5d Mark III main dial issue

[Rrxpaul]

I have a less than year old 5 D Mark III. The main dial becomes unresponsive several times. When this happens, I cannot change any of the camera settings using the main dial. The dial turns but nothing... also a little portrait symbol shows at the top/middle. This happens in both manual and aperture mode. I have to reset the camera settings using menu to get it to respond... I emailed canon... their response, removing/changing internal battery does not work. It has nothing to do with buffer because it normally happens after a break from shooting.. can anyone help?

[Waddizzle]

I get the feeling that you are not in the US.  If the camera is less than a year old, it should be under warranty.  Contact Canon.

[Johnny717]

Just to make sure, you didn't set the main dial to lock in the custom settings did you?

[Rrxpaul]

i unchecked it and will test it soon.

[Junior72 · Accepted solution]

I JUST ran into this same problem, my heart sunk in a panic in the process.

I removed the battery - I GUESS not long enough because that didn't work at first. Saw this forum, left it out for 10 min, also I saw on REDDIT a person removed the memory cards, then reinserted them.

Whatever the case, this issue is gone. (Whew...no idea what that was about!) 

Anyway, thanks for the post, sorry this happened to you also. 

[Rrxpaul]

Yes, I found this workaround by accident. It allows you to resume normal operation but it doesn’t solve the problem. It will come back when you least expect it. I was doing a wedding recently and same problem occurred while bride entered reception room. I took card out and resume.

[Junior72]

Well that's a lousy thought - that it might - more like will come back? I saw this issue on multiple forums..a lot more than I expected, so this main dial is no question a known issue.

I've had this camera 3 years and 1 week and this is the first time I ran into this. No rhyme or reason. This is my 3rd Canon, I did have a very known problem with my 7D - which I still have. Battery communication error about 5, 6 years ago. (Lot of other peopple had the same problem to the point I felt this was defect.

And even though the camera still worked, the LCD display screen on top next the shutter was mostly blank. Of couse i can see setting through the eye piece, I was missing info on the LCD screen. That was not a cheap fix either!

I hear you know, my VERY first camera was a Nikon in the early 90s, a much older D70s DSLR in 2005. I ended up getting a deal on a Canon 7D in 2009..just never looked back. I never had a single problem with Nikon.

[Rrxpaul]

This was my first camera from Canon and i am disappointed with this problem... I want to add another camera like the 5D Mark IV but I am afraid to do it

[rudolfodalamici]

Same issue here. Had this already for years. The only fix is - remove battery and plug it back in. And its gone - for at least a while.

But can't canon reproduce the issue here and come up with a permanent fix?

Cameras are way out of warranty after this issue starts to occur.