5D Mark II occasionally freezes up in live mode

Occasionally while shooting in Live Mode my 5D Mark II will freeze up. The CF access light stays on solid and none of the buttons are responsive. The LCD continues to display the last image, sometimes with a bit of corruption (little elements of the GUI drawn in the wrong locations). Turning off the power switch has no effect; the only solution that I have found is to remove the battery. The video shot up to the hang is not recorded, so I lose the shot.

Twice it has occurred while shooting video after about 1 minute, and once while shooting stills in live mode. It has happened with my 85mm f/1.8 and 20mm f/1.8. I've only been shooting with one CF card, a brand new Sandisk 8 GB. I've upgraded the firmware to 1.0.7, but one of the failures was while it was still running 1.0.6.

I've read that other people's cameras display "Err 30" when their cameras lock up, but there is nothing displayed on the back or top LCD to indicate any problem. Has anyone else run into this problem?

No, have filmed lots of stuff on a Transcend 32GB card - and hat no single failure so far!
Lots of the shots were just 10-20 sec, but also some full 4GB movies...

I had the exact same issue when I first got my 5DMKII. Turned out to be the brand new SanDisk 4GB Extreme III card I was using was bad. returned the card and exchanged it for another SanDisk Extreme III and the problem went away. Been shooting for 4 weeks now and the lockup hasn't happened again.

So first thing to do is try a different card. I think it's a lot more common than one might think for CF cards to be bad.

Scott

Thanks, Scott. I'll get another 4-8 GB card and give it a try. I really hope that is the only problem.

I had the same problem with a Sandisk card and thought the camera had quit on me. I stuck my Hoodman 8 gb RAW card in and the problem went away. I have had good luck with a cheap Toshiba 32 gb 150x card, and no problems with any of my other cards.

I'm having the same problem - I was thinking it was my nikon AF adapter - the one thing that is curious is that the chip supplies the info that the lens is a 50mm f/1.8 - and I noticed that hudson is also having the problem with his f/1.8 lenses - is anyone having the same problem with lenses that have a different aperture than f/1.8? I am going to try another card - mine is also a new sandisk 16GB ultra IV, the lock up doesn't occur when I have my m42 adapter or my EOS lens on - obviously the m42 doesn't tell the camera that it is f/1.8 and the eos lens I have is a f/4.5-5.6 - and I'm trying to remember if I've had the lock up with no card in the camera. I'm glad I found this forum I was beginning to think I was only one.

timt

ok I did a bit more testing tonight - I've had the camera lock up in live view when no card was in it - I have had it lock up with different card (an 8GB Extreme III) and I haven't had it lock up yet when I wasn't using my nikon/eos adapter (which is a chipped adapter that reports as a 50mm f/1.8) I have another nikon/eos adapter on order (non chipped) and I'll see if that makes a difference.

timt

As a datapoint against the f/1.8 theory or the chipped EOS adapter, it has also happened with my completely manual Lensbaby. I haven't tried another card yet, but it hasn't locked up again with the same Extreme III card that I've been using since the camera body arrived.

you know I really do hate intermittent problems - I wonder if we are having different problems that have the same results, or maybe it is something completely different. thanks for your reply.

timt

[del]This may just be luck or may be a data point -- I reformatted my Sandisk Extreme III card with the 5D and have shot about an hour worth of random test footage with different lenses without any problems. Night shots at f/1.8, bright day shots, manual lens shots and long takes with no lockups yet.[/del]

Never mind -- it just did it with a Lensbaby while filming outdoors in bright sunlight. Reformatting the card did not fix anything.