Error 99 on Canon 20d

I use a Canon 20d @ work (when I forget to bring my far superior Nikon Gear!) and lately have been getting Error 99 after almost every picture taken using the 18-55mm lens. It doesn't appear to happen with the 70-300mm. I've done some searches online it appears to be a generic code for a litany of problems. I've cleaned the contacts, changed battery/cf card etc. Has anyone come across this problem or have any suggestions? My bosses fix is to look in the budget and see if there's some $$ for the new Rebel which will be coming out later this year, which sounds like an excellent idea!

- Luke

Hi Luke, had a error 99 with my 20D, and it was a shutter failure. Cost approx. $250 to repair. It sounds like your error 99 is tied to the lens...maybe a faulty contact? Thats all I know. Good luck.

Luke first is it a canon lens.
If so the problem is with the contacts on the lens I had this with my 20D a few times and never had to repair the camera.If you have a lens lock on the lens for f.stops play with it a bit and turn thef.stop ring also use some air pressure on the contacts by slightlly pressing on them with your fingertomaybe clean them somewhere inside.The contacts can be cleaned with a little alchahol on a cloth to get the dirt of them
GOOD LUCK
AVI

Have you tried cleaning the contacts with a pencil eraser.
I had the 99 error on my 10D turned out to be shutter related but as it is a general error and it works fine with the other lens then it would stand to reason that the problem is the contact between that lens and the camera body.

Thanks for all the tips -- I've tried the eraser and that was to no avail, but I'll give it another shot. I'm just glad it's not mine!

- Luke

Luke, I have experienced the error 99 approximately 10 times over 4 years use. In all cases, I turned power off and removed the battery for a minute or so. This seemed to reset the camera's operating system and I was able to continue shooting.

In your case, with the error 99 coming up frequently, I would call Canon support to get directions for what to do.

Bill Brennan

Interesting to hear you folks also experienced the "Err 99". I had it too a few days ago. Seemed to be shutter-related in my case because it happened as I pressed the shutter-release and it seemed that the shutter got "stuck". The small LCD gave the error-message. After turning off and switching on again everything worked fine again. Just my experience, no help, sorry

We have had the same problem and it is repeatable. In this case, it is only when using a third party lens. Shutting the camera off and then back on does not work! The camera must first be shut down and then the battery removed. Re-inserting the battery and turning the camera back on leaves every thing back to normal. I read this somewhere, so when the problem arose, we tried it.

I finally found an easily photographable wild bobcat in a beautiful setting. I sneaked up on it with my Canon 20D and 70-200 f2.8 IS all ready to take some amazing photos. I was about as excited as if I found Bigfoot. All those years of effort, searching, hoping, planning, etc were about to pay off. So I take one preliminary shot, and suddenly the camera freezes up. It's an Error 99. I just about threw the Canon camera on the ground. But, instead I turned it off, removed the battery and then reloaded. In the mean time the cat is walking across a lichen covered log! I miss that shot, but am able to get another shot, and find using the this process of turning the camera on and off, I can get a few more shots. But I missed the whole series and many wonderful ops. Oh well, I did get something, but in retrospect may have been better off with my old Nikon film camera with the 80-200 zoom from the eighties. At least it fired when I pressed the button. Overall, the original problem probably had to do with moisture on a rainy day.