C300 Mark II - Hand Grip Snapped Off

[Mathew Williams]

Just a warning to other C300 MarkII users. I bought this camera a couple of months ago, and been very happy with it, the only problem being the hand grip would quickly work it's way quite loose. I got in touch with Canon and it seemed to be resolved by tightening the smal screws in the grip. However, then some of the plastic locator teeth in the grip snapped off. I contacted Canon again about this failure, but the grip still seemed to work. Then I was on a job last week and the whole hand grip just broke off - sheared right off! Fortunately I was supporting the camera on a monopod at the time, but had I been working handheld with the hand grip taking the full weight of the camera, then my 2 month old C300 MarkII would now be in bits of the floor along with my very expensive 70-200mm lens. This is a catastophic hardware failure. I am a Canon CPS platinum member and I had hoped this would afford me a quick repair time but instead Canon quoted a minimum 4-5 day working day turnaround. They couldn't even send me a replacement in a quicker time. Since I was on a job and needed the functionality of a hand grip (if not neccessarily to support the weight but to use the hand grip buttons) I used some glue to temporariliy re affix the small screws in the hand grip. This just about got me through the remaining couple of days of shooting.

I sent the hand grip to Canon to repair under warranty - I posted it with photos and a full explanation. However they have so far refused to fix this under warranty and sent me an estimate for repair which comes to around £200. So not only has the hand grip on my £12,000 two month old camera failed in the most catastrophic way, a failure for which I might fully have expected an apology from Canon and a promise to look into why it failed so it doesn't happen to others, but they have instead decided to charge me for this catastophic failure. I'm extremely disappointed in Canon and currently writing a more full blog post and will share this with other Canon users, and potential Canon users in due course.

[Noa Put]

Did they say why this was not covered by the warranty?

[Mark Dobson]

Originally Posted by Mathew Williams

Just a warning to other C300 MarkII users. I bought this camera a couple of months ago, and been very happy with it, the only problem being the hand grip would quickly work it's way quite loose. I got in touch with Canon and it seemed to be resolved by tightening the smal screws in the grip. However, then some of the plastic locator teeth in the grip snapped off. I contacted Canon again about this failure, but the grip still seemed to work. Then I was on a job last week and the whole hand grip just broke off - sheared right off! Fortunately I was supporting the camera on a monopod at the time, but had I been working handheld with the hand grip taking the full weight of the camera, then my 2 month old C300 MarkII would now be in bits of the floor along with my very expensive 70-200mm lens. This is a catastophic hardware failure. I am a Canon CPS platinum member and I had hoped this would afford me a quick repair time but instead Canon quoted a minimum 4-5 day working day turnaround. They couldn't even send me a replacement in a quicker time. Since I was on a job and needed the functionality of a hand grip (if not neccessarily to support the weight but to use the hand grip buttons) I used some glue to temporariliy re affix the small screws in the hand grip. This just about got me through the remaining couple of days of shooting.

I sent the hand grip to Canon to repair under warranty - I posted it with photos and a full explanation. However they have so far refused to fix this under warranty and sent me an estimate for repair which comes to around £200. So not only has the hand grip on my £12,000 two month old camera failed in the most catastrophic way, a failure for which I might fully have expected an apology from Canon and a promise to look into why it failed so it doesn't happen to others, but they have instead decided to charge me for this catastophic failure. I'm extremely disappointed in Canon and currently writing a more full blog post and will share this with other Canon users, and potential Canon users in due course.

CPS repair turnaround is normally 5 working days. When I've had to use this service I've found that it can be a lot faster. To expedite my repair I've both dropped off and picked up my camera.

When you are up against it it can be a frustrating process as it is a very bureaucratic system but they do excellent repair work. They are always incredibly busy and no doubt need a firm system to keep things running.

Once the repair is underway they contact your and offer options and at this stage it's normally possible to speak to the engineer.

I've used it twice with my previous C300. The first time the camera froze during a firmware update and that necessitated a new logic board and the second time the monitor unit stopped working and a fault developed in card drive unit. Unfortunately this occurred after the two year period and this cost almost a thousand pounds to fix. The upside is that I've got a totally refurbished camera which will help when I come to sell it.

Sounds like you've had some bad luck at the wrong time with your handgrip but once you start using glue to fix things I think it voids your guarantee. I've done the same myself when the screw fixings on the plate that attaches the monitor unit to the camera have stripped out. It's a one way bodge to get yourself out of trouble.

Good luck. Hopefully they will replace the unit for you.

[Noa Put]

once you start using glue to fix things I think it voids your guarantee

That was my thought as well but Canon has to understand that anyone that buys a c300II doesn't use it for holiday videos and that these temporary repairs are done to get a ongoing job done until you get a replacement camera. This looks like a very poor customerservice to me.

[Dan Brockett]

Wow, very disappointing Matthew. Let us know how this is resolved.