specs.

This doesn't give me any "warm fuzzies" that it will not happen again.
I do have a 90 warranty.

Howard

I thought I would post a little update. Now this is real scary.

The Canon rep called me back and said he spoke to the technician that fixed my camera. He said, they are only speculating, but even though the camera should be protected enough, it is in the realm of possibilities that the cause was "static electricity".

I then told him, I put the camera away in it's bag just after finishing capturing on my Mac and don't remember a shock of any size.

BTW - I thought that was great that he did try and find out more information for me.

Static electricity can be very powerful and confuse electronics pretty easily. My old Palm pilot lost the ability to sync due to static electricity and required a complete reboot after draining the battery to reset the electronics. As to whether your problem was due to static it is very hard to say unless you can duplicate the issue. Try and find out what process they used to clear up the issue. Did it clear up after they installed the firmware update? Or after they made the adjustments on the board? It may be a one time thing but they might have interrupted the circuit which was causing the issue long enough for it to reset. Or the firmware update fixed some instruction which was damaged somehow and now the camera is starting correctly. Time will tell. It may be worth having a copy of the firmware update around so if the camera goes through this again you can reinstall the firmware and see if that clears it up if it happens again. HTH

Is a firmware update something that we can do ourselves (if necessary!) .. are there any instructions on how to do it, is there an updated (or original) Pal (UK) firmware available for download ? - I've not seen one on Canons site.

I asked about the firmware update and he said unlike still cameras, Canon keeps firmware much closer to the vest for camcorders because they are more worried that the average user will mess up the camera.

I will call him on Monday and asked which proceedure cleared the problem and if that is something that could be duplicated at home.

I talked to them again this morning. Firmware for their video cameras is not something they will release. They are worried that users cannot install it properly like they can with still cameras.

The other bench "procedure" that they used to fix my camera is not something that can be done by users either.

When this does happen again, and if I have time, I will remove the battery for a few days so the internal battery dies. Then maybe it will reset itself. Who knows, it's worth a try before spending another $267.

Howard