overheating Rebel T6i & T7i

[mmcdpines]

Hi.  I volunteer at a genealogical society and we use a Rebel T6i and a Rebel T7i to photograph all sorts of material.  We used to do this with Manual Focus but lately we have had the cameras set to Auto Focus.  We always use Live View and the cameras have power adapters installed.  We can take photographs for hours at a time.

Lately, we have found that the cameras might refuse to focus or simply shut down after hours of shooting.  We found that removing the power adapter and using a charged battery allows us to continue the work.  And after some time like 30-60 minutes, we can reinsert the power adapter and the cameras work fine again.

We suspect something is overheating in the camera or in the power adapters.  Do you have any suggestions on how to identify the cause of our problems?  Any help would be appreciated.  Thank you!

[wq9nsc]

This is far outside of typical operation for these cameras and they weren't designed to manage the amount of heat developed in these extended continuous shooting sessions with Liveview active.  Using Liveview consumes a lot of power with the resultant heat buildup. 

The DC coupler itself probably adds a little heat load and I suspect the voltage level supplied by the adapter/coupler combination is also marginally higher compared to what the battery supplies over a period of time as it is slowly depleted.

Keeping the ambient temperature as low as practical in the room along with some airflow directed at the camera might help marginally but I suspect the life of these cameras isn't going to be terribly long in this type of service. 

Rodger

[mmcdpines]

Thank you very much.  As I said, we used those same cameras to Remote Shoot lots of books but always used Manual Focus and never had these problems.  I think we have to go back to that method.  We did always have Live View shoot active on our computer screens.

Thanks, again, I'll let my boss know what you advised.

[rs-eos]

Is what you're shooting always at the same distance from the camera?  I'm wondering if you could set up the camera on a tripod and then the subject at a specific location as well.  Acquire focus and ensure there's enough depth of field to handle larger objects.  Switch to manual focus and turn off live view.

Perhaps add a remote trigger switch to make it even easier to take the shots.

This would significantly use much less power and should no longer lead to overheating.

[mmcdpines]

Hi.  Thanks for your reply. Yes, the distance from the camera to the work table is always the same.  Of course, the books vary in size and thickness.  For years, we used Manual Focus and did not have these problems.  But then we updated the EOS Utility program and someone suggested we use the Autofocus feature.  So we did and it worked ok when we shot maybe two or three books a day but this week we ended up with 50 books to shoot and so we are sitting there working through them.

The pages have to be turned careful and often we need two people to hold the book as open as possible because they are so old or tightly bound.

I think if we go back to Manual Focus and slow down a little, that will help.  Thanks, again!

[BurnUnit]

You might also consider increasing the lighting on your subject so you can stop down the lens a bit which will increase your depth of field. If you've got a good, steady tripod and a remote shutter release, you might also decrease your shutter speed which would also require a smaller aperture.

[mmcdpines]

Thanks.  We have switched our cameras back to manual focus.  The problems of the cameras frezzing up, blurred pictures, power adapters failing, etc. have gone away.  As far as we can tell, auto focus with remote shooting live view and taking hundreds of photos at a pretty fast rate were the sources of our problems.  Thanks, again.

[ebiggs1]

"Keeping the ambient temperature as low as practical in the room along with some airflow directed at the camera ..."

This is good advice.

Keep in mind you are asking a low end camera to do high end work. The Rebel line was never designed to be this kind of camera. One of the 5 series or better yet the 1 series might be a better choice. Look at the cameras you see at the Olympics, there aren't many Rebels! There is a reason.

[mmcdpines]

Thanks.  I'll pass on that advice to the guy who purchases our cameras.

[mmcdpines · Accepted solution]

Thank you.  We switched back to Manual Focus and all our problems went away.

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