40D, err99, extension tubes, and sunshine

Regarding my original post here about my 40D and err99 I have an update:

As I wrote in my previous thread my 40D often gets err99 with our without the battery grip (BG-E2N) and with all the lenses I've tried, 24-104, 70-200 2.8 IS, and 300mm non-IS, with or without Canon 1.4x.

Because the err99 msg never came until the first time the battery grip was installed I assumed it was the culprit. However brain fade caused me to forget I was using a new set of Kenko extension tubes the night before I installed the grip so maybe the 3rd party tubes caused this thing to go bad, even if it did not display the err99 until the next day when grip was installed and a Canon lens attached directly to the body (no tubes).

The Kenko tubes never once gave me an err99 and last night in testing they still do not with any lens combination.

Yesterday morning with nice morning sunlight shooting birds in at a local creek I got the error about ten times, even with the grip removed. Later that day I brought the 40D with the 24-105mm to a restaurant for lunch where we sat outside in the sunshine and when it came time to take pictures of our group I got err99 before nearly every shot.

So now I believe weather, particularly sunshine, is a factor as I've not had the problem indoors.

My plan is to swap the camera with the local vendor and try not using the tubes for a while. Now I'm afraid to put the tubes on my other bodies, 300D, 1D, and 1D2N, and to even try using the grip. I've got a big motorsports shoot coming up and I would like to use this crop camera for the extra reach, but I'm not brining it if it gives me err99. I cannot trust it to be ready when I need to shoot.

When I had err99 last weekend (I have a thread in the Canon lens forum) the file numbers was mixed up. Can you check all your images from the "error day" to see if time taken and image number is in sync?
Mats
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Remove the main and the battery clock and insert them again: ERR99 disappear.

--
AND®
[surfing from Florence, Italy]
risus abundat in ore stultorum..

(Please be patient for my poor english and, please, I'm a DSLR newbie, so be more and more patient then reading my terrible slang )

No, The shooting date and sequence seem to be fine.

For a moment I thought I had your problem with the time because the time of day was not what I remember shooting i.e. shot was taken at 8:30 AM but Windows Explorer showed 5:00 PM, but Windows explorer shows the date the file was modified, and I have added checkmarks to the best files in Canon DPP, so Windows explorer now shows differnt times and dates for those files. In DPP I can see the correct shooting date and time.

That's one reason I like Photoshop as it stores all the changes in a sidecar file or your cache so Windows Explorer still sees the date and time the image was taken. I'll have to be extra crareful doing file management for these DPP-modified files files.

Your post made me aware of this so thanks!

AND,

I am waiting for it to fail again before I try so I have a good test of your solution.

In the faint sunlight last night it would not fail, with any lens, grip or no grip.

I'm going out in about 15 minutes and I'm not sure if I should hope it fails so I can try your suggestion or if it doesn't fail, it never does it again!

I just don't want it to fail when I have an important shoot. So far it will stay home for the important stuff.

.. that sound like a firmware problem. Sometimes, for some reason we don't know, ERR99 appear and, if not reset, it will come back lot of time apparently random. After the reset with the clock battery, it seem that it doesn't appear again (until know for me, other 400 ca shots since reset).

A lot of people experience this issue ask for a body replacement but I don't think that could be a good solution if they replace a good focus body with a new one that could have some other problems.

I have a good body so, instead asking a replacement, I prefer to wait something official from Canon (obviusly if nothing will come out soon, I will send my 40d for a check before the end of the warranty).

--
AND®
[surfing from Florence, Italy]
risus abundat in ore stultorum..

(Please be patient for my poor english and, please, I'm a DSLR newbie, so be more and more patient then reading my terrible slang )

Ok, thanks for checking.

There is a some "err99" on 40D and it would be nice to figure out why, if it might be a firmware error or something else.
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Err99 may come in just because of dusty/greasy contacts between the lenses and the body. A good clean up may be sufficient to "brush" the problem away. (it happened to me before). God luck.

For me it is not the case: both camera and lenses tested are brand new.

I think, again, it's a firmware problem, something perhaps connected with battery power. In fact it come out when I've replaced the battery with the another one (obviusly original canon). Perhaps a low battery status can interfere with the shutter/firmware so that the error is saved in memory and come out often.
That's only my dispassionate diagnosis.

Cheers

--
AND®
[surfing from Florence, Italy]
risus abundat in ore stultorum..

(Please be patient for my poor english and, please, I'm a DSLR newbie, so be more and more patient then reading my terrible slang )

I hope someone soon will try your suggestion and report result. My camera suddenly started working OK but I fear it will bite me at the wrong time.

I have no idea how or why, but after going back and repeating all my original steps I am happy to say the 40D is no longer giving me err99.

In one of my threads (links below) I said it seems to happen after using the Kenko extension tubes. For a week it frustrated me.

Then I decided to check out the tubes again and see if I could make it fail. I could not. So I tried all different combinations (see my profile for lens list) and it still didn't fail.

But still in the back of my head I was thinking, well, it always failed when I was down by the creek shooting so I went out there again yesterday under similar conditions, with the grip, without the grip,. and it still does not fail.

I can only assume there was some gunk of the contacts I could never see.

The camera is going to see some heavy use this weekend so wish me luck!

Here are my original threads.

http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1019&message=25106852

http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1019&message=25131973