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Canon 40D – Err99 and a costly repair
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Whilst on a weekend trip my Canon 40D camera stopped working and came up with Err99. What the hell is Err99 I thought? I went on the internet and discovered that it’s Canon being lazy, it c
an mean loads of different problems (read more here). My Err99 turned out to be a defective shutter, mirror and mirror box after only 14,500 actuations, Canon state a shutter’s average life for the 40D should be 100,000 actuations. I guess they didn’t do enough life cycle tests and going by the comments on flickr it seems there are quite a few upset 40D owners whose shutter failed long before hitting 100,000 actuations. It’s rare for the shutter, mirror and mirror box to fail at the same time so I got the super short straw.
I had the camera repaired via an authorized Canon workshop in Leon – Guanajuato, Mexico and the repair price came to $2,800 Mexican Pesos or $224USD. I’ve read that the same repair in the USA is at least $360USD as the labour rates are far higher compared to Mexico. They say that Canon has improved the manufacturing of these faulty parts, but if the camera is out of warranty you still pay even though the Canon original parts weren’t up to doing the job.
The repair time was 10 days as the mirror and the mirror box were out of stock and they ended up taking roughly six days to arrive from Canon’s main office in Mexico City. Hopefully the workshop has done a good job and the camera will never need repairing again within it’s lifetime. The repair has a three month warranty so I’d better do some serious shooting to give it a good test.
2 Comments for Canon 40D – Err99 and a costly repair
Hi Robert,
I just had exactly the same error and same diagnostic, except for a estimated repair cost of $5,600 pesos, rhis in Monterrey. Please let me know the name and phone number of the workshop in Leon. Even sending the camera from here will be way too cheaper than here.
Hi,
If you click on the word “workshop” in the above article it will open a new window with the Canon workshop in Leon – Guanajuato.
My camera was repaired in May 2010 so the prices have probably increased slightly.
Saludos