5DmkII reliability issues?
 

Just wondering if anyone has had 5D failures yet?

After reading this article from Luminous Landscapes:

Antarctica 2009 - What Worked

I'm curious to see if anyone here has had a problem yet?

I've shot a little in light snow and rain, and temps around 20F in a stiff wind. No problems to report. In general, I got myself and the camera back in the house or car as soon as I could. I wasn't in the wild, so this was far from the ultimate stress test.

I've done at least 5 location shoots in about as challenging conditions as you could ask - all this winter, most at or below zero Fahrenheit, back country, snowshoes, skiing, most in heavy, sometimes wet snow.

Performed perfectly each time with great battery life. It has been literally covered in snow and mostly continually exposed to it for hours at a time and never missed a clip.

On the coldest shoots, when I've gotten back to the studio I've put it in a plastic bag and left it in the vestibule to warm gradually and limit condensation, other than that no rain cover...nada.

0℉ no problem
 

I have used MkII in NH outdoors in 0℉ weather all day in and out of truck in 20-30 mph wind, w/o any protection. Except for quick battery drain Camera behaved fine over 3 days.

Very interesting report. Not sure how to read it though; the 5D Mk II had the most failures, but was also the most common camera. His numbers don't all add up (he lists 3 5Ds as experiencing a permanent failure, but then only lists two in the specific list of failures, so I'm not sure if those three are included in that list or not.)

Assuming the seven permanent failures (out of approx. 77) is correct, then there was an approx. 9% failure rate. There were 26 5D's, so you'd expect 2.34 cameras to fail. Of course, you'd also expect 2 of the Nikon's to fail, which they didn't. Aren't statistics marvelous!

One thing is clear though; don't take the Canon G9 to Antarctica.


Note: It seems there were at least 90 cameras, not 77. Also, without knowing who had the cameras and what they were doing with them, it's hard to know what to read into this, but perhaps the 5D is more susceptible to moisture than other cameras.

Perhaps the most important fact glossed over by everyone in this thread.

"Several people noted that when returning to the ship after working in light rain 5D MKIIs with vertical battery grips tended to collect water in between the grip and the base – something that may have been the cause of some of the failures."

I would say water trapped between the grip and body would definitely contribute to higher percentage of failures.

Not glossed over at all. There isn't enough information to make that assumption as the author doesn't indicate that the people who noticed this were the ones that had camera failures, and only speculates that it may have been an influence. For all we know, the 5D's that failed might not have been using a vertical grip at all. Plus, remember that two failed while there were completely protected from the rain with a Kata cover?

I don't know what point you are trying to make here, as your conclusions are based on the false assumption that the Canon's rate of failure represents all camera's rates of failure. Or are you trying to point out that Nikon's rule and Canon's suck? :)

Since this is a 5D specific thread, we don't really care about the other cameras and their survival rate, only that 1/4 of the 5DmkII's failed.

This all seems very anecdotal and not particularly scientific. I have not heard of these types of failures on any other boards.

I was trying to point out that if you simply calculate the failure rate for all of the cameras on the trip, it was about the same as the failure rate for the 5D Mark II's, i.e. it's failure rate wasn't abnormally high.

Your agruement was very... ummm.... interpretive... so I thought you were joking. Sorry.

How about this:
25% of Canon 5DmkII's failed.
0% of Nikon's failed.

So, how the 5D failure rate is not abnormally high?

One of the owners that experienced problems has written a bit in this thread:

canon 5d mk11 in Anartica - Luminous Landscape Forum

A couple of things to note is that though they were in bags, they rode for some time in Zodiacs, and it's unclear how effective the bags were in keeping water out. The writer says that they used hairdryers on the cameras after they got back, which suggests they got more than a little damp...

I guess if I was looking for a camera for use in these kind of situations I'd definitely be concerned.

Those kind of situations are cakewalks for most photographers/videographers.

I've shot my Canons in -55 degree weather (unprotected) out of a helicopter, dunked them in both the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, dropped them from 7' high to the ground (only the lens broke), got stage blood all over them, shot 8 hour days outside in full on rain (Kata cover), took one snorkelling in a Ziploc bag to -25', strapped one to the roof of a 200+mph car... and even had one get hit by a paintball.... and in 10 years of owning Canons, and having owned 11 different Canons... I've never had a single full on failure once due to conditions... If the 5D has a failure rate that high from simple conditions, there is a problem... especially given the excellent survival rate of all the other cameras, including the 1D's, and whatever backup bodies they were using.

It won't stop me from buying one, of course.