My 5d Mk2 is dead!

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John.D

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Well i've just got back from a very unsuccessful visit to Cornwall, the reason being my camera and I were attacked from a very large unexpected wave. Since then, the camera is completely dead.

I have removed the battery and the cell battery for 30 seconds but to no avail. You put the battery in and normally the light flashes to show its picked it up, I don't even get that any more.
What is strange is that I noticed looking through the viewfinder you do not see anything. When I took the lens off I realised why, the mirror is popped up, so basically you are just looking into a box with the flaps covering the sensor at the bottom. I'm no expert but from past experience you are meant to be able to see the mirror when you look into the camera! It's as if it shut down mid-operation!

Trip to the repair shop?
 
I was looking more for advice but condolences are fine too!
 
Leave it in a warm dry place for the weekend and then try the batteries in it again. If it gives more life than it does now then it might be worth repairing.
 
If you want to try and save it it would be best to get it to a repair center sooner rather than later, with salt water it will keep damaging the circuitry even when dry so get it cleaned quick.
 
Well it happened 2 days ago now, and still no life. I bought it from a seller here, as far as I know the warranty is gone by now. I will get to my local camera repair shop tomorrow, but if they can't fix it, what then?! This couldn't have happened at a worse time!
 
John.D said:
Well it happened 2 days ago now, and still no life. I bought it from a seller here, as far as I know the warranty is gone by now. I will get to my local camera repair shop tomorrow, but if they can't fix it, what then?! This couldn't have happened at a worse time!
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Is it insured? household insurance?
 
John.D said:
Well it happened 2 days ago now, and still no life. I bought it from a seller here, as far as I know the warranty is gone by now. I will get to my local camera repair shop tomorrow, but if they can't fix it, what then?! This couldn't have happened at a worse time!
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You haven't answered the question, so I presume it's not insured?
As said, salt water eats electronics. Get it looked at asap.
 
Have you tried a spare battery or recharging the one that was in ?
 
Might be worth checking house insurance, mine will cover me for single items up to £2000.

spike
 
zeugma said:
You haven't answered the question, so I presume it's not insured?
As said, salt water eats electronics. Get it looked at asap.
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No it's not I must admit. I bought it from here and dove straight in, I never thought about insurance which was foolish of me. It is still under warranty although I doubt it is even covered by that seeing as its my own fault. Besides it says the warranty can't be transferred to a new owner anyway, which is me.

All hope lies with the repair shop tomorrow.


Have you tried a spare battery or recharging the one that was in ?

Yes. It had a grip on at the time but i've tried with and without with no luck. Also tried a different battery. I think it's dead dead rather than just dead, as there's not even a flashing light when you close the battery door, or no icon of any kind eg. the out of battery icon.
 
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To give you a ray of hope, I've just retired after 35 years as a BBC engineer and in my experience 'completely dead' is a good fault to have as they're often the easiest to fix.
As others have said, get the salt water out ASAP as it is corrosive and could be slowly eating its way through the tracks on the circuit boards.

I hope it works out OK. I'd be sneakily confident it can be revived.
 
John.D said:
No it's not I must admit. I bought it from here and dove straight in, I never thought about insurance which was foolish of me. It is still under warranty although I doubt it is even covered by that seeing as its my own fault. Besides it says the warranty can't be transferred to a new owner anyway, which is me.

All hope lies with the repair shop tomorrow.

Have you tried a spare battery or recharging the one that was in ?

Yes. It had a grip on at the time but i've tried with and without with no luck. Also tried a different battery. I think it's dead dead rather than just dead, as there's not even a flashing light when you close the battery door, or no icon of any kind eg. the out of battery icon.
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There is no way that would be covered under warantee anyway. I think you've got two choices, take it to a.tech for repair or have a go yourself, but you need to be pretty handy to attempt it yourself.

It sounds like you've already turned it on so not sure if this will help, best to dry it completely before turning it on.

I would start by drying it out as quickly as possible, that means first emptying out as much water as possible, take it by the strap and swing it in big circles to try and get out more. If its only partially wet be careful you don't force water further into the camera doing this. Use a hair dryer and finally put it in a warm oven (oven off of course) or a box with a hot light and as much silicon gel you can get your hands on.

When your sure its dry you can put a battery that didn't get wet in and try it. I wouldnt be trying to apply any power before then.

Good luck with it, there's always a chance that its only a minor repair needed, don't let it make you over cautious in the future, just get some insurance if possible.
 
^^^^What he said.
Camera could be two hours old with the original owner and warranty would still be useless so no point even mentioning it.

I've heard that the best treatment for any electronic kit that's been exposed to salt water is a thorough soaking in ethanol (minus any batteries of course) but do so at your own risk. I've never had to try it and think I'd be reticent to do so to anything of any value

I'd def get it to a repair shop asap, before corrosion starts (or given that it's been 2 days now, gets much worse).
It might cost you a couple hours labour for them to strip it down and confirm that it is a lost cause but if you're not insured then it's probably worth trying and if it is repairable then the sooner it comes apart and the cleaning starts the better.
 
fixedimage said:
^^^^What he said.
Camera could be two hours old with the original owner and warranty would still be useless so no point even mentioning it.

I've heard that the best treatment for any electronic kit that's been exposed to salt water is a thorough soaking in ethanol (minus any batteries of course) but do so at your own risk. I've never had to try it and think I'd be reticent to do so to anything of any value

I'd def get it to a repair shop asap, before corrosion starts (or given that it's been 2 days now, gets much worse).
It might cost you a couple hours labour for them to strip it down and confirm that it is a lost cause but if you're not insured then it's probably worth trying and if it is repairable then the sooner it comes apart and the cleaning starts the better.
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Yeah I would flush with ethanol but best to use something like 99% really and most people won't have that. It would be best to pull it apart first too.

And your right the sooner it gets seen to the better.
 
The ethanol advice is flawed. It will not remove salt.

The correct version is to flush with clean water (which removes the salt) then with ethanol which helps remove the water. This may have some validity if it was simply a piece of electronics, but the optics, sensor etc will not fair well.

Sadly I would say that salt water immersion is probably fatal for a camera, but I would go with the "act fast" advice.
 
Oggy said:
The ethanol advice is flawed. It will not remove salt.

The correct version is to flush with clean water (which removes the salt) then with ethanol which helps remove the water. This may have some validity if it was simply a piece of electronics, but the optics, sensor etc will not fair well.

Sadly I would say that salt water immersion is probably fatal for a camera, but I would go with the "act fast" advice.
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Oh yeah your right, sorry didn't even think of that. I think a lower conc. EtOH might work but then might as well use straight water first. If it was a film camera I would def flush out the body with fresh water and then use ethanol. But without pulling it apart first I think there's components in a dslr that won't fair well as you mentioned.


I think he needs to get it seen to ASAP, the salt isn't going to be good for it.
 
I've never had to do anything as complex as a DSLR, but I've saved a couple of mobile phones that took a swim.

I immediately stripped them down as far as possible, and washed them with deionized water (the top-up stuff for car batteries) then dried them off in an airing cupboard.

Some of the button contacts had slight corrosion on them, but gentle use of an ink rubber cleaned that off.

Reassembled, they worked fine.

With regards to the alcohol, you can pick up litre bottles from Maplin. Other places may well be cheaper.

To be honest, after at least two days for the salt water to chew at it, I wouldn't be too optimistic of resuscitating it.

If it is dead, and you have no insurance or other cover, have a look on ebay for faulty/spares/repairs DSLRs. You may be pleasantly surprised what some folks will pay for a FUBAR camera.
 
Ok you did not have the camera insured but I guess you do not have house insurance either as most things are covered away from the home I know all my gear is.

Might be worth checking, you knever know.

spike
 
My camera shop took a look at it, apparently the water went through the HDMI side and damaged the main board, so it's back to Canon. They said it will be about a week until they know if they can do anything, but it dosn't sound good right?

I just don't know what i'm going to do now. I'm half way through a uni project which is now at a stand still, and my project is running out of time! It's 50 pounds a day to hire the mk2 from what I can see! I would use any old camera but it's a film i'm making so it needs HD video 24p which is what i've shot in so far, and I have all Canon lenses so the Nikon cameras at my uni are useless! Agh!!
 
John.D said:
My camera shop took a look at it, apparently the water went through the HDMI side and damaged the main board, so it's back to Canon. They said it will be about a week until they know if they can do anything, but it dosn't sound good right?
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I would guess it would depend on how much water, and how much damage. If it's only the main board, that should be fairly easy to replace (but may cost a bit). From your initial report, I was thinking it was a total immersion scenario, with potential widespread electrical and mechanical damage and corrosion :( , so this may be good news.

Anyway, good luck with the camera, and the project. :)
 
Tori_T said:
I would guess it would depend on how much water, and how much damage. If it's only the main board, that should be fairly easy to replace (but may cost a bit).
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Having had the main board replaced in September last year (not for water ingress, but broken CF pins), prepare yourself for £300-£400. The board itself is close to £200 plus labour, shipping, VAT etc....
 
arad85 said:
Having had the main board replaced in September last year (not for water ingress, but broken CF pins), prepare yourself for £300-£400. The board itself is close to £200 plus labour, shipping, VAT etc....
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Although it looks a lot of money to repair £300-400 is cheap compared to a new or second hand 5dmk2. So you definitely made the right choice sending it off for repair.

Good luck
 
i feel so sorry for you, just came across this thread, once you do get it back working, make sure you get some cover for it. Its not that more expensive to add to a contents insurance.
 
The AA where happy to add my 5D2 as a listed item at no extra cost, I just had to give them some basic details like serial number.

I hope you get it fixed and it doesn't cost too much, but as said make sure to get some cover on it.
 
i'd actually be studying the fine print of your house insurance policy right now - as mentioned most policies have a degree of cover for accidental damage, even if you cant recover the entire cost of the camera you might be able to recover at least some of the cost of the camera back.

from my own experience of water/liquid ingress and your own description (i have repaired many laptops in my time and seen several with spilt liquid in them) i'd say that there is a very high probability that your camera is a complete write off.
 
I would like to present to you the shot that killed it. I warn you, it's quite emotional...


mg3939.jpg
 
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Even if it is dead, thats a cracking shot!
 
John, I'm guessing that you're a student and that's not a word that's normally associated with "house contents insurance"! How about checking with your parents' house contents insurance?
 
John.D said:
I would like to present to you the shot that killed it. I warn you, it's quite emotional...


mg3939.jpg
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Bit under exposed there pal... :whistling:
 
So Canon have gotten back to me, or more specifically my local repair shop that sent it to them. £850 pounds for the repair, I guess I expected it.

Advice?
 
Isn't that half the cost of a new one???? If so, I'd buy new!!! What's to say after shelling out that amount, something else goes wrong in 6 months time??
 
Ouch. What are they replacing for £850? If it's basically the complete innards then it's probably worth having it repaired. I'd certainly want the mechanical parts replaced for that...
 
Effectively a factory refurb for half the cost of a new one.

I'd be tempted.
 
Considering that broken 5D1s are fetching upto £350 on ebay, you'd probably be able to get £500 for a broken 5DII without too much hassle, add that to the £850 you've saved by not having it repaired and you're pretty much at the cost of a 2nd hand one from here.
 
What happened to your lens, did that die as well, have you got to replace both?
 
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