5D Mark 3 Shutter Release or Self-Timer Mystery

[DesertAura]

My 5D Mk 3 is only three months old. The last few times I've shot with it, the shutter has demonstrated a mind of its own. I'll be walking with it on the tripod or have it hanging on the Spider Holster and I hear it taking photos!

As embarrassing as it might be, I'm hoping that it's just my own ignorance with the camera and not a real problem. Maybe I have a setting somewhere causing it.

I have it on Single Shot and was using the 2-second timer. There's no bracketing set.

Has anyone had this problem or have any ideas what might be causing it?

Wednesday I took about 60 shots of which five of them were of the sky, taken by the camera while I was walking around with it on the tripod, and one of a crooked landscape while it was hanging on the Spider Holster.

Today, I took 33 shots of which four of them were taken by the camera while it was hanging from my Spider Holster, just seconds apart.

It doesn't start doing it right off the bat.  Today I shot 19 photos before it started.

Any suggestions appreciated!

Bev

[TCampbell]

Were any other photographers around?  I ask, because when you put the camera in 2-sec timer mode it ALSO enables the IR receiver (normally disabled when the timer is disabled).  I'm wondering if someone else was triggering their camera and your camera detected it.

[Skirball]

Even if there weren't others around, I'd suspect that IR was triggering it somehow.  I doubt the signal that they use to trigger the shutter is all that complex.  Could be  that random IR noise is triggering it.

[DesertAura]

Thank you for the reply, skirball.  I was in a fairly remote location, though there were power lines overhead and a highway with occasional traffic about a quarter mile away.

I tried to intentionally make it happen again yesterday, just by walking around my property at home and taking photos.  It did not happen.

Bev

[DesertAura]

Thank you for the reply, Tim.  Yes, I was with two other photographers.   They were both using Nikons, would that make a difference?  I was not standing near them; however, I was walking toward them. 

When it happened the time before that, I was with one other photographer and she was using an older non-dSLR Nikon.  Both days were at the same location, but it has happened at other locations, as well.

Another factor that may or may not contribute was that I was walking on a dirt service road that runs beneath power lines.

Bev

[Tim]

Hello DesertAura,

We haven't heard of EOS DSLR cameras tripping their own shutters to be a pervasive issue.  Most likely it was an extraneous signal that caused this or other circumstantial means.  If this is something which keeps occuring however, when you shoot and there are no constants then you may wish to send this into Canon for evaluation. 

If you decide to do so, service can be set up directly here. 

[DesertAura]

Thanks so much for the reply, Tim.  It has happened on five separate occasions that I can specifically remember.  However, two of those occasions involved the use of a (new) Canon cable release.  I blamed the cable release in those instances.  I thought the button was getting stuck, causing the camera to take multiple shots.

However, the other three experiences did not involve the cable release, so I think now that it was not a faulty cable release before.

My 5D is only three months old and this has been happening since the first month.  Yet, it doesn't happen every time I use it.

There have been enough occurrences of the problem that I would send it in now, but without the ability to intentionally recreate the problem, will the service technicians fix it, anyway?  Someone told me that if they can't recreate the problem in the lab, then they won't be able to fix it.

Bev

[TCampbell]

Bev,

As an experiment... you may want to test the camera by putting it into "AI Servo" or switch the lens to "MF" mode... and leaving it on for a bit (alter the auto sleep to a longer duration such as 30 minutes).  You don't have to watch it... just note how many frames it has taken (or put in an empty memory card) and then return to see if it has taken shots while you were away.

In "One Shot" mode, the camera will normally insist that it can lock focus before taking an exposure.  It's possible you have a flakey shutter button which is grounding contacts ... making the camera believe that you've pressed the shutter even when you haven't.  If this happens more often than you realize, but the lens cap is on and/or the camera didn't have enough light to lock focus, then you wouldn't necessarily even know it occurred because the camera would not have taken a photo (due to inability to confirm focus lock before shooting.)  But in AI Servo mode or with the lens in manufal focus (MF), the camera will take a photo whenever the camera believes the shutter was pressed completely and it would take the shot immediately. 

I would probably test the camera for a while with the self-timer / remote sensor mode DISABLED... as well as doing this for a while with self-timer / remote sensor ENABLED in an effort to establish a pattern.

With all the cameras I've had, I have never had a camera spontaneously take an exposure that I didn't trigger.

[DesertAura]

Thanks, Tim.  That's a great suggestion.  I'll do that.

I did do a power and settings reset on it, as recommended by Canon Service, then took it out to test it.  Still does it.  I'll try your suggestion to see what happens.  I'm planning to box it up and send it in for repair this week, but any additional information I can provide them through my own testing will help, I'm sure.

Thanks!

Bev

[DesertAura]

I've narrowed down the cause of the problem.  It seems that direct sunlight is activating the IR sensor and tripping the shutter. 

This afternoon around 6 p.m., I was outside taking some shots of backlit leaves.  With the camera on a tripod, the lens pointed slightly downward toward the leaves, the sun was just outside the frame above.  At just the right angle, the shutter would trip by itself, and keep firing until I put my finger over the IR sensor.  Take my finger off and it would start again.  As the sun got lower, it stopped doing it until I repositioned the camera slightly.

Bev