since upgrading to 2.0.3 I have noticed three issues that may just be coincidence (or that I am now noticing them now that others are seeing/reporting these similar issues) - 1) I have the same focus issues, where it appears to focus lock but the image comes out way out of focus; 2) suddenly started getting the "error 30" or in some cases the camera just goes blank without any errors, after which I have to pull the battery to get the camera to come back to life; and 3) the LCD and power timeouts are not consistently working (LCD is staying on until I take the next picture, which may be minutes in some cases). The error 30 is most concerning to me right now, but wanted to see if any others are getting this only after upgrading to the newest firmware?
Error 30 indicates a problem with the shutter. Do you think your camera might have enough actuations on it to start causing problems with the shutter? The lifetime ratings are really only an estimate, and the shutter can indeed go a lot earlier than its rated lifetime, or if you take a lot of photos and have owned the camera for several years, you might just be out of life. I figure I've had about 35,000, maybe 40,000 shutter actuations on my 7D in the last 10 months. The shutter is rated to 150,000 actuations, so someone who has owned their 7D for longer and takes enough photographs could indeed be reaching the end of their shutter lifetime.
I only have ~9,000 actuations on this 7d, and the error only started showing up the day after upgrading the firmware while using live view. It seems early to be having shutter problems, and with the camera about 16 months young, it's out of warranty at this point. I was planning to ship it in for review and repair if needed, but was waiting to see what resolved from the other issues that a number of others are having first. Fortunately it has come back to life every time I remove/reinsert the battery.
Just out of curiosity, did you follow the firmware upgrade procedure to the letter? I did a fair bit of research prior to upgrading my 7D. I actually skipped the first couple of releases, and installed 2.0.3 directly without any intermediate upgrades based on some reports of upgrade difficulty. It also seemed that following the upgrade procedure (whichever one you chose to follow) EXPLICITLY and EXACTLY is pretty important to the upgrade going well.
I did some experimentation today when the sun came out (something that hasn't been too frequent lately around here). AF performance (with some fully charged batteries) was quite a bit better with the sun out. It hunted twice, but I think that may have simply been due to the fact that I did not have my Spot AF point EXACTLY on my subject. When I switched to expansion or zone AF, AF performance was pretty snappy. I can't say for sure if it is exactly as fast as it was before, but I primarily use an f/5.6 lens (100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 @ 400mm) so its not like I'm working with a lot of light in the first place.
I think the primary issue with 2.0.3 is the battery and sleep/power issue. Those issues may even be the cause of AF issues. They may all be related to the same thing, whatever it is. But my camera definitely does not seem to auto-power off the same way it did before. I also believe my battery reporting is definitely off. I've charged and drained batteries twice now, and there are inconsistencies when using either a single battery, or batteries in a grip. My LCD always seems to show the metering mode, aperture, and AF/frame rate settings.
