R3 Freezes - Canon Repaired - Problem Persists!

[sbunting]

Preordered the R3 and patiently awaited its arrival. It arrived on time and, wow, what a camera. However, within the first week, I experienced two instances where it froze. No button or dial would respond, however the touch screen still worked. Of course it takes a 'button' to turn it off, so a battery pull is needed to shut it down and then it works again until it freezes. Before anyone asks, it was all Canon gear, R lens included. Different lens were tried, different memory cards, different batteries, etc. What makes it happen is simply having it on for a period of time. You don't even have to be doing anything. So it was still within the period where I could return it to Canon and get another if I chose, but instead, since I had CPS Platinum, giving me an ultrafast turn-around, I opted for Canon repair. They replicated the issue in the shop, fortunately. They reinstalled the firmware and claimed the problem would not replicate. OK, we'll see. I've used it everyday this week with no problem, but all my uses were turn it on, use it for 10 minutes or so, and turn it off. Today I went out for an extended photowalk. I took a break for coffee and a review of the images. So the camera was on from earlier and on for an extended period while reviewing images. I took a break for a minute and when I picked the camera up, boom, frozen again. I was doing absolutely nothing aside from having the camera on. The attached screen shot tells the story. Note the position of the power button, i.e. "OFF" and yet still a picture on the screen. Twice more during the walk, the camera was left on and went to sleep. Twice when I went to wake it up and use it, total black. It would not respond to anything other than a battery pull. So it seems in their haste to do a fast turnaround, they didn't fix the problem. Freezing up seems to affect all recent Canon cameras in the R series, as I read the various forums. Has anyone else experienced this issue and, better yet, had a satisfactory resolution?

Note power "OFF" Image Still On Screen!

[Niccole]

Both my R5 and R6 have now had this freezing after last firmware update.  Prior to that neither froze.  Sry your having this issue.  Discouraging that you sent it in and are still having the problem.

[sbunting]

Technical Support has agreed to take it back and replace the unit.  Right now I'm waiting for one to become available to facilitate this exchange.  Of interest, of course, will be if the replacement displays the same behavior.  I'll update once I know...

[ebiggs1]

If you guys leave it on for a long time with no CF card installed does it still exhibit this behavior?

[sbunting]

If you unload a gun, will it still misfire?  ;->  I have never had it on without memory cards as that is a useless piece of equipment, but I get where you are coming from, i.e. trying to see if it is memory card related.  I had it freeze up earlier this week and it was on for less than a minute before it happened.  I have to go back to Canon having reported replicating it in their shop.  Hard to picture them having the exact same brand / capacity as my two cards.  Just when it decides to freeze, I can't ascertain any particular behavior, other than it is when I want it to work.  What is odd is that all touch controls work, but no buttons or dials.  The touch screen works, as does the smart controller (touch).  Right now I'm beyond trying to figure it out.  That's Canon's job.  It does not impact but a few cameras based on very few reports, so that seems less a firmware and more of a hardware issue to me.  Once I get it replaced, I only pray I get one not impacted by this issue.

[ebiggs1]

" I have never had it on without memory cards as that is a useless piece of equipment,..."

Not useless, just a step in the troubleshooting process. A lot, a quite lot, of the time people associate a problem to a cause. However, sometimes it is not that cause and effect that is the issue. Sometimes it is coincidence. Eliminate the probable and the improbable becomes clear.

Perhaps it is a FW issue?

Perhaps it is the CF card?

Perhaps it is overheatings?

Etc and etc., who knows?  But this way you can tell CPS what steps you took to remedy the problem.

[MarkG]

I get what you are saying, but I don't think it is practical. Because the freezing is random and occasional, I would have to shoot for days or even weeks without a card in the camera to conduct this test. In the end I wouldn't know any more because I wouldn't know if not having a card in the camera meant it didn't freeze up or if it was just a random case where it didn't happen to freeze while there was no card in the camera. 

I could test for a month in this way and then stop and have a freeze the following day. Was the lack of it freezing related to not having a card in the camera or not? No way to know for sure. 

I have not had the camera freeze for the last four basketball games I've shot. The only setting I've changed is to start shooting CRaw and I did that simply to conserve card space and speed download times. Is it related, I don't know. I'll continue to shoot CRaw for sports and Raw at other times and see if there is any difference. 

I'm content to keep using the R3 because 1) I really have no choice right now, 2) I don't think Canon has a clue as to what the cause might be so they can't fix it, and 3) So long as it is an occasional nuisance that can easily be remedied by resetting the battery lock handle it doesn't present a huge problem. 

If it gets worse then, of course, I'll send it in to CPS. Or, I may send it in after the college sports season ends for me in May. Or maybe I'll get lucky and Canon will finally figure out why they have this problem on both the R5 and R3 and develop a firmware solution.

[Surftim714]

I've had the same issue, but with more frequency with my R5.  I don't use the back screen, so it is turned towards the camera.  Though shooting just JPG (not video) through the EVF when the camera is set to Electronic Shutter, High Speed, has resulted in at least one freeze per contest (I shoot sports) in over 90% of my shoots.  The only fix I've found in the field is to remove the batteries and re-insert.  CPS member here and camera is back at Canon for "repair" for the same issue, though they've told me they haven't been able to replicate the error in the shop.  

I did also use this camera for an air show, in that shoot I switched the camera to Mechanical Shutter, and not one freeze and I shot almost 5,000 images that day, and many bursts, much longer than any burst shooting I would do covering sports.  

I was looking forward to picking up an R3 this Spring, but may wait if that model is also experiencing a similar issue.

My last trip into Canon to drop off my R5 I was told that Canon was aware of the issue, but they do not have a solution for it.  They've already replaced the main board, as well as the EVF on my R5.  Very disappointed.

[Scoots3571]

Okay now that this is also a known issue on the R3 this is bad! I hope Canon finds a fix soon as this is not a small investment. 

Has anyone tried to see if the problem is replicated with IBIS off? Are all of you shooting with IBIS on? Not that that will be the solution, but for the meantime it would be nice to find a way to not have it happen. 

[sbunting]

Canon replaced my R3 and the new one arrived yesterday with the original firmware 1.0.1. I loaded my settings saved from the previous camera via a CSD file, which worked perfectly. Yesterday I did some shooting with no issues, having left it on for most of the afternoon, waking it to engage in activity. All good.
This morning, I went to upgrade the firmware from 1.0.1 to 1.1.1. After the updated completed, I went immediately to updating the firmware for the RF100-500 lens. As I did so, I found the "Set" button was non-responsive, yet, as before, I could use the touchscreen. At that point, I realized the camera was frozen and would not respond to any button or dial, as before. Again, a battery pull was necessary to reboot. About an hour later, the camera was on, went to sleep, and froze again, not being responsive to being awakened by any means aside from a battery pull. I've notified Canon and shared with them my settings, via the CSD file, along with specifications, i.e. lens and memory card specs. Should be easy enough for them to replicate, as it surely did for me. So it seems to me it is related to configuration, as it seems the same across the product line, unless I've been shipped two bad cameras. We'll await to hear from Canon.

[sbunting]

My friends,

I believe I found the issue causing freeze-ups in the Canon R3!!!

Recall the following:

1) I experienced freeze-ups with my Canon R3 the first week I received it.

2) Canon CPS took the camera in for repair, replicated the issue, reinstalled the firmware, reset it to factory settings, tested it, found no more freeze-ups, declared it fixed and returned it to me.

3) I restored my settings manually and the freeze-ups still occurred.

4) Canon replaced my original R3 with a brand new R3

5) I updated my firmware to V1.1.1 and restored my settings from a CSD file this time, and the freeze-ups still occurred.

6) In all cases my freeze-ups were such that the buttons and dials would not respond, yet touch functions still functioned. It would also freeze-up, at times, while asleep and could not be awakened. Of course, since the screen was black (asleep), no touch function could work. The only way to restore the camera was to pull the battery and then reboot the camera.

I have since, of course, contacted Canon and am awaiting a response, as Canon's engineering department seems to be in a denial mode, despite a Canon repair technician in Virginia having replicated the freeze-up issue when it first went in for repair.

I advised Canon that while I await their response, I was going to, one by one, change my settings to default and see if any particular setting eliminated the freeze-ups.

My first setting change was to restore the aperture and speed change dial settings to default, as I had them reversed. No change. I still had freeze-ups, so I restored my setting.

Next, I reasoned that, since the freeze-up even occurred while the camera was asleep, the only function I had changed that occurred doing the sleep mode would be the GPS setting, which I had set to Mode 2. I disabled the GPS altogether. Since I have done so, I have left the camera on 24x7. Not once has it failed to awaken from sleep mode nor has it frozen at all while awake and being used. I have been testing for a solid week now (on 24x7) and I'm optimistic that this is the cause of the freeze-ups.

I'm asking that some of you who are experiencing freeze-ups with the R3 such as I have been experiencing to check this setting and 1) verify it is enabled on your camera and 2) verify that by disabling it that the freeze-ups no longer occur.

Similarly, those of you who have an R3 and experienced no freeze-ups, can you verify that your GPS is disabled.

Again, I'm optimistic that this is the issue, but I'd like to get feedback from others to verify what I'm experiencing.

Steve