# 5D Mark III repair cost



## bobby (Nov 25, 2018)

A friend of mine is trying to sell his 5D Mark III. It's in excellent condition other than the fact that it's got 500k actuations on the shutter and the mode dial is stuck in M. 
I'm thinking about buying it as a backup body and would like to get the mode dial fixed. 

If I send it in to Canon they'll bill me for the quote, that's why I thought I'd ask here first. 

As far as I know, Canon automatically replaces the shutter once the estimated shutter life is exceeded. Looks like a new 5D Mark III shutter is about $250. 
What about the mode dial though? What should I expect? $200, $500, $1000 even? I believe they'll have to swap out the entire top part of the camera. The camera has been on the market for a few years now, so I'm hoping someone has had a similar problem and got it fixed. Just need an estimated value to evaluate whether it's worth spending money on or not.


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## Mt Spokane Photography (Nov 26, 2018)

Canon normally has flat rate repair fees for simple fixes. Your repair may fall in the moderate range if the shutter and mirror box needs replacing. I've never heard that they replace a shutter that is working well, but 500k is due, and so is the mirror box.

Are you a CPS member? You can get a discount on repairs.

It may cost $500. The big effort is tearing down the camera, once that is done to replace the shutter and mirror box, the rest is easy. There is a switch controlled by the mode dial that may be jammed or broken, if the lock button is the issue, you can replace it for $6. 

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Mode-Dial-...=item2f212d6689:g:CCMAAOSwtcZbh77H:rk:38:pf:0.

A good camera with low shutter count might run $1300 on ebay, you might sell yours for ~700-800 since fixing the mode switch is relatively inexpensive. a new top is $160, used runs $70-$100.

So ... You could pay $700 or even $800 for repairs that you mentioned and come out fine.


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## YuengLinger (Nov 26, 2018)

Mt Spokane Photography said:


> Canon normally has flat rate repair fees for simple fixes. Your repair may fall in the moderate range if the shutter and mirror box needs replacing. I've never heard that they replace a shutter that is working well, but 500k is due, and so is the mirror box.
> 
> Are you a CPS member? You can get a discount on repairs.
> 
> ...


Good math here!


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## langdonb (Nov 26, 2018)

Hi. I think that very good/excellent condition 5d3's are selling for around $1000 or less on ebay ( I checked on sales, not listings to determine what to sell mine at). I have one I am selling (but in Panama) for $975 (Shutter count is only 21,213) Re repair costs, after a heavy amount of water damage, last year I sent this 5D to Canon (CPS customer) and they replaced ALL the circuit boards for $575.00. Can't imagine your damages costing much more than $600.00


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## Mt Spokane Photography (Nov 27, 2018)

YuengLinger said:


> Good math here!



Don't forget, you have to subtract the ebay selling fees, so you do not get the ebay selling price. The ebay fees plus paypal fees run a little over $90 for a $700 auction sale so, assume you net $600 after fees. The difference for a camera with under 2,000 actuations would run between $700 and $800. With a repaired camera, you get a warranty, if your ebay camera dies after a short time, you start all over, so the warranty has some value too..


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