Canon – Page 3 – Foxes Den

Canon EOS 5D MK2 assessment and repair

Last Updated: 25/4/24

This will be a running repair with regular updates. There is quite a bit going on.

The bargain basement DSLR has arrived (See original blog post here: Canon EOS 5D Mk2) and I’ve been able to give it a quick once over. It’s not had an easy life and has taken some bangs and knocks. Other than that it’s about 16 years old and has had about 69000 actuations, I don’t think it looks too bad personally. I’ve spent a good hour just giving it a good clean up and it was filthy, all knobs and buttons are working fine, the shutter isn’t locked and when a lens is attached, manually it all focuses just fine and the screen looks clean. There is no evidence of damage to the curtain however I can’t test this further until the battery and charger arrives.

To be honest if I can get this working it will be going into my own personal collection. As long as I can get some nice results I’m not that worried about how it looks cosmetically. The body can be touched up or I can add a skin, we’ll see how it goes.

Update: 6/4/24

I’ve now received a couple of bits consisting of two new batteries and a charger as well as a new battery door cover. Once powered up all indications, buttons, sensors are working and TTL indications are displaying as they should.

All lenses are working and moving and focusing as they should. The real good news is that the shutter fires at all speeds and is not stuck, and the sensor cleaner appears to be working.

I’m really happy with what I have found so far, I need to get a CF card to check the original issues that were reported with the suspect sensor. If that is the only issue I will get one ordered and install that at a later date. I have cleared all settings and the firmware is up to date. I’ve downloaded a raft of Canon software so I will be able to test this all once I get that CF card that should be here in a few days.

23/4/24

The CF card adapter has arrived from China. I’ve purchased this type as this particular adapter allows an SD card to be utilised in CF form. I have ample SD cards in use all around so this makes sense for me, I have nothing apart from this camera that uses CF cards so for a relatively low outlay this is the best option for me.

Now I have Every thing in place to test the camera. I’m using basic settings and an old test lens so I’m not looking for any spectacular photos as that’s not going to happen here. I just want to see what’s going on.

What happens most of the time

When I’m taking a shot everything lights up ok. Indications are all good, the shutter fires but all I see is a pinkish screen as demonstrated in the small video above. However every now and again I do get a “proper” photo, usually only the one then you have to turn the camera off then on again to get another and that’s not always guaranteed. As you will see in the two photos below you can get one photo and then the next has a pink band appearing from above.

Whilst taking a random photo looking at our ceiling, I became aware of what looked like a water leak by the chimney stack. This gave me some concern but I needn’t have been worried as it appears in other photos and is more than likely an Abberation mark on the sensor. The two pictures below show that mark on the sensor in the same area.

Occasionally the pink line that appears at the top of the photo also takes on a pixelated test card look. The weird thing is that if you put the camera into video mode the image is clear with good sound and no playback issues. Strange 🤷‍♂️

It really is looking as if the issue is around the sensor that in this camera is a CMOS sensor. But before I make any decisions on what action I’m taking I’m exhausting all the obvious issues if I can. I have looked at several forums on line and there are a multitude of tasks I could try but it all seems to filter down to two in general. A full camera reset and a reinstall of the last issued firmware.

Now I have completed the full reset and on top of this I’m going to install a new CR1616 CMOS cell, as I just don’t know when this was last done.

The CMOS deterioration rate is about 3% of the battery value per year, now if this camera was purchased around 2008 when they first came out then it dosen’t take a mathematical genius to work out that the cell could be sufficiently depleted. In fact I don’t know why I haven’t used the multi meter to test it🤦‍♂️

I’ll get on to that and will report back. It kind of makes sense seeing the sensor on this camera is a Cmos sensor. All tested, battery was at 2.3v, I have now replaced the battery but everything is still the same. I don’t know if updating the firmware will assist in any way, but I’m just following a procedure that most who have been in this position before have also done. it’s just a process of elimination before doing a full tear down of the camera. And if I can do anything to avoid that I certainly will.

I’ve finished all the testing and it is certainly looking like the Cmos sensor needs replacing. I’ve done all I can here, but I’m reluctant to order the new sensor from China as I’m not 100% confident of having the facilities or time to do the work required. Will I gain anything after the outlay? I very much doubt it. I’m going to move this camera on now with all my findings and hopefully I can find someone who will be able to take this project on to a successful completion.

I know parts wise I can make a good profit on the original outlay so maybe that is the route to take.

So I’ve failed on this renovation, but nothing is going to waste, it just needs to go to some who is somewhat more experienced with these type of upgrades than me. Hopefully I can gain some experience along the cheaper more available stock route.

I have learned some interesting things about this camera and it’s operating. So in many ways that’s a win, knowledge is everything.

Canon EF lens 28-90mm

As the listing stated:

Canon EF 28-90mm Lens Working Then Produces Err99. Reduced to sell at a bargain price will be easy fix
EBay

The dreaded err99. It’s a general error code that seems to annoy many Canon owners, and can be a simple fix or a tedious one. I wonder what it will be for me? I’ve seen a good article on Improve Photography’s website that explains some of the steps that can be taken to remedy this error, you can read that article HERE.

I now have the lens in front of me so here is what I can see. Overall the lens is in good order for its age and mounts to the camera ok. All manual focus and zoom works and the lens is clean with no sign of fungus or haze so I’m happy with that. I’m still waiting for the camera battery to arrive so I can’t really comment yet on the error code. I’m not cleaning anything just yet as I want to see for myself if the error shows on one of my cameras, if it does then i’ll start the process of cleaning the contacts which is what I would of attempted first off.

The battery has now arrived and I have now commenced further testing. I have placed it into auto mode and all seems well. I have tried the lens in 4 different camera bodies and have had no sign of the Err99 error code. The only issue I have noticed that may not be contributed to the lens is that when connected to an Eos5 body there is a fair drop in battery power. Again this has been noted in the past as something than can be connected to dirty contacts on the lens, so as a precautionary measure I shall be using some IPA and a fibre glass scratch pen to clean those up.

I’m unable to recreate the advertised fault as everything about this lens is working fine as far as I can see. I’m going to wrap this one up as complete now.

I’ve really enjoyed working on these two cheap damaged lenses that I originally purchased just to test my old SLR kit. They are now both working fine and i believe the invested effort shows in the end result.

I am extremely happy.

Thanks for passing by.

Something to be getting on with..

The batch of cameras I purchased the other day, all old SLRs / DSLRs have now arrived… with a bonus.

I was expecting 10 cameras but I’ve trumped that with 12 and a lot of spares as well. The guy I purchased the Nikons from has thrown in two more D70 as spares, with loads more spare parts. He was having a clear out so I guess he’s funneled that stock my way…thanks old chap.

So I have received today

One Canon 5 SLR – stuck mirror, missing some small Connection covers and like a lot of these old cameras has a sticky rubber covering that was well known back In the day.
One Canon EOS 50E – damaged curtain, faulty lock and again sticky.
One Canon EOS 1000F – cosmetically sound no other visible issues.
One Canon EOS Elan 2 – cosmetically sound, just sticky.
Two Nikon D70S DSLR – missing battery covers and some other small accessory covers, both sticky.
Six Nikon D70 DSLR – all missing battery covers, or other accessory covers, one missing a CF card reader and all sticky.
And two sizeable bags of D70/D70s spares

I’ll be starting with a good clean to get rid of that stickiness and then I’ll power each up individually to see what other issues lie in wait. I’m hopeful I can get most of them up and running, I’m confident that the majority of the DSLRs will be repairable.

I’ll feature the repairs once I’m in a position to donate the time to them. I’m a busy boy at the moment what with work and the wife’s growing list of things that need doing around the house.

Canon EOS 5D Mk2

The assessment and repair of this camera can be found here: Canon EOS 5D MK2 assessment and repair

As the listing stated:

Canon 5D Mark II DSLR Camera – Body Only – Spares or Repairs

We have tested this camera and found the following fault:

The camera powers up, however the sensor is damaged and images are recorded either blank or unusable, and so we are describing this item as FAULTY / SPARES / REPAIRS.

Shutter Count: 69,970
EBay

I noticed this 5D on sale earlier for £109 Gbp. It’s from a supplier who has a good reputation who I have used before, however he suddenly drops the price by 90% and I snap his arm off for this. It has sensor issues and that’s at least a £70 price just for that part. Considering how much these cameras usually retail for it’s a price I could absorb…but I think something else must have come to light for him to change his pricing. The body is pretty beaten up, again I’m not too bothered with that, the usb port might be damaged by the looks of it and again that’s something I can sort.

I guess I’ll just have to await its imminent arrival. In any case for a total of £9.99 GBP I’ll make more from this just for spare parts.

See the assessment and repair blog post here: Canon EOS 5D MK2 assessment and repair

Canon EF lens 35-80mm

As the listing stated:

Needs opening cleaning and fixing sounds like something loose so selling as a repair project cheap.
EBay

No error code so in theory this should be an easier fix, however the fact that something is moving about inside tells me there could be more wrong with it than expected.

I now have the lens in front of me so here is what I can see.

Shake rattle and roll

Well, it certainly does rattle, something quite significant is moving about inside. When Connected to a camera you can’t focus or zoom so something in there is restricting movement. There is also fungus on the lens so this one will need to be carefully dismantled and cleaned throughout.

About 10 small screws later I am into the internal parts of the lens and the cause of all the rattling becomes apparent. A piece of the internal zoom mechanism has broken off stopping the zoom from smoothly operating through its range.

The part of the barrel that the item had snapped off was broken due to forceful action with the previous owner. There are two options here, junk the lens or see if it can be saved, I went for the latter. I mixed some epoxy resin and fixed the piece back into place also gluing it to a part of the mechanism that was not liable to hinder future movements. I left this for a couple of hours to cure.

Whilst waiting for the glue to cure I used a mixture of water and hydrogen peroxide to clean all the lens elements. I thoroughly dried them and gave a quick polish and reassembled them into the casing. The glue was dry now so I was careful to reassemble the lens not damaging any ribbon cables or contacts along the way. The lens looks lovely and clear of any fungus now.

I’ve put the lens onto a test camera and it’s fantastic. I couldn’t get focus when I unpacked the lens but now I have the full range of action and a lovely clean working lens for very little outlay and probably just 2 to 3 hrs of maintenance. Well worth it in my opinion. I wanted a good cheap lens to test my old stock and I now have one that I can easily sell on at some point, on top of that I’ve learnt a lot from working on one of these lenses. I’m certainly going to attempt working on more in the future.

Thanks for passing by. Always appreciated.

More stock

I’ve spent the grand total of £91 GBP on more damaged/faulty stock today, I now have enough stuff to be working on to keep me busy for months.

On top of the 6 Canon cameras I purchased last week I now have a further 4 Canon film cameras ( Eos Elan 2, 50E, 1000fn and an Eos 5) I’ve also got two faulty EF lenses to test the old Canons with, these will also get the repair treatment.

I’ve also purchased four Nikon D70 and 2 Nikon D70S units all needing the repair treatment, I’ve even blagged some spare parts here as well so overall it’s been quite a good days shopping.

More cameras to keep me busy

Did I overpay?

I have just purchased 6 untested ( probably the polite way to say totally useless) cameras from the late 80s.

I ended paying out the equivalent of £6:17(GBP) per unit. That’s inclusive of delivery and costs as well, not too bad really and if I can repair (if needed) I should still be able to move them on at a small profit. But I may also be passing these onto a local charity that teaches photography to youngsters and disadvantaged people in Leicestershire.

I have purchased a job lot of Canon Eos 650/600 cameras from quite a reputable seller who specialises in old film cameras.

I have 2 Canon Eos 600 units that date from 1989. These have motorised film advance and rewind, and are able to reach 5fps in one shot Af mode. Shutter speeds range from 30 sec to 1/2000 sec, with B mode. X-sync is at 1/125 sec. Powered by 1x6v 2CR5 lithium battery.

I also have 4 Eos 650 units.

The Eos 650 is the camera responsible for the first photograph used on the World Wide Web when a photo of the band “Les Horribles Cernettes” was taken on 18th July 1992 by photographer Silvano de Cennaro.

This camera was produced in 1987 and was the first of Canons Eos (Electro-Optical System) ushering in a new era for Canon cameras. The shutter is electronic, vertical metal focal plane capable of 30 sec to 1/2000 sec exposures as well as having 1/125 sec exposure with a flash. Also powered by 1x6v 2CR5 lithium battery rated for up to 100 36 exp rolls.

Both types use the Canon EF mount.

I’m happy from the pictures and knowing the sellers reputation that these units are cosmetically tidy, fingers crossed they don’t need a great deal doing on them but you never know. When they arrive I will do an assessment of both cameras and create a post accordingly.

Until then stay happy, stay safe and take care.

Last Updated: 25/4/24

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