Comments on: Canon DSLR Error 99 fix

By: Richard

Richard — Sat, 03 Jan 2009 03:35:37 +0000

Frida: It’s hard to say what the problem is until you test your camera with another lens. It might be that the lens itself is broken.

What kind of camera do you have?

Did you clean the lens and camera contacts?

Did you read the post at the top of this thread and try all of its advice?

By: frida

frida — Sat, 03 Jan 2009 01:23:32 +0000

i have an 99 err with my 18-55, but only on 24mm and under do u konw why and maybe how can i fix it? i´d tried to cleean and remove battery and cf card, ussing other lenses

By: Richard

Richard — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 23:42:36 +0000

Arnold: I’d go for a Canon 17-40 L if that range interests you. I’ve also heard good reports about the Sigma 10-20 but the Canon lens is very high quality.

By: Arnold

Arnold — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 22:03:12 +0000

hooray!
502 Bad gateway is gone.

Still no 40D in my possession :(
Gave me time to wonder about the lens…..

17-85 Canon or 17-70 Sigma.

great reviews seem to prefer Sigma.
Then again i might have a new Err99 at hand.

p.s. Happy new year all.

By: Richard

Richard — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 04:50:25 +0000

Maurice, I’m guessing your battery grip has something to do with it. If the grip isn’t connected tightly it can cause problems or if either of the batteries in it isn’t seated correctly that can cause problems.

Take the grip off and shoot for a while longer and see what happens. Of course make sure the camera’s battery is fully charged. My guess is you’ll not see the problem again.

To put your mind at ease, the problem can crop up once because of a poorly attached grip and then never come up again in the life of the camera. So, don’t feel like you’ve got a lemon… yet.

If the problem comes back with a fully charged battery and no grip I’d take the camera back to the dealer and ask for an exchange.

Let me know what happens in a week. Good luck and happy new year.

Oh, and you may want to read this great post all about error 99 at some point: Canon’s Error 99: the Man, the Myth.

By: Maurice

Maurice — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 04:17:03 +0000

I just bought a new Rebel XSI with it’s kit 18-55mm IS lense (my first dslr)4 days ago. As I have alot to learn about the camera, on my second time using it, I was going through the settings and taking test shots and I got the dreaded error 99. Screen said to turn off and on and that corrected the problem. As I have no idea what setting it was at when the error occured, I can’t begin to figure out what happened. I’m concerned that this occured almost right out of the box yet hasn’t happened since (100 or so shots later). I have 14 days to return the camera and was wondering if I should do so or was this error something I created by tinkering with the settings? For the record, I bought a kit that included a battery grip with 2 batteries that I installed and were fully charged. I also bought an 8 gig Sandisk Ultra II reccomended by the Best Buy sales clerk. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

By: Richard

Richard — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 06:22:48 +0000

Steve: What lens did you have on the camera when you first used it? I’m guessing you’re having lens issues but it’s hard to say for sure. Let me know what happens next.

By: Richard

Richard — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 05:26:42 +0000

Todd: I highly recommend Lensrentals.com for a loaner/rental. They rent high quality gear at reasonable prices and they’re nice folks to deal with.

Let me know what Canon does to fix it. They should include a sheet with the return of the camera telling you what they did. Thanks.

Will: Canon has a one year warranty on the camera body which covers any failure that’s not due to abuse. Sounds like you should consider sending it in and like Will, I’d love to hear back from you when you get it back telling me what they did to fix it. Generally they replace shutters and PC boards but whatever they do they almost always give you a list of the parts and fixes. Do let us know. Thanks.

By: Steve

Steve — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 05:14:49 +0000

I have a Canon 20D that is 2 years old. I initially started getting the error 99 after a couple hundred shots. Changed the battery and it worked for awhile….then error 99…took the battery and card out and it worked again……then error 99…….cleaned the lense contacts and it worked again. Finally nothing I did fixed it. Sent it to Canon and they did a full overhaul/cleaning. I received it back and when I got home it error 99′d. They sent it back again and finally it worked great for the past year. 4 days ago I got a Tamron 18-270 lens and after 50 shots it error 99′d me again. I just switched out the battery and removed and re-inserted my Lexar 80x 1GB card. Took 10 pictures with no errors. I will let you know if I get the error 99 again.

By: Will K

Will K — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 04:30:56 +0000

Richard,

* I have tried a spare battery, same exact results
* I do not have a spare card… HOWEVER, I tried the manual sensor cleaning -without a card- and it still gave me Error 99 immediately.
* I have cleaned the contacts for the battery and camera both
* The camera has been to Afghanistan (I’m an Infantry Officer) but I have done everything possible to baby it and overall I wouldn’t say it’s been around a lot of extremes or dampness
* I have continued to try with lens on and off, same results. My normal shooting mode is now 100% error 99’s (used to be 50/50 or so)

so yeah, the ONLY thing that works now is liveview. I know I will probably have to take this thing to Canon (what’s the standard mfg warranty period?) but I really appreciate your continued help just in case we might solve it without them.

THANKS SO MUCH!

-Will