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Sudden camera shutdown

Anyone got any suggestions on this issue?

My Canon T3i (600d) occasionally shuts down for no apparent reason during animating. It's not doing the going to sleep action, which is accompanied by a shutter noise and responds to pressing 3 in Dragonframe. This does not respond to anything and there's no shutter noise. I have to switch the camera off and on again, and even then it doesn't always come back to life immediately. Yesterday I had to start a shot again as I nudged the camera while trying to reset. It did it a second time, but I managed to get it back without too much movement. Very frustrating!

I don't think it is any of the connections, as the camera functions fine again once it comes back. I am wondering if it might be either some sort of glitch in the firmware, or some auto shutdown self-protection. Could there be something I failed to disable, perhaps?

Anyone experienced similar problems? I'm grateful for anything that might help to solve this.

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Permalink Reply by Simon Tytherleigh on May 2, 2017 at 3:04am

Just remembered the other bit of weird behaviour that might point to a software glitch. When I was doing a focus check the camera would not return to the full image. It kept flicking onto the 5x or 10x image. So I couldn't move the area frame around. Full image returned when I started animating the shot. Really odd.

Has anyone tried reloading the camera firmware?

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Permalink Reply by John Lewis on May 2, 2017 at 8:36pm

Overheating?

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Permalink Reply by StopmoNick on May 2, 2017 at 9:18pm

Haven't seen this glitch on either of my Canons (40d and 7d). I know the "going to sleep" thing, which happens if I don't take a shot for too long, and is easily restarted by pressing 3 as you say.

I have had issues with a poor cable connection, where it goes into the camera. It actually droops and pulls partway out, due to the weight of the cable, so I used a rubber band to hold it up.

Reloading firmware, sounds worth trying.

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Permalink Reply by Simon Tytherleigh on May 4, 2017 at 11:01am

Apparently the overheating is normally accompanied by some sort of warning. I didn't see anything when it shut down. Which might suggest the power supply just cutting out. But then it cut back in...

I have read about keeping the screen folded out to keep heat down, and I didn't do that, so will try today. Might also swap out the power supply.

I did leave the SD card in the camera, but I don't think this is an issue as DF bypasses it. More worrying is the camera not behaving normally with the focus function.

Thanks for your help.

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Permalink Reply by James Krysa on May 4, 2017 at 11:20am

Hi Simon. my canon 1200D using DF shuts down randomly often. not sure if its the same issues as yours, but the camera just goes off or more to the point DF window pops up and tells me its lost the connection, so I just reset/refresh connections under the Capture menu. but it is annoying, I just go with the flow now and get on with it, because if I stopped and tried to sort out every issue as it came up I would never actually get on doing the animation itself...there are so many technical issues...ongoing...perhaps there is a disable setting on most DSLR cameras which puts it to sleep, perhaps some kind of energy saving mode or something like that....I cant be asked to look at the camera manual, I just get on with it...if it does become an issue where I cant do the animation then I will try to sort it out...

James.

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Permalink Reply by Daniel Wernëck on May 4, 2017 at 11:26am

Just curious, but is the camera running on battery on does it have an AC adapter?

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Permalink Reply by Simon Tytherleigh on May 4, 2017 at 11:50pm

Thanks, everyone for the suggestions. I can report that the problem is sorted! It was happening repeatedly over a period of time, which is why I was wondering if it might be a camera issue. Or something with the AC adapter.

But in the end it looks like it was a connector issue - thanks, Nick, once again! I have a USB extension cable-gripped to the moco rig, and the connectors were together but at a bit of an angle to each other, which must have meant one of the terminals intermittently losing contact. I taped it firmly together and ran everything without a glitch for six hours last night. Phew!

James, if the camera is just closing the shutter, then (if using Dragonframe) just press 3 to bring it back. That, and taping your connectors together!!