How frequently does your R5 freeze/lock up?

How frequently does your R5 freeze/lock up?


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    97
Dec 13, 2010
4,932
1,608
My R5 only locked up once for me, and that was last November. Have shot around 10,000 frames since then with no issues. The day that I had the lockup was the ONLY time I have ever deleted images in-camera. I'm wondering if that was a contributing factor.
I delete images in camera constantly and never had a freeze so it might be something else…
 
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docsmith

CR Pro
Sep 17, 2010
1,223
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I have now had 1 freeze up after >30,000 images on my R5. Not sure why it happened. Thanks to this thread, I recognized it immediately, popped the battery out and was back shooting very quickly.

Only things I can say, the battery was fairly drained, and I had been sitting on target with AF for an extended period of time. I do wonder if, perhaps, the capacitors that hold the charge that trigger the shutter might drain slightly causing the problem. But, per speculation on my behalf.
 
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Of the people who have just posted mentioning their freeze, who had their freeze with a CF express card in the camera? And what firmware version are you running?

I had 3 lockup’s over a span of a few months and 6000 images taken, all using a 512gb Sandisk Cf Express card. I switched to a Sandisk 128Gb SD card and have had 0 lockup’s in the last couple of months and over 4000 photos taken. I am still on firmware 1.2.0.

So at least in my case it seems memory card related... let’s see if firmware 1.3.1 helps...
 
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AlanF

Desperately seeking birds
CR Pro
Aug 16, 2012
12,348
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Of the people who have just posted mentioning their freeze, who had their freeze with a CF express card in the camera? And what firmware version are you running?

I had 3 lockup’s over a span of a few months and 6000 images taken, all using a 512gb Sandisk Cf Express card. I switched to a Sandisk 128Gb SD card and have had 0 lockup’s in the last couple of months and over 4000 photos taken. I am still on firmware 1.2.0.

So at least in my case it seems memory card related... let’s see if firmware 1.3.1 helps...
I seem to have read several reports of Sandisk CFExpress cards causing freezes.
 
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macrunning

Enjoying the Ride
Feb 12, 2021
441
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I actually had to send mine in for repair this week. At first it would freeze up occasionally And that started a few months after I got it. Then it seem to become more frequent. Usually seemed to happen with high speed continuous and servo while I would be shooting birds in flight. Then while in Hawaii last couple of weeks it froze on me several times just using the animal eye auto Focus to track birds. Hadn’t even gotten the shots off. when we got back I called Canon and they had me ship it. Very disappointing after paying several thousands of dollars for camera and gear. I’ve never been happy with the eye tracking auto focus as my experience and results seemed to be far inferior to what others online were claiming. I tried to chalk it up to learning the camera but now I believe with the freezing issue something was indeed wrong with the auto focus system on my R5. Firmware has always been kept up to date too. Using native RF glass as well. Using SanDisk 128gb SD card ii 300 mb/s
 
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macrunning

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Feb 12, 2021
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I'm surprised that more people aren't experiencing these lockups. Glad to see that! I agree that it is hopefully a software related issue. Would be much less convenient having to send the camera in for a physical repair... fingers crossed
I realize your statement is from Oct 2020 but as of mid May 2021 the poll shows nearly 50% of the folks have or are experiencing lock ups. That is huge! Really it’s unacceptable when a company is supposedly a leader in the industry and charging several thousand dollars for the camera.
 
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I realize your statement is from Oct 2020 but as of mid May 2021 the poll shows nearly 50% of the folks have or are experiencing lock ups. That is huge! Really it’s unacceptable when a company is supposedly a leader in the industry and charging several thousand dollars for the camera.
Wow, I hadn’t checked the poll recently. Not good to see. I’m grateful for the 5 year warranty we get here! Also sorry to hear that the problem with your camera was so severe. So the lockups occurred during AF acquisition? In my case they always seemed to happen when the camera was trying to write to the card.

Also worth mentioning that I have found Eye-AF less reliable than using the spot AF point and manually placing it over the eye. Most people do rave about it though.
Yeah lots of the issues are with counterfeit cards people buy for cheap on Amazon. SanDisk is one of the most counterfeited brands due to its popularity. Hard to tell the difference these days:(
I have heard about counterfeit cards. I bought mine from B&H photo so have no reason to doubt it’s authenticity. Very curious to see if the new firmware resolves the issue. But very few people have been reporting their experiences with CF express cards and the latest firmware.
 
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macrunning

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Feb 12, 2021
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Wow, I hadn’t checked the poll recently. Not good to see. I’m grateful for the 5 year warranty we get here! Also sorry to hear that the problem with your camera was so severe. So the lockups occurred during AF acquisition? In my case they always seemed to happen when the camera was trying to write to the card.

Also worth mentioning that I have found Eye-AF less reliable than using the spot AF point and manually placing it over the eye. Most people do rave about it though.

I have heard about counterfeit cards. I bought mine from B&H photo so have no reason to doubt it’s authenticity. Very curious to see if the new firmware resolves the issue. But very few people have been reporting their experiences with CF express cards and the latest firmware.
So my first experience of lockup was with the Canon Connect App. Then I too had issues where it was locking up when writing to the SD card. Usually I am shooting H+ in Servo with fast shutter speeds to capture birds in flight. I've read everyone's discussion about it possibly being the SD cards they are using. But more recently while on vacation it just started locking up when just using the animal eye auto focus to track birds. Had not even taken shots! So I know it's not the SD card. I got an Error 70 msg one time on the screen when this happened out of around 6-7 times that it froze just using the animal eye auto focus option. I do have the camera set up for 2 back btn focus with one being spot auto focus and the other being the animal eye auto focus. It will be interesting to see what they come back with when I get the camera back.
 
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macrunning

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The app has both a wifi and bluetooth trigger, for standalone use you can get the Canon BR-E1.
I am aware that is has both Bluetooth and wifi for the app. Also from what I've read the Canon Br-E1 is limited in it's ability to work with the camera. From what I understand is that you need to put your camera on the 2sec or 10sec timer. I don't want that. I want to be able to hit the btn on the trigger and take a shot at that time. Plus it's waaaaaay over priced.
 
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Nov 3, 2012
512
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I am aware that is has both Bluetooth and wifi for the app. Also from what I've read the Canon Br-E1 is limited in it's ability to work with the camera. From what I understand is that you need to put your camera on the 2sec or 10sec timer. I don't want that. I want to be able to hit the btn on the trigger and take a shot at that time. Plus it's waaaaaay over priced.
Here in New Zealand, there are big variations in the price of the BR-E1. I got it for a price I thought was quite reasonable.
It is a bit of a hassle to connect: turn Bluetooth on in camera, turn drive to 2 or 10 second selftimer. But then it operates instantly, until you take a photo using the shutter, when the self timer kicks in.
In contrast, a remote release simply plugs in and needs no setting changes and can be bypassed with the shutter button.
 
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digigal

Traveling the world one step at a time.
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Aug 26, 2014
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This is a follow up to my running series of posts about my R5 crashes/freezes which required removing the battery to reboot. It seemed, in my case to occur when shooting in the H speed mechanical mode with my EF Canon 100-400 lens. Replacing the motherboard did NOT resolve the issue. I purchased the RF 100-500 lens and the RF 1.4 TC and have switched to the H+ mode (some mechanical and some 1st curtain electronic) and have shot over 25, 000 pictures WITHOUT a crash or freeze. Same cards, batteries, other BBF settings, some even more extreme hot/cold temps. Don't ask me to put the EF 100-400 back on--it still works fine on all my other gear including the R so I'm not going there!
Catherine
 
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koenkooi

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Feb 25, 2015
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[..]
I have heard about counterfeit cards. I bought mine from B&H photo so have no reason to doubt it’s authenticity. Very curious to see if the new firmware resolves the issue. But very few people have been reporting their experiences with CF express cards and the latest firmware.
Sandisk have had a few cases where counterfeits entered the official channels, so getting it from B&H isn't a 100% guarantee. It is miles better than Ebay or Amazon, though. I haven't heard about any new cases in the past 5 years or so, which hopefully means Sandisk is in full control of the channels nowadays.
 
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docsmith

CR Pro
Sep 17, 2010
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This is a follow up to my running series of posts about my R5 crashes/freezes which required removing the battery to reboot. It seemed, in my case to occur when shooting in the H speed mechanical mode with my EF Canon 100-400 lens. Replacing the motherboard did NOT resolve the issue. I purchased the RF 100-500 lens and the RF 1.4 TC and have switched to the H+ mode (some mechanical and some 1st curtain electronic) and have shot over 25, 000 pictures WITHOUT a crash or freeze. Same cards, batteries, other BBF settings, some even more extreme hot/cold temps. Don't ask me to put the EF 100-400 back on--it still works fine on all my other gear including the R so I'm not going there!
Catherine
I have only had 1 freeze.....but it was with the 100-400 II.

But, very glad you seem to be sorted out at this point!!
 
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Sandisk have had a few cases where counterfeits entered the official channels, so getting it from B&H isn't a 100% guarantee. It is miles better than Ebay or Amazon, though. I haven't heard about any new cases in the past 5 years or so, which hopefully means Sandisk is in full control of the channels nowadays.
Wow, I didn’t know this. Mine was bought in September of last year, so fingers crossed... I no longer have the original packaging but will check the card anyway just to be sure
 
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AlanF

Desperately seeking birds
CR Pro
Aug 16, 2012
12,348
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Wow, I didn’t know this. Mine was bought in September of last year, so fingers crossed... I no longer have the original packaging but will check the card anyway just to be sure
I would guess that fake CFExpress cards are not that common yet, but that's just a guess.
 
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I have had 2 lockups recently, only since Itarted using the CFexpress card, never happened when I used just the SD slot. I bought the SAndisk CFexpress from Amazon Aus although it was shipped from Amazon UK. Not a third party supplier, is there an easy way to check if it genuine?

Also it should be noted that I was using high speed mechanical shutter both times it locked up.
 
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I bought mine under 2 weeks ago, it froze on Saturday and Sunday. I was using old SD cards until my CFexpress and V90 SD cards arrived, which they did yesterday. Hasn't frozen since, will be giving it a good test over the coming weekend.

Using the latest firmware.

I checked with Sandisk about the new cards, they said mine (from amazon) were genuine. Never had issues with my old SD cards in 5D3.

Seems like a bit of a random issue not pinpointed to anything in particular.
 
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