The Club I didn't want any part of!

[Janet]

It seems as though I have been initiated into a new club. The ERR 99
Club. I reach out to those who have Canon Digital Rebels to help me
figure this out. If you haven't experienced the ERR 99, I hope you
never do. If you have, what is the solution? My recent trip to the
Zoo was an unbearably HOT/humid photog experience. Both I and my
camera were feeling the fatigue at only the two hour mark. As the heat
of the day increased...BAM...ERR 99 pops up. Time and time again as I
released the shutter, I received the same code. I was successful about
one in seven tries in capturing a photograph.

I ran down the list of common causes but there's got to be some
correlation between heat/humidity and ERR 99. I started the day
formatting my CF card in the camera. From the get-go, I used the
28/300mm Tamron lense with no problem. I realize that this third-party
lense is not engineered for this Canon camera. However, I switched to
the wide angle "kit" lense 18/55mm that IS engineered specifically for
this Canon digital and received the same result.

The one thing I didn't do in the field was remove the batteries and
reset the camera. By this time, I too was displaying an error
code...the I'm Cranky because I'm Hot code. I wasn't thinking to
clearly.

One other thing I will try is to clean the contacts on the camera,
lenses and batteries. I feel as though, moisture has entered my camera
creating misfires. Has anyone ever experienced this sort of scenario?
Please help to decipher the ERR 99 code.

Thank you for your feedback!

[bfreas]

Oops....guess I replied to your email address and not to the group.
Anyway, here's what I sent :)
..............................................................................
Hi Janet,

Sounds like you've pretty well covered your bases. When you clean your
contacts use a pencil eraser and hold the camera with lens opening
pointed down. You may also try a different CF card to eliminate that
as a potential problem. Also, when you remove the battery let the
camera sit for a few minutes before you replace it. You may even want
to try another battery (generics are pretty cheap on E-bay).

Barring all of these as the culprit, it could be a camera problem.
Hopefully you've still got some kind of warranty. But I'd say you're
on the right track....eliminating all other possibilities through
troubleshooting. Hopefully it won't cause you problems this weekend
while shooting the fireworks!

Good luck and let us know how it turns out....