5D3, Tripod Threads, Short Circuit?

[jlegan]

I recently purchased a new 5D3 after having sold all of my gear late last year.

Several days after getting the body, the lens I ordered (50 ART) arrived. I went out and took approximately 200 photos. In the day following I tested a 24-105 and 100-400 and then a lensrentals.com order (400L 5.6 w/1.4x) came in and I did some birding.

Everything was going great until Wednesday when my Kirk L-Bracket came in. Now I have an engineering background and I have spent several hours troubleshooting the issue and I have finally found a reproducible scenario and I was hoping to get some insight from others.

Problem Statement: Random Err 80's, Failure to Power On, Failure to Release shutter.

Findings: Issue began the day the Kirk plate arrived. Upon installation I noticed approximately 20 mins later an Err 80 on the top LCD screen. The error message cleared (temporarily) by recycling the power. I googled it and found many people seeing Err 80's with certain CF/SD cards. For the record I am using Sandisk Extreme cards and they work in multiple other cameras.

Suddenly the camera failed to power on. I removed all cards, the lens, the battery. Turned the power on to discharge anything that might be in the camera body and left it. Reinserted the battery (10 mins later), attempted to power on and there was no response. Two hours later the unit powered on. Reinstalled cards and lens, camera proceeded to function normally. I took ~50 pics, POPO several times, everything functioned properly. I reinstalled the bracket and the camera malfunctioned within 60 seconds. I then over the next couple of hours was able to restore the camera to proper function and reinstall the bracket (while it was on) and the shutter would stop responding. LCD (top and rear) still worked, buttons worked (change ISO, shutter, etc...) but the shutter is frozen. Recycle power, failure to power on.

To me this screams that either something is shorting out on the tripod threads inside the camera OR the force (downward) being exerted on the body with the bracket installed is pulling too hard on something.

I contacted the seller and they shipped me out a new one (cross shipped) today but I would like to better understand this. Has anyone else ever experienced something like this? I noticed some discoloring on the bottom inside of the tripod mount. I do not know if it was there before.

Any insight is greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Jim

 

[tron]

I have 2 5DMkIIIs with Kirk plate PZ-148. No issues at all.
Before these I had a 5DMkII with Kirk plate PZ-128 . Perfect fit and no issues too.

 

[Mt Spokane Photography]

Jim, I don't think that the tripod thread can short out anything unless something else is broken.

It is possible that stress is being put on a cracked board or a bad solder joint, which causes the issue. There are fuses in the camera, and if it shorts out power, it does not come back to life until they are replaced.
There are literally tens of thousands of 5D MK III's in service, I have not heard of the issue before, no did my two bodies have one.

 

[eml58]

I've had 4 different 5DMK III Bodies to date, First I drowned in an Underwater Housing, 2nd I dropped on a Safari trip & it was chewed beyond help by a Large Angry Lion, the current two I've kept intact for a while now.

I use RRS L Brackets, installed and left all the time on the Cameras, from what I can see, not too different in design from the Kirk.

No issues, and I've not heard any issue like this, except, friend of mine had an issue with water leaking through the O ring assembly via the Tripod screw, Canon Singapore changed the Camera for new, no further issues.

I think Mt Spokane has the issue correct, it's not the type of bracket, there's not a lot of room inside these bodies, if the Tripod Screw has been installed even slightly incorrectly at the Factory, the stress movements of fitting the Bracket is likely causing a mis alignment inside the Camera to other components, resulting in your issue.

Have Canon replace the Camera, seems that shouldn't be an issue as the problem is repeatable.

I've attached a couple of Images to show there's not a load of room inside these things, One Image shows the 5DMK III the other is the 30D.

 

[Jim Saunders]

If only everyone wrote up snags like that...

Jim

 

[Roo]

it was chewed beyond help by a Large Angry Lion

If I ever have another camera insurance claim that's the excuse I'd love to use ;D

I haven't heard of the problem the OP described. I hope the replacement body is ok