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My Canon 7D’s Dreaded Error 30

by Philippe Dame on October 19th, 2012

I must sadly report that my precious Canon EOS 7D is in the shop for repair. It’s a sad day.

In the past month I’ve been getting an intermittent error that creates a black exposure and locks up the entire camera. The solution is to remove the battery and restart the camera but that was only a temporary fix. Sometimes the issue wouldn’t re-appear for weeks and other times it would hit me ever 10 exposures.

Luckily I bought myself a 3-year extended warranty (on just the camera body) back in 2009. I got it from Henry’s and they add that to the 1-year Canon warranty for a total of 4-years of coverage. That cost me $230. I’m told an average repair with Canon in Canada is about C$170 but it goes up from there. If I have to repair this camera twice, then the plan was definitely worth it. If it happens a third time, Henry’s actually just gives you a brand new camera!

After doing a Google search and reading some comments online, it seems “Error 30″ relates to a shutter lock-up issue with the 7D. I hope the repair team somewhere in Mississauga simply replaces the entire shutter unit without question. Given it’s one of the few parts of the camera that gets “used up” (shutters have a finite life), then a new shutter mechanism is appreciated.

It was sad handing over my camera for repair. I’m now without my baby for 6-8 weeks. In the mean time, my friend Alfred has kindly lent me his very nice Sony NEX-7 with extra lenses and flash units. It will be my time to experiment with the mirrorless segment of the market!

I’m also very curious to try the forthcoming EOS-M mirrorless camera by Canon (and its EF mount adapter) but have no idea how I’ll get one to try.

From → My Experiences

  • http://silvan.me/ Matt Silvan

    I’m sorry to hear about your dear 7D. Nevertheless, it offers an opportunity for new reviews and different perspectives. I’ll be eagerly looking forward to seeing and reading about the mirrorless cameras introduced here. In today’s digital age, I guess they could compete well with the mechanic counterparts.

    • http://LearningDSLR.com Philippe Dame

      Sorry, didn’t see your comment until now. Not sure why I wasn’t notified (thx Disqus).

      I’ve enjoyed the Sony NEX-7 so far and I’ll post some photos soon. It shines when you use a better lens than the kit lens (but that goes for all cameras). I have the 50mm f/1.8 and it does well.

      My biggest complaint, so far, is that without phase detection for auto-focus, the contrast-based auto-focus is slow and error prone. Seems like Sony (and Canon) have recognized that as they’ve released “hybrid” AF systems now on these cameras (e.g. NEX-6 and EOS M). I’d like to try those to compare. It’s really bad without… you set it to “single point” and yet still hunts for focus.

      My second beef is the lack of physical controls on such cameras. The NEX-7, more than other NEX version tries to accomodate for that with two dials that change function as needed. The EOS-M, I hear, is all touch screen based. Personally, I like to ride the exposure and flash compensation up and down quickly. It would be a different experience for sure.

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