Looking for some guidance on a major issue with my R5-C. I’ll keep the back story as brief as possible.
I got my R5-C last October and it became my main gimbal camera for weddings and concerts. My other 2 cameras are C70 and 5DIV so I am heavily invested in Canon and switching at this point with the amount of glass I’ve accumulated would be devastating. Around 6 months ago the camera began to malfunction.
When shooting video in low light, some of the clips would become corrupted by a single pixel white or pink horizontal line that would show up in a single frame in a clip. It wouldn’t happen all the time, but it happened at crucial moments enough to be a problem.
I found a few other people that had experienced similar issues with their R5’s, one of them having the same thing but with a vertical line. The response they got on whatever forum they’d posted to was that it was probably the sensor or the a/d conversion hardware and they should send the camera in to be serviced.
Fortunately my R5-C was still within the one year warranty period and I decided to send it in. After the website’s service order function failed, I was told service orders don’t work on the website for their cinema line and to just print out a pdf and send the camera in. I sent the camera in a month ago. For a week I checked my email every day for confirmation they’d received the camera, and nothing. I call in, turns out whoever was responsible for emailing me when receiving the camera couldn’t spell the word “gmail” right. Great, they have my camera.
Another week passes and I decide to call and see what’s going on. The representative I spoke with told me I needed to upload screenshots that show the problem. I told them I’d included a memory card with the camera when sending it in. They respond telling me those photos were edited and they needed unedited photos. I have no idea what they are talking about. They were literally screen captures taken in Final Cut from raw footage. Once I explain that, I’m told I need to upload the footage. Okay, no problem! I follow the link they email and upload the same clips I took the screen caps from, indicating in the upload notes the approximate time when the corrupted frame with the white/pink line occurs. I call back to verify that they had received the footage and they had. Finally, we’re getting somewhere. I have a wedding and a show coming up, it would be so nice to have my camera back!
Another week passes. And another. Nothing. Then, a few days ago I receive a text message that my R5-C repair has been suspended and they are awaiting additional information from me! Wtf!? This will be the sixth phone call I’ve had to make to get this repair sorted out. The first person I talk to basically tells me they are still waiting for unedited photos. I explain the whole situation to him and he transfers me to their cinema department. I go through the whole story once again with the next representative, who then explains to me that because they can’t replicate the issue… they can’t fix it.
She offers to send me back my un-repaired camera. I’m perplexed. The camera is broken. My footage gets corrupted. I’m not lying about it. I am not sending in edited fake photos and footage. I continue to get gaslighted about how “we’re not saying you’re lying but they haven’t been able to replicate the problem”… again I explain the problem only happens in certain lighting conditions, usually after hours of use at a wedding. I’ve had shoots where it didn’t happen. Was the tech taking the camera on shoots and testing it in the field? Why did they need to replicate the problem? The problem is simple… sometimes a line appears on a frame in the footage. That’s it. A line. The line needs to stop happening. I proved the existence of said line by sending in footage and screen captures. None of this was a lie. I didn’t concoct some fake repair request and spend 90$ shipping my insured camera to a repair center for funsies. I depend on this camera for my job and not having it has been detrimental to my shoots. After explaining to representative #7 that I really do in fact need the camera fixed and sending it back to me in the same condition I sent it to them in wouldn’t be ideal they tell me the tech who is overseeing my repair case will call me the next day. Fantastic! I can finally talk to the person who might fix my camera. So yesterday I am waiting for a call all day, and nothing.
I’m exhausted. I put 4700$ into that camera, and I don’t think it’s going to get fixed. Apparently it’s an issue with the sensor or the a/d conversion hardware. Are there any good third party repair options for canon cameras? I’m so tired of explaining my situation to countless reps, jumping through hoops, and ultimately being told that even though I’ve had this problem happening at most of my shoots for months… well, the guy who couldn’t take 5 minutes to call me back hasn’t been able to replicate the issue so I guess my camera needs to be suspended and the only way I will ever see it again is if they send it back to me without having been fixed. This has been a major fail on canon’s part, in so many ways. If anyone has any advice, I’m pretty desperate at this point and would really appreciate it.
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