Warning EOS 70D - Take a long movie within the warranty period

[nia]

Thank you for all the posts.  If I had read them first, I would not have bought such an unrealiable camera.  It's the most expensive and the only unrealiable camera I've owned.

My camera shuts off while taking a movie - at anywhere between 2 and 6 minutes.  Sometimes the movie is saved.  Sometimes not.

The camera is about 2 years old - with high use for 2 weeks of vacation and almost no use after that.  (My main camera is the Canon G10.)  Short vacation clips worked using the new camera.  Filming a wedding last month failed.

TRY A LONG MOVIE BEFORE YOUR CAMERA IS OUT OF WARRENTY.

At first, I could turn the camera off then on and power would come back.  Now I must recharge the fully charged battery.  A few seconds suffices.  

A secondary complaint:  The camera shutting off during a movie seems to be common.  The Canon technical representative I talked to had never seen it before.  (He was very thorough about talking me through many options and resetting the camera.)  I will not be throwing good money after bad at the repair center.

Any hopeful suggestions always welcome.

[Ray-uk · Accepted solution]

Have you tried using a new battery ?

[Ray-uk · Accepted solution]

Have you tried using a new battery ?

[nia]

I wondered about the battery also, but don't have a spare.

The Canon rep seemed to think it was the camera and the battery is out of stock at Canon right now.  Internet prices vary from $64 to $14.  Since the instructions warn against a non-Canon battery, I don't know if a cheap one would be safe.

I will be visiting my sister who has the same battery next month and plan to try swapping.

Thanks for the feedback.

[Waddizzle]

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@nia wrote:

I wondered about the battery also, but don't have a spare.

The Canon rep seemed to think it was the camera and the battery is out of stock at Canon right now.  Internet prices vary from $64 to $14.  Since the instructions warn against a non-Canon battery, I don't know if a cheap one would be safe.

I will be visiting my sister who has the same battery next month and plan to try swapping.

Thanks for the feedback.

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As a test, try taking a video at a lower resolution setting.  If it works without issue, then your memory card is the most likely culprit.  It is not fast enough for the higher resolution recording modes.

[nia]

Thank you.  Yes, I've reduced the resolution, frame rate, and compression.  I'm also using 3 different cards, with uploads of 20M, 50M, and 60M.  

Another responder said that the cheap batteries were OK for testing, so I'm going to try that next.

[RobertTheFat]

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@nia wrote:

Thank you.  Yes, I've reduced the resolution, frame rate, and compression.  I'm also using 3 different cards, with uploads of 20M, 50M, and 60M.  

Another responder said that the cheap batteries were OK for testing, so I'm going to try that next.

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I think that was an oversimplification. House-brand batteries from reputable online stores are usually safe. Sometimes they're even a bit more powerful than their Canon equivalents. Really cheap batteries sold online are apt to be counterfeits or cheaply made knockoffs. They're the ones that can start fires.

[Ray-uk · Accepted solution]

A cheaper non canon battery will be good enough to test with, a lot of people use the 3rd party batteries all the time without trouble.

I have a similar problem with one of my old spare batteries in my 50D, it doesn't last as long as a newer one and I recharge it when the cameras battery icon starts flashing, but when I put it in the charger it takes about 10 seconds before the charger says it's full. I've  never tried putting it straight back in the camera again and I usually leave it in the charger for about 4 hours before re-using it.. Probably time to throw it away.

[nia]

Thank you.  I'll order a cheap battery tonight.

The battery seems strong and reliable when taking stills.  The battery was fully charged (like overnight) but stopped after a 2-3 minute movie.  There was no message; the movie was not saved; the camera just turned off.  The only way I found to restart the camera was to charge the battery - and a few seconds sufficed.

Our movies within the warrenty period were only 1-2 minutes, so this may have been a undetected manufacturing problem.  I'll hope it's within the battery.  I'll post again after trying a different battery.