Death of a Camera

Two weeks ago my camera, a Canon EOS 40D, developed a fatal problem. The much talked about (on web forums) Error 99. This issue started mild. One error. Than a couple of days later a few errors. At this point I researched the problem on line and found some DIY fixes. Tried them and it seemed to do the trick. Then a few a days later the problem returned with a vengeance. While shooting a job the camera kept telling me "Error 99..." about every other shot. Sometimes I was able to go for about 10 shots or so, than it would yell at me again. By the end of the job the camera completely quite on me.

YIKES

I called Canon immediately upon returning to my office. They had me try a few things out and determined it had to come in for repair. Off it went. Bad thing was, my camera is just out of the 1 year warranty period! another Yikes. However, the Canon repair person told me that they do not advertise this, but they usually give a 90 day grace period on out of warranty issues such as this! So I was saved from the expense of paying for the repair.

One other quip about this ordeal is the fact that I have belonged to the network of Canon professional users for 5 years, CPS. They offer expedited repairs for their members, as well as loaners. Well this year they changed some of their requirements. One of which was what equipment allowed you to qualify for membership. I have lots of Canon gear, all of which qualified last year... but not this year, some of the stuff they consider too old, even though I use it all to earn a living everyday. Because of this I had to go through regular repair channels and wait 10 days for the repair/return instead of the CPS time frame of 3 days!

Well, I just found out that my repaired main camera is on it's way back to me. Can't wait to start shooting with it again!