At first it happened to my brother-in-law’s Canon EOS 40D DSLR camera, and then now it was my Canon EOS 30D DSLR shutter button that was not working.
The Canon shutter button problem is rather irritating when it happens. You will still be able to get a focus lock, but upon further depressing the shutter button, the shutter would not release!
“What gives?” and you will be wondering what happened to your Canon DSLR camera. And meanwhile, you lost the moment of the shot just now. And that was really frustrating. After pressing it the shutter button for awhile, it starts to work, and then it didn’t work, and sometimes you will need to press harder with the risk of camera shake. Damn irritating and not to mention frustrating!
At first you would have thought that you got yourself a defective set. And you might even be wondering whether the camera shop that sold you the DSLR photography equipment was on the up and up too.
But actually what you are experiencing is actually rather common. How soon before the shutter button quits on you will depend on your luck. Some people said that it could be the photographer is pressing rather hard at the button and eventually the contacts of the shutter button have worn out. Whatever the reason, it feels rather unreliable to have this kind of problem with such expensive photography equipment.
While sending in one of my other Canon camera for repair at the Canon service centre, I saw several customer bringing in their Canon DSLR with the said same button shutter stuck problem. It seemed this problem is very common. So I asked around and found out that some experience the problem within 3 months of using a brand new set, and some at about six months, some at one year and some after a year or two.
Fortunately the cost of repair and turnaround time was manageable. In Canon Malaysia service centre they charge RM50 (or about US$15, very much cheaper than checking and repairing my compact camera!) for replacing the shutter button parts and takes about a few days to fix it. In fact, one of the customer service personnel said if on off-peak days, you could actually wait around a few hours for them to fix it and you can collect it within the day if you are in urgent need of using the Canon EOS DSLR. Plus I’m very fortunate that the Canon service centre is located not too far away from where I live so it is quite easy to send it in for repair.
If you are wondering whether to fix or not fix because the button works some of the time and go on the fritz at other times, then think about this. Suppose you are at a critical decisive moment and you need to capture a scene and then the Canon camera refuse to cooperate and that’s it! You lost the shot! Thus it would be better to fix the shutter button than having it to stop functioning at critical time during say a wedding reception event photo shoot and trying to get that shutter button to work again. So looks like my brother-in-law will have to send in his for repair too!
I wonder how the Nikon DSLR fare in regard to the shutter button problem issue in comparison…?
Anyway, here’s the contact if you want to give them an earful about Canon shutter button problem or just to send it in to get it fix.
Canon Marketing (M) Sdn Bhd
Block D, Peremba Square, Saujana Resort,
Section U2, 40150 Shah Alam, Selangor.
Tel: 03-7844 6000, 7845 0055
Fax: 03-7845 0505