5D2 over exposes by ~7 stops

Mar 31, 2013
279
0
6,626
Today my 5D2 started over exposing quite consistently at +7 when using the view fiender. Live view works perfectly fine and the over exposure is the same no matter what setting the camera is in. Given this I assume the light meter has packed in our something has gotten dislodged in there since it can tell the difference between light and dark. It is however completely wrong. I've found some references to this fenomenen on the Internet but only one who has had it fixed (shutter assembly). Any ideas what this might cost as I imagine it'll be a canon repair centre fix. Also since I'm not a cps member does it make more sense to contact a third party repair centre hoping it'll be cheaper given the age of the camera?
 
Have you tried a different lens yet? or re-seated the current lens? or cleaned the contacts? could be an aperture not stopping down. Go manual and choose a setting to expose properly wide open, and then stopped down. Shutter problems often show up has half frames, but lens problems can be aperture sticking open.
 
Upvote 0
ksgal said:
Have you tried a different lens yet? or re-seated the current lens? or cleaned the contacts? could be an aperture not stopping down. Go manual and choose a setting to expose properly wide open, and then stopped down. Shutter problems often show up has half frames, but lens problems can be aperture sticking open.

It doesn't seem to be a lens problem. It exposes perfectly when using live view but not the vf. Think bright sunlight at iso 100, f1.2 and shutter speed of 1/15 when letting the camera set the exposure. The picture also comes out fine dialing in correct settings in manual (correct shutter speed 1/5000).The exposure isn't the problem but the camera seems to think it is really dark.
 
Upvote 0
Hannes said:
ksgal said:
Have you tried a different lens yet? or re-seated the current lens? or cleaned the contacts? could be an aperture not stopping down. Go manual and choose a setting to expose properly wide open, and then stopped down. Shutter problems often show up has half frames, but lens problems can be aperture sticking open.

It doesn't seem to be a lens problem. It exposes perfectly when using live view but not the vf. Think bright sunlight at iso 100, f1.2 and shutter speed of 1/15 when letting the camera set the exposure. The picture also comes out fine dialing in correct settings in manual (correct shutter speed 1/5000).The exposure isn't the problem but the camera seems to think it is really dark.

Have you tried different metering modes? If the error varies between modes, but is consistent within a mode, it could suggest that one of the sensors is obscured.
 
Upvote 0
Orangutan said:
Hannes said:
ksgal said:
Have you tried a different lens yet? or re-seated the current lens? or cleaned the contacts? could be an aperture not stopping down. Go manual and choose a setting to expose properly wide open, and then stopped down. Shutter problems often show up has half frames, but lens problems can be aperture sticking open.

It doesn't seem to be a lens problem. It exposes perfectly when using live view but not the vf. Think bright sunlight at iso 100, f1.2 and shutter speed of 1/15 when letting the camera set the exposure. The picture also comes out fine dialing in correct settings in manual (correct shutter speed 1/5000).The exposure isn't the problem but the camera seems to think it is really dark.

Have you tried different metering modes? If the error varies between modes, but is consistent within a mode, it could suggest that one of the sensors is obscured.

Just tried, it changes at most 1/3 stops
 
Upvote 0
So if I understand correctly:
1. When using an automatic mode (Av, Tv, etc) it over-exposes.
2. When using Manual exposure (you over-ride the sensor) you get a correct exposure.
3. When using Live View, you get a correct exposure.

Based off (2) and (3), the shutter is working okay - it gives you what the camera is set to do.

The problem occurs when you let the camera set the exposure using the meter in the pentaprism (1). I'd expect the sensor is either obscured, misaligned, defective;
OR
The mirror has become misaligned (so the light isn't being transferred to the meter) - wasn't this an issue in the 5D2? Have you checked the mirror without a lens attached to the camera? A colleague just had his 5D2 repaired for a defective mirror assembly recently as one side became detached, and the symptoms are very similar.

Either way, the camera will need repair.
 
Upvote 0
The same thing happened to one of my 5D2s. Same symptoms (although it wasn't 7-stops difference). It affected manual mode, however (I missed the post above stating that this does not). Canon replaced the shutter assembly and it fixed it. Maybe there is something on that board which affects metering.
 
Upvote 0
3kramd5 said:
The same thing happened to one of my 5D2s. Same symptoms (although it wasn't 7-stops difference). It affected manual mode, however (I missed the post above stating that this does not). Canon replaced the shutter assembly and it fixed it. Maybe there is something on that board which affects metering.

It affects manual in the sense that the light meter is useless. The picture comes out fine but only if I manually work out the correct exposure based of the live view exposure which is correct
 
Upvote 0
Hannes said:
3kramd5 said:
The same thing happened to one of my 5D2s. Same symptoms (although it wasn't 7-stops difference). It affected manual mode, however (I missed the post above stating that this does not). Canon replaced the shutter assembly and it fixed it. Maybe there is something on that board which affects metering.

It affects manual in the sense that the light meter is useless. The picture comes out fine but only if I manually work out the correct exposure based of the live view exposure which is correct
In this case, the suspect is the camera's photometer, which mainly seemed "disjointed" and do not see the light levels as it should.
 
Upvote 0
I had a similar problem with my 500D a few years ago, the odd thing was that only certain lenses were affected, the EF-S 18-55 had little or no problems, the 50mm f/1.8 II was mildly affected and the 28-135mm was the worst affected. All three lenses worked perfectly on a 20D and 40D so I knew it was a problem with the body.

Sent it back to Canon for repair - they managed to fix it (on the second attempt) without a shutter replacement.
 
Upvote 0