Canon 5D Loses its Mirror

#1 cassandra

says clearly about Canon's factory quality control . . . or the lack of it

4:49 pm - Wednesday, February 4, 2009

#2 Craig

Cassandra: I'm guessing you're a Nikon user so you are set in your ways, but this is a recall for the 5D, not the 5D Mk II.

The 5D has been out for a number of years and only now it has been discovered that the adhesive is deteriorating. At the time it leaves the factory, the adhesive would have been fine.

I'd say this is more a fault with the supplier, not Canon.

2:20 am - Thursday, February 5, 2009

#3 Jeannie

A service advisory...That in rare instanses the mirror may detach.

It would have been nice to know how old the cameras were that were having to be service.

In addition, I wonder if heat, very warm weather, is part of the problem.

The announcement leaves me with a few questions.

2:49 am - Thursday, February 5, 2009

#4 Ink

Craig, I have heard about this problem with 5D for a long time. I can't really tell when it would happen. But it happened more often that many people thought. In Thailand, distributors fixed this problem beforehand by gluing the mirror before selling. So 5D owners should be aware. I hope this problem will not happen with my 5D Mark II.

Anyway, it is nice that Canon offers to fix it free of charge.

5:11 pm - Thursday, February 5, 2009

#5 cassandra

Craig , i take it that you are a Canon salesman who was obviously caught with your pants down with this very embarrassing revelation . if you keep careful tabs with this website , you would learn that Canon issued reports of product defects that plagued their cameras from the flagship EOS down to a point and shoot Powershot A650 .
it's a simple glaring fact that one does not expect a camera to fall apart after some years of usage . a crucially-operating , supposedly precision-engineered component , at that , from a leading photographic manufacturer's intermediate , full-frame sensored model priced at around USD2500 (body) at the time of its introduction .
and , no , i am no Nikonian here .

6:56 pm - Friday, February 6, 2009

#6 Kai Griffin

For a brief excited moment there, I thought this article was going to be about a new full-frame Canon camera with the SLR mirror box removed, giving us a relatively compact live-view style camera like those Panasonic G1's. Oh well.

12:15 pm - Tuesday, February 10, 2009

#7 Geoff Oakshott

There are not many manufacturers or suppliers who would (a) own up to a fault or (b) offer to repair it free of charge probably long after the guarantee had expired. I remain a Canon devotee.

4:07 pm - Tuesday, February 10, 2009

#8 rob

Well, defects like that can happen to any manufacturer, no matter how big or small their business is.

Even Leica, who is well-known for their most meticulous QC department's efforts to filter out bad products, sometimes fails too.

I have a Leica Digilux 2 whose CCD sensor stopped working without any apparent reason (about 3 years after the warranty expiration). I sent my camera to the only US repair shop fearing that the charge for the repair will exceed a price of the same-camera replacement. Leica returned my camera with a new sensor - 3 weeks ahead of schedule; I did not have to pay for repair and not even for shipping/insuring, both ways.

So, Canon's offer for a no-cost repair is not that unusual, either. But it is good to know that we can rely on leading manufacturers in such incidents.

10:02 pm - Tuesday, February 10, 2009

#9 AI

Thanks so much for this post! Called Canon with this issue and they are taking care of it. I would have had no idea.

8:39 pm - Wednesday, July 14, 2010