Overheating Warning Icon in mild temperatures
 

I just picked up my new 7D this morning. After fiddling around with the camera inside with the air conditioning on for an hour or so I ventured outside. Pretty mild temperature (80) and overcast skies were the weather conditions. About an hour into my walk about I started getting a red flashing icon on the screen. Generally not a good sign. On my way back home I was switching to still mode and then back to video without any more flashing icon.

In the manual on page 159 there is a side bar box describing internal temperature increase. I am assuming this is the icon I saw flashing on the screen. If this is the case and normal operating procedure then I am concerned about the practicality of the 7d for my work flow.

If any one has any info on this or similar occurrences with a 7D or 5D for that matter can you please let me know.

A good tip I got was to drape a small white towel over it if it is in direct sunlight. This should help a bit to reflect sunlight and reduce heat.

I've seen that only once on the 5D2. I had the camera on a tripod late on a hot day with the sun shining directly at the LCD. I turned it off for a couple minutes or so, kept it out of the direct sun, and haven't seen the warning since.

Best of luck with your 7D!

Thanks for the responses. I shoot an EX1 outside and always shade it from direct sunligth. But today was really overcast and in the shade of trees most of the time. I will test further but these were really mild conditions.

Warning came on after 30 minutes in air co.
 

Just did another test with my 7D. Set up inside recording continuously for about 30 minutes and there was the flashing red thermometer icon.

Any suggestions or ideas.

I know it's a super bummer but that sounds like a defective 7D to me.

(PS. Hey man! See you went the 7D Route! ;) I might be doing the same!)

I'd call Canon customer service. They might want to take a close look at what went wrong.

My guess is that a heatsink didn't get mounted properly.

Temp. warning in owner's manual: couldn't copy text from the PDF... so here's a grab (click to see it big):

The 5D has a single DIGIC processor while the 7D has two of them.

I wonder if that's the heart of the issue.

Hopefully this isn't a sign of how little temperture tolerance the 7d has to extended recording times (compared to the 5d). :(

What's normal workflow 5D and 7D
 

Before I go back to my dealer can someone out there confirm that they have been able to shoot with the 7D continuously for around 30 minutes with out any temperature issues. Also what about having the camera on in movie mode and shooting off and on for a couple of hours.
Just trying to get a handle on what 'shoot movies for a prolonged period' actually means.

Also 5D users. Has anyone had similar experiences? Can you use the camera in movie mode for extended periods of shooting without turning it off? Can you operate the 5D for hours at a time without issues?

Just trying to figure out if this unit is malfunctioning or if overheating may be inherent to 7Ds in general.

I debated and waited a long time to get this camera versus an 35mm adapter for the EX1. I love the idea of using this camera in conjunction with my EX1 and also being able to take stills but I can not see the point is I need to turn it off every 20 minutes or so to cool down.

3/4 hours continous. No problems on the 5D. Pretty hot, 25°/30° (80-90 fahreneit?)

I've done similar sort of shoots on the 5D, up to nearly 40 C in the summer. The only time I've had the temperature warning come on was during a shot with the camera on the dash of an automobile in the sun.

Magic Lantern will display a readout of the internal temperature sensor, but I don't know what the units are. I forgot to check the reading when the warning came on; I was so worried that I rushed the camera into an air conditioned building to cool it off.

Tramm, do you think the dual processors in the 7D would make it more susceptible to overheating than the 5D Mk. II?

I just put a call into the shop where I purchased the camera and they are putting in a call to the Canon Rep.

I did another test this morning with the 7D after it had a good night s rest in the air-conditioning. I shot a time lapse of the 7D aimed at a clock with my EX1 and the results were about 30 minutes before the dreaded 'red thermometer' began flashing.

I am hoping this is just a faulty unit because otherwise I have been extremely impressed with my initial time with the 7D

Do you keep the camera inside the camera bag or out during the night when air-con is switched on?
I think that the moisture from the air-conditioning combined with changes in environment from outside and inside tend to cause far more problems than the normal air temperatures you are experiencing.
I would also test the camera for prolonged periods in a dry atmosphere following a long spell stored in a non-air con environment.

The camera was out of the bag all night and then tested in the same air-conditioned environment this morning. No changes in temperature or humidity when I tested today.

It would be great if some other 7D users could conduct a similar test and just let the camera run in video mode and see if they run into overheating issues.

My dealer is actively taking this situation up with Canon and I am sure we will know more soon. I do not wish to raise a big alarm if this is merely an early run unit that has a unique issue.

Me neither, but the fact remains that unique issues with single units are very rare. So your call for more testing from other owners is a very good one, and I heartily encourage it. I'll try to work one in myself today.

Still a good choice. The IQ of the 7D is decidedly superior to using an adapter. With the 5DII direct sunlight on the camera body is the only concern. It's very likely the 7D will have similar performance.
The cameras is instant on. So it is a good idea to leave auto off at 1 minute. Give it a little snooze now and then. Touch a button and it's ready to go.

But there is easily demonstrated component variability. Since the thermal design has little headroom, a component that would make a camcorder run a couple degrees warm may push these DSLRs over the limit.

They'll just replace the board on Charles's unit. Canon USA doesn't seem to have these parts right at introduction. Being just a few days old I suggest asking for a new unit.

I'm just wrapping up from a day shooting The People's Republic of China's 60th birthday in Tiananmen Square.

It was quite hot and I was shooting intermittently for about 2 hours all at 720p/60 for slo mo with my production 7D. I'm sad to say it gave me temperature warnings almost the entire shoot and stopped me shooting at all at least 3 times during the period.

I was really happy with the footage that I did get, I'll post a link soon.

Dan

Thank you for that information, Dan. Very revealing. I was going to try one out in France in 2-weeks time for certain work, but this thread has suddenly made me think twice and I may pull back on that option.

Just did five back-to-back 12-minute 1080p30 recordings indoors at 78 degrees F with no temp. warning indicator. Set up outside on the back deck, mostly overcast sky at 82 degrees F and rolled a 480p60 shot, left unattended while I took care of some chores. Checked it at 18:30 and saw the temp. warning indicator. Repeating the outdoor shot now at 1280p60.

Update: temp. warning at 9:00 -- out in the open with the sun mostly obscured; relatively mild day in CenTex.

Time for a hardware hack. Chemical cold pack? Radiator?

For what little it is worth, this is not just a Canon 7D issue.
It is also a Pentax K-7 issue. There they link rising camera
temperatures to the use of Live View, with there being a
five minute at a time limit.

The camera should continue to work in a variety of tough environments, so shouldn't need cooling down or stop working, even in hot evironments. Possibly the dual processors will be a bigger future headache than most people imagined.

I wonder how the 5D MkII and 7D compare side by side during hot conditions, or even in tropical conditions when recording video.

Disappointing, guess I'll put off getting the 7d for now. Its 33c in the shade here, the 7d will choke before I could get anything shot.

i have shot A LOT with the 7d, albeit a pre-production one and the only time I have ever had this warning was when I was shooting the 7d training DVD in Florida, where you are Charles and I got it A LOT! Everywhere else it has been great. I have not tested my production model yet...

I did continue rolling when the warning came up and the video was fine.

Am I understanding correctly that the 5D can work a regular full day schedule like a video camera? I have followed the evolution of vdslr cams but have not heard much about 5Ds overheating.

This issue with the 7D is a bit of a surprise and changing my perspective on it's ability to work for me as an alternative to my EX1 at times. 90 percent of what I do is outdoor shooting and generally in the sun. No where in any pre production reviews did I see any warnings about overheating. So is this a defect or a shortcoming?

I am trying to think about work a rounds but it does not seem that one will be able to use this camera like a normal video camera. Will Zacuto build the 7D zfreezer?

Trying to keep it positive but it feels like my new bike I got for Christmas has tires with permanent slow leaks.

I need all my stills cameras and video cameras to keep on working in a diverse range of environments worldwide in all temperatures from desert heat to Arctic snows, from low tropical rainforests to high mountain peaks - and none of my present stills or video cameras have so far let me down.
I was very much hoping that the most recent Canon DSLR hybrid (that at long last now caters to the needs of Pal shooters) would find a permanent place amongst my gear...but it looks like I'm going to wait yet again.

Hopefully the Nikon D3s when it is released will not suffer the same problems.

Shot my 5D in near 100 degree whether on the pavement on a drag strip a couple of weeks ago, and never had a warning. It wasn't continuous shooting but I have never experience and issue with overheating on mine.

So possibly this indicates an increased problem with the 7D compared to the 5D

Well I've said it twice before, but I suspect the dual processors in the 7D as opposed to just one in the 5D Mk. II might possibly be the cause of the difference between the two. Just shot two clips indoors at 1280p60; room temperature about 74 deg. F.

The first clip recorded fine; the second showed the temp. warning indicator at less than five minutes in (see attached pic).

Here was my test this morning. Time lapse of the 7D in 78 degree air conditioning at 720 60p.

7D overheat time lapse on Vimeo

As you can see at about 30 minutes the high temp icon kicks in.

I just tried 480p60 indoors, 74 deg. F, got to 25:30 before the temp. warning.

So far I've been unable to record a full 30 minutes at 480p60 without getting the temp. warning.

What about normal 24fps 1080p shooting? This could be a serious problem.

Since when is 24fps "normal," Bill? Heh. Well if you want a test with an oddball frame rate, I just set it up. We'll see what happens.

how did you record so long at that frame rate?

That is a definite possibility. I wonder, however, if the DIGIC is the source of the heat or if the sensor itself is the problem. I have noticed that the 5D stays cooler with an external display since the LCD and backlight can be turned off. The strings in the firmware for the 5D refer to EFIC(?) sensor temp, not DIGIC temp.

Another thought that occurs to me is that Canon has lowered the temperature at which the warning comes on. A beta tester of the 1.1.0 firmware on a movie set reported (on another forum) that they were using two 5D bodies to be able to swap them out when they got hot. Both bodies eventually developed stuck/hot pixels as a result of continuous multi-hour shooting days. Perhaps Canon wants to be more careful that the 7D bodies don't develop this problem?

yep I know someone who used 3 5dmkII on a film set and all of them are now dead due to overheating. A worry. Hence the cautious warning on the 7d. You should all move to England. It's cold here.