What to do when a T2i overheats.

[Stephen J. Williams]

I know overheating was a "hot" topic on this forum months ago, but I didn't read much to what you guys are doing out there when one overheats.
would sticking the body in a ziplock bag, then into a cooler with a ice pack work in an emergency? Usually going from a hot environment to a cold one isn't usually a great idea. Just curious on what you guys do.

I'll have a shoot coming up for about an hour that I won't be able to stagger the cameras.

[Jay Corcuera]

Upgrade to the t3i! That's what I did.. If that not an option I've heard switching out the batteries can help. It did for me but it started overheating again after 10 mins. If you have magic lantern you have the option of turning off your LCD screen but you have to have an external monitor or else you won't see what you're shooting..

[Keith Betters]

Yea all I can say is turning off the lcd screen from the get go will be your best best. I would have to say that really helps with my t2i's!

[Stephen J. Williams]

Thanks guys for the replies... Upgrading to the T3i isn't much of an option. I've yet to have my t2i's overheat. I'm not sure if I've been lucky or if it's because I shoot with my LCD brightness turned all the way down. Now the summer months are here and it's a little hotter then what it was in the spring time. So i'm just trying to come up with some sort of emergency plan.

Steve

[Dave Sperling]

I'll usually switch between bodies once the temperature warning shows up in the viewfinder, though I've had times when with only two bodies both have been in an overheat situation and I've gone into wait mode.
It tends to be worst for me when I have clients who want to keep the monitor image on all the time. The cameras just weren't designed for that, but once I've warned the producer of the problem and been told to keep the camera on all the time anyhow, switching and waiting becomes the name of the game. Just don't try it at a live event!
If I needed to keep shooting without a backup body, I'd probably try rigging a couple of the small 'blue ice' products around the camera, preferably under it to minimize condensation drip problems.

[John Wiley]

Steven, I'm in the same boat as you.

I've never experienced overheating on my 550D, despite shooting surfing at the beach on really hot days in direct sunlight, but I'm scared it's going to pop up at a really critical moment - like a wedding. It seems so many people are having problems and I feel like soon or later my luck will run out. I also do what you say by turning the LCD brightness down a few notches, so maybe that helps a bit.

I'll be getting a 2nd body soon, and I'm really hoping that somebody figures out how to port Magic Lantern over to the 600D soon. At the moment that is the one thing stopping my from getting a 600D as a second body - I want to have the ability to use ML, particularly on my b-cam so I can use the continuous record function.

[Robert James]

I was shooting on a mild day a few weeks ago and it overheat after about 45 minutes (and that's turning the camera on and off from time to time). I turned it off for about a minute and the overheat warning came back after about 8-10 of shooting.

Freaked me out enough to trade it up for the T3i this week.

[Robert Turchick]

Use cold packs and keep a towel over the camera between takes. Also, turn off the camera when not in use. I regularly shoot outdoors in way above 100deg weather and while I do still occasionally see an overheat it's not nearly as bad as before I started doing all the above.
FYI, I had a T2i then got a 7D and the same tricks apply. A friend used my 7D on a shoot and didn't follow the precautions and saw the overheat light consistently. Next day I shot with it and saw the warning once.

[Stephen J. Williams]

Hey guys...

I shot a wedding yesterday. As expected it was a hot one. I was dying my self from the heat... The AC didn't work at the brides house or in the old church. Both of my T2i's did a great job however, no temp warning light at all.
I know that all the theories have been discussed... But maybe keeping your LCD brightness all the way down helps out (i know ML users don't have to worry about this one). I could have sworn that if I was going to get the temp light, it would have been yesterday (with all the factors playing in).

Steve

[David St. Juskow]

The couple of times this has happened to me, I have been able to stick the battery in the fridge for a few minutes, or swap batteries & cards, and gotten by. I just shot a 2-hour concert in a crowded basement and I had the big red thermometer icon for at least the second half, if not longer, but it never did overheat. Swapping cards & batteries, btw, only got rid of the icon for a couple of minutes, but it never stopped working.

FYI- I have friends that bought the double-battery grip thing, and that didn't stop the overheating at all. Seems like a waste of $ to me. I wouldn't upgrade to the T3i until magic lantern is working on it, at least- totally not worth the trade-off!

[Bob Hart]

There might be a DESPERATE measure you could use which might extend a critical shot that is going to be cut short and lost due to overheating. Doing this will inevitably void any warranty on the camera and lenses if the camera vendor gets any hint of what you have been up to.

A very UNWISE misuse of an electronic troubleshooting trick would be to turn a can of canned air upside-down and spray liquid gas sparingly on some non-critical metallic part of the camera body. As the liquid vaporises it cools dramatically anything it is in contact with. I have used this desperate measure on my computer during extreme hot weather. I DO NOT recomend it.

BEWARE as the inevitable collateral outcome is lots of water condensation. Also keep the liquid gas well away from your lenses and LCD screen. Shock cooling will cause serious damage to both. Optical glass is extremely brittle. Shock cooling damage is easy to spot, so don't expect your warranty to hold up.

Chilling the camera body by spraying in the area of the battery may cause the battery to fail to maintain power delivery.

WARNING. This is a DANGEROUS practice if your eyes are anywhere near or you are in a confined unventilated area. Wear eye protection and be mindful of others around you.

[Pat Flores]

Originally Posted by Stephen J. Williams

I know overheating was a "hot" topic on this forum months ago, but I didn't read much to what you guys are doing out there when one overheats.
would sticking the body in a ziplock bag, then into a cooler with a ice pack work in an emergency? Usually going from a hot environment to a cold one isn't usually a great idea. Just curious on what you guys do.

I'll have a shoot coming up for about an hour that I won't be able to stagger the cameras.

I had a 7D overheat really quick one time and luckily it was a studio where we were filming a tv show so we could wait it out but the next event we had we brought a spare body just in case it happened again...

the best advice i would give....wait it out...take out the battery and leave the battery door open while you wait....give it about 15min and you should be fine...