# How frequently does your R5 freeze/lock up?



## AlanF (Oct 12, 2020)

As there are several reports now of the R5 freezing and requiring battery removal and replacing to restart, let’s get some more information on what proportion of owners have the problem.


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## Mt Spokane Photography (Oct 12, 2020)

I just received mine last week, so far, it hasn't ever locked up. Sometimes bad memory cards can lock a camera up. CF Express type B cards are relatively new and some brands have caused strange responses in the R5. I am hoping that there are some deals this week as Amazon Prime Day approaches. I like Delkin cards but a Prograde Cobalt would be fine. I already have a Prograde reader.


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## briangus (Oct 12, 2020)

Don't have an R5 but similar lock up has occurred on my R on numerous occasions.
Also occasionally get the message the grip is not securely connected.
Was unscrewing and re attaching the grip.
Now just pop the battery tray and its back working


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## koenkooi (Oct 12, 2020)

I had my RP locked a handful of times in the past 18 months. My R5 hasn't locked up so far, but it has only seen light usage in the 2 weeks that I've had it.


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## SteveC (Oct 12, 2020)

Mine locked up when it overheated. (I deliberately shot 8K video of Old Faithful, and she nearly ran out the clock. Of course now my old faithful video is unwatchable by anything I own).

In order to switch modes back to something else I had to pull and re-insert the battery, at which point, of course the camera worked fine since it will work forever doing stills and 1080p.


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## zim (Oct 12, 2020)

SteveC said:


> Mine locked up when it overheated. (I deliberately shot 8K video of Old Faithful, and she nearly ran out the clock. Of course now my old faithful video is unwatchable by anything I own).
> 
> In order to switch modes back to something else I had to pull and re-insert the battery, at which point, of course the camera worked fine since it will work forever doing stills and 1080p.


You didn't vote?


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## amendegw (Oct 12, 2020)

Mine locked up once - just after I turned the camera off, added a 2xTC (to a 600mm F/4 II), then started shooting a burst at high burst rate. Battery out then in fixed the problem. I've never recorded any video or received any overheating warnings.

In all fairness, I've seen similar and very rare lockups in serveral Canon bodies back to the 7D.

...Jerry


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## Bdbtoys (Oct 12, 2020)

No lockups, light usage. Running ProGrade CF & SD Cards.


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## AlanF (Oct 12, 2020)

Thanks for posting everyone - this type of evidence is helpful and I hope more posts come in.


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## BeenThere (Oct 12, 2020)

Still no issues. I have not updated firmware. have used RF and EF lens. Light usage and have not used video.


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## ScottO (Oct 12, 2020)

Received mine on the first week of availability. Use with both RF and EF glass new and old batteries and 3 brands of memory cards. Have had no problems.


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## YuengLinger (Oct 12, 2020)

In one year of use, the R has locked up on me three or four times. Turning off and on fixed except once, then I had to take out battery and put it back in.

Occasionally, for what its worth, I have to reboot a laptop or a tower or a tablet.

Thinking back, I don't remember having any trouble with the 5DIV or the 80D, but my 5DIII, and before that 60D, would occasionally lock up.

My SiriusXM radio locks up every few months. Once or twice would only reboot properly when I turned ignition off and back on.

Sometimes for no apparent reason my icemaker in my LG fridge just decides to take a day or two off.

Electronics. Can't live with 'em, can't live without 'em.

An occasional reboot is better, imo, than a broken or jammed roll of film. But if it happened, say, several times a week with the R5 during the 30 day return period, I'd probably try another one! (I'm still waiting for the R5.)


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## SteveC (Oct 12, 2020)

zim said:


> You didn't vote?



Whoops, now I have. Sorry about that.


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## Chris.Chapterten (Oct 12, 2020)

I got my R5 in the first batch of deliveries and so far I have never experienced a lock up. I have done a number of shoots over 4 or 5 hours with 1000+ photos taken each time. I am using either a San Disk 512gb CF express card or San Disk 128gb SD card (uhs i).


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## ColorBlindBat (Oct 12, 2020)

I wonder if posting partial serial numbers (just enough to figure out where in the overall build sequence the camera was made - perhaps all but the last three or four digits) might give an insight as to whether the lockups are across all build lots, or either early or late lots.


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## bhf3737 (Oct 12, 2020)

I don't have R5/R6 but with R, since 2018, I did not experience any lock/freeze so far.
In general, modern cameras are more prone to freezing because the firmware uses multi-threading for faster processing. I think Canon is using it since Digic 8. So what happens is that the threads may compete for resources (memory and card read/write, etc.). Any of the followings can possibly and randomly happen: a process holding one resource and waiting for another one; or a process is held in a non-sharable mode, etc.
These can happen depending on the speed of the cards, number of shots in a burst, need for continuous AF, duration of usage and heat, etc. 
A general precaution is knowing camera's limits, using newer and faster cards, reduce the number of burst shots if possible, avoid in-camera processing, avoid overheat because camera goes to less efficiency mode, etc.


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## digigal (Oct 13, 2020)

Mt Spokane Photography said:


> I just received mine last week, so far, it hasn't ever locked up. Sometimes bad memory cards can lock a camera up. CF Express type B cards are relatively new and some brands have caused strange responses in the R5. I am hoping that there are some deals this week as Amazon Prime Day approaches. I like Delkin cards but a Prograde Cobalt would be fine. I already have a Prograde reader.


I have still had an occasional lock up after I thought I had solved it all. I'm now using the Silver (regular) ProGrade CF Express card which I was told was fine because I never shoot video (except by accident). The times it occurred was not when the battery was low or when I was using an old battery. Don't know what else to say. Seems unpredictable. Doesn't even correlate with when I'm shooting at a high rate. It's not related to temperature extremes--been shooting in fairly moderate temps when it's occurred. I've almost run out of things to look for.
Catherine


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## VegasCameraGuy (Oct 13, 2020)

I've yet to experience a lockup or freeze with my first batch R5 with the new firmware. I'm using the Sony CFx Tough card 128gb (for RAWs) and a Sony SF-G64/T1 High-Performance 64GB SDXC UHS-II Class 10 U3 card for JPGs. I'm set to record a RAW and Large JPG for every shot with RAW on CFx and JPG on SD. Both of these cards have some of the fastest write speeds you can get. I don't use bigger cards as 128gb gives me about 2,800 RAW images and lord knows how many JPGs the SD card will hold.

BTW: I don't think you should consider an overheat lockup as a freeze as that's not a freeze but the camera stopping because of hitting the heat limit setting.


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## Mt Spokane Photography (Oct 13, 2020)

digigal said:


> I have still had an occasional lock up after I thought I had solved it all. I'm now using the Silver (regular) ProGrade CF Express card which I was told was fine because I never shoot video (except by accident). The times it occurred was not when the battery was low or when I was using an old battery. Don't know what else to say. Seems unpredictable. Doesn't even correlate with when I'm shooting at a high rate. It's not related to temperature extremes--been shooting in fairly moderate temps when it's occurred. I've almost run out of things to look for.
> Catherine


I'd definitely be contacting Canon about a repair or returning the camera for a replacement. A repair might be faster, they will likely replace the main board which is a quick and easy job. A return for replacement would probably let you do another return if you get another lemon.


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## zim (Oct 13, 2020)

Mt Spokane Photography said:


> I'd definitely be contacting Canon about a repair or returning the camera for a replacement. A repair might be faster, they will likely replace the main board which is a quick and easy job. A return for replacement would probably let you do another return if you get another lemon.


But this might be entirely a software based issue and quite a random event driven one at that, those can be buggers to find and resolve no amount of hardware swaps would fix.


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## Chris.Chapterten (Oct 14, 2020)

zim said:


> But this might be entirely a software based issue and quite a random event driven one at that, those can be buggers to find and resolve no amount of hardware swaps would fix.



I'm surprised that more people aren't experiencing these lockups. Glad to see that! I agree that it is hopefully a software related issue. Would be much less convenient having to send the camera in for a physical repair... fingers crossed


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## digigal (Oct 15, 2020)

Chris.Chapterten said:


> I'm surprised that more people aren't experiencing these lockups. Glad to see that! I agree that it is hopefully a software related issue. Would be much less convenient having to send the camera in for a physical repair... fingers crossed


Since it seems to be more rare, maybe that points to hardware rather than software since you would think the software would be common to all.


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## Chris.Chapterten (Oct 15, 2020)

digigal said:


> Since it seems to be more rare, maybe that points to hardware rather than software since you would think the software would be common to all.



That's a good point, I hadn't thought about it like that. I really hope it isn't a hardware issue for those affected.


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## Jonathan Thill (Oct 15, 2020)

Picked up my R5 July 30th and have shot 7800 photos and over 5hours of video, I have not had any lock ups.

Used only RF glass
Used only the new battery (own 3)
Sony CFexpress 128 card
Sony Tough 64gb SD card
I did have few lock ups with my R and RP early on which turned out to be a SanDisk 64gb card. The lockups followed that card. I retired the card and did not have further issues. My wife did grab that card by mistake a few weeks ago and used it for 2 weeks on her RP before I noticed and she had no issues. All the lock ups were on earlier firmware so maybe Canon tweaked somethings for better compatibility.


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## koenkooi (Oct 15, 2020)

Ramage said:


> Picked up my R5 July 30th and have shot 7800 photos and over 5hours of video, I have not had any lock ups.
> 
> Used only RF glass
> Used only the new battery (own 3)
> ...



At a previous job I retired cards with a hole punch, the desire to save $4 by not getting a new card and waste an entire working day was too strong for most of my coworkers.


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## Canonite (Oct 17, 2020)

Never ever!


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## 1D4 (Oct 18, 2020)

I had my R5 lock up for about the fifth time now, but mine sounds slightly different than what others are experiencing. In my case, the camera just won't let me take a photo. Then after a second or two, the shutter button works again. I don't have to turn off the camera/remove the battery, or anything like that. It's not focus release (I'm on AI Servo and I have the One Shot as shutter release anyway, plus I'm in focus). I'm using BBAF, with AF-ON serving as the AF button. It's not a buffer issue...today it froze after about 2-3 frames in a sequence, but all the other times, it wouldn't fire the first shots of the sequence. Starting to get a little frustrating, because I've missed the subject the past two times it's happened. I feel like it's a software thing, so I don't want to send it in and have the same issue occur...plus it's my only body at the moment, so I can't be without it.


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## docsmith (Oct 18, 2020)

I have had mine for two weeks. About 2500 shots with zero freezing or lockup. 
I am using a sandisk CFexpress extreme pro card with it. If that matters.


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## grumpycorgi (Oct 19, 2020)

For some more data, my R5 has froze up twice in the last week while Auto Focusing. It had to be turned off and on again to get it to work again. The firmware is 1.1.1 and the lens attached is the RF100-500mm F4.5-7.1 L IS. Both times the mode has been in TV and while pressing the Eye Detection AF that has been assigned to the AE lock button on the back. I think that both times it was in the Elec. 1st-curtain mode. I have a 128GB Lexar Professional CF express card and a 256 Lexar Professional 1667x SD Card. Both times with the LP-E6NH battery above 60%. I have emailed Canon support to see what they say.


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## Rzrsharp (Oct 19, 2020)

It's like an overheating issue that bypasses the correct action/procedure and causes internal loops which locks up the camera due to software bugs.


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## 1D4 (Oct 19, 2020)

grumpycorgi said:


> For some more data, my R5 has froze up twice in the last week while Auto Focusing. It had to be turned off and on again to get it to work again. The firmware is 1.1.1 and the lens attached is the RF100-500mm F4.5-7.1 L IS. Both times the mode has been in TV and while pressing the Eye Detection AF that has been assigned to the AE lock button on the back. I think that both times it was in the Elec. 1st-curtain mode. I have a 128GB Lexar Professional CF express card and a 256 Lexar Professional 1667x SD Card. Both times with the LP-E6NH battery above 60%. I have emailed Canon support to see what they say.



Are you using the EVF or back LCD? My situation is the same, with the R5 1.1.1 and RF100-500, although I've had it happen with my RF70-200 as well.


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## grumpycorgi (Oct 19, 2020)

1D4 said:


> Are you using the EVF or back LCD? My situation is the same, with the R5 1.1.1 and RF100-500, although I've had it happen with my RF70-200 as well.


I am using the EVF at the time that it freezes up. Here is a photo I took of it frozen.


Heard back from canon, they want me to try a ton of trouble shooting including different shooting modes and manual focus, different cards, cleaning contacts, etc. : / Maybe if more people report they can figure out exactly what is causing it.


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## Nelu (Oct 19, 2020)

SteveC said:


> Mine locked up when it overheated. (I deliberately shot 8K video of Old Faithful, and she nearly ran out the clock. Of course now my old faithful video is unwatchable by anything I own).
> 
> In order to switch modes back to something else I had to pull and re-insert the battery, at which point, of course the camera worked fine since it will work forever doing stills and 1080p.


Double whammy!
Froze when overheated, I’ll be damned!


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## 1D4 (Oct 19, 2020)

grumpycorgi said:


> I am using the EVF at the time that it freezes up. Here is a photo I took of it frozen.
> View attachment 193413
> 
> Heard back from canon, they want me to try a ton of trouble shooting including different shooting modes and manual focus, different cards, cleaning contacts, etc. : / Maybe if more people report they can figure out exactly what is causing it.



Thanks. I'm using the EVF, too, but my situation is a bit different than the ones where the image freezes. My EVF keeps going, but the shutter button freezes. I reported my problem to Canon and they said no one else reported my specific issue. They said to try resetting the camera settings (which I'll do, but will be a pain since I've made so many customizations), and if all else fails, to send it in :/


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## iHarri (Oct 21, 2020)

grumpycorgi said:


> For some more data, my R5 has froze up twice in the last week while Auto Focusing. It had to be turned off and on again to get it to work again. The firmware is 1.1.1 and the lens attached is the RF100-500mm F4.5-7.1 L IS. Both times the mode has been in TV and while pressing the Eye Detection AF that has been assigned to the AE lock button on the back. I think that both times it was in the Elec. 1st-curtain mode. I have a 128GB Lexar Professional CF express card and a 256 Lexar Professional 1667x SD Card. Both times with the LP-E6NH battery above 60%. I have emailed Canon support to see what they say.



I have same setup. Different cards and different mode, same lens. I've been using Manual + AUTO ISO. Eye detection has been on.

Two freezings so far, RF 100-500L + manual mode + electronic shutter. Firmware is 1.1.1.

SanDisk CF 128 1700/1200 + SanDisk SD 128/300 speed card.

Temperature was about 6 Celsius, just normal bbf and 20 fps burst. Had to take battery off.


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## Mark Webb Photography (Oct 22, 2020)

Probably seeing a lockup/reboot every couple days. It's annoying and worrying but luckily hasn't interrupted an important moment yet


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## AlanF (Oct 24, 2020)

Still haven't had a freeze, but there are continuing reports on FM from those who have.


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## arbitrage (Oct 24, 2020)

Mark Webb Photography said:


> Probably seeing a lockup/reboot every couple days. It's annoying and worrying but luckily hasn't interrupted an important moment yet


Were you changing settings, customizing buttons or anything shortly before the lockup? I believe in all three of my lockups I had been doing some fiddling with the custom control assignments and then went to shooting and locked up. The most recent setting changes were not remembered by the camera once it rebooted. I'm guessing it pulled the previous settings from the last proper shutdown it did (probably stored in memory somewhere).

I've now had three lockups over the past few months. Not a big issue for me but surely concerning. My 3rd was yesterday. I had just done a few changes to some custom buttons and updated details of Recall Shooting Function assigned to my 3rd backbitten. I then did a very fast downwards pan of a bird dropping from a tree to my feeders, camera stuttered, displayed a frozen image for a split second and then did a spontaneous reboot. Back up and running on its own (where as my other lockups I pulled the batteries to reboot) but my most recent settings I changed were not remembered and my back buttons were set to how I'd began the shooting session.


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## Texas95 (Oct 26, 2020)

My R5 is freezing up trying to decide if I should send it in or wait and see. I shoot seniors and families so no fast action test on it yet. I have had about 9 shoots with it and it has happened at least 6 times {maybe 7 or 8 first time I thought it was user error of some sort} pop the battery out and its fine after. I am right at the return date for it, should I return it or send it in. ???


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## dwarven (Oct 26, 2020)

No lockups on the R6 yet after ~2000 shots.


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## vjlex (Oct 27, 2020)

My R5 froze at least 2 times in the middle of a shoot a week ago. I don't remember the specific message, but it mentioned something about not being able to read the SD card. I'm using the Lexar 2000x 128gb UHS-II SD card and Delkin 128gb CFexpress. I didn't have to remove the battery, only turn the camera off/on to get it working again.


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## Chris.Chapterten (Oct 27, 2020)

This is not sounding good.. quite a lot of cases of freezing being reported. Everyone who is experiencing this issue, be sure to report it to Canon


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## xps (Oct 29, 2020)

It happens sporadically. When the energy-saving-mode is on for some minutes, it happenes poradically that I have to switch it off and on. One or two times I had to put out the battery and reinstate it. Annoing, but no dramatic bug for me. I am sure an firmware update will clear this bug


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## H. Jones (Oct 29, 2020)

I've had it happen maybe once in the past 3 months. The viewfinder froze with a bright pink line across the top of it and the camera totally locked up, I think it was when I rotated the camera to portrait orientation while changing a focus switch on the lens. I've had other cameras (1DX2, EOS R, 5D3, 5D4) do this in various weird scenarios, so I just immediately knew to pop the battery and put it back in. 

No issues afterward. Random glitches are to be expected with any camera, it doesn't become a problem when you have the muscle memory mid-shot to replace the battery quick.


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## labmansid (Nov 1, 2020)

So my question is, how confident are you that this freezing issue can be resolved with a firmware update? During the first week or so of owning my R5, I only had 2, maybe 3 freezes. This past week I had a couple of days of pretty intense photographing, and had another couple of freezes. Each time the VF would freeze on the last image, and the camera would not respond to any input from buttons/dials. After a few seconds, it would come back to life and I could carry on. No power off or battery removal was necessary. This has been the case on every instance.

I am still within the 30 day return window if I feel like trying to return the camera and try for a replacement. Just wondering what would be the best course of action. I hate to have to do a return and hope for a replacement in what would likely be another agonizing wait. Any input on this would be greatly appreciated. If a simple firmware update fixes it, I'm fine with putting up with an occasional lockup for a few seconds until then.


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## JPAZ (Nov 2, 2020)

I only have a few hundred shots on this R5 (and am impressed with it as a stills camera). Yesterday, while chasing grandkids around the yard, I powered up to get a long red light on back then an error message, “reading error card 2.” Immediately turned off, popped the battery out and in, powered up and continued. Took about 10 seconds.........

Using Lexar 64gb V90 UHS ii and Prograde 128gb CFexpress. Did I just experience what others are describing?


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## Chris.Chapterten (Nov 3, 2020)

JPAZ said:


> I only have a few hundred shots on this R5 (and am impressed with it as a stills camera). Yesterday, while chasing grandkids around the yard, I powered up to get a long red light on back then an error message, “reading error card 2.” Immediately turned off, popped the battery out and in, powered up and continued. Took about 10 seconds.........
> 
> Using Lexar 64gb V90 UHS ii and Prograde 128gb CFexpress. Did I just experience what others are describing?


I think this is different to the lock ups other people are experiencing. Usually the camera will freeze and become unresponsive with no warning message about the memory card. Someone please correct me if I am wrong about that.

I had a similar issue to you with the memory card error message. In that case I had forgotten to eject the memory card properly from the computer. Formatting the card once On the computer and then once on the camera itself fixed the issue for me. I would say your memory card is at fault and not the camera in this instance.


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## Chris.Chapterten (Nov 11, 2020)

Well I just had my first lock up today. Happened just once but had to pull the battery for the camera to respond. Once it froze the little memory card flashing red light was constantly flashing. Was shooting to a 512gb Sandisk CF express card in single shot, M mode.


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## Gloads (Dec 28, 2020)

I did not seem to have it happen much until the latest (Nov?) FW update, but I was not shooting as much, or using EF lenses either.

I have only ever had this happen with EF lenses. I mostly use 400 f/2.8 with 1.4x. After a burst and a short (on long) rest, I go to shoot and it is frozen. Requires battery removal to resolve. Also seeing message to put the lenscap on when powering down normally.


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## Viggo (Dec 29, 2020)

Hasn’t happened to me once, not overheating either


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## VegasCameraGuy (Dec 29, 2020)

It would be interesting to run the survey again and ask what memory cards are being used to see if that possibly has a relevance to the lockups?


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## Mt Spokane Photography (Dec 30, 2020)

VegasCameraGuy said:


> It would be interesting to run the survey again and ask what memory cards are being used to see if that possibly has a relevance to the lockups?



I've seen quite a few provide that information on the Fred Miranda forum but no correlation, some were using multiple brands, all with the same issue. I use a Pro Grade 325 GB Cobalt (I see they are on sale for $417). I've never had a lockup. I have multiple SD cards, my Lexar 128 GB V60 is usually the one installed.


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## AlanF (Dec 30, 2020)

VegasCameraGuy said:


> It would be interesting to run the survey again and ask what memory cards are being used to see if that possibly has a relevance to the lockups?


I use the cheapest cards; a Manfrotto 128 gb CFExpress (probably a rebadged Delkin) and the slowest UHS-II 1667x 128GB Lexar. Never had a single lock-up or freeze in 10,000 actuations. For about 1/2 of those, the CFExpress slot was empty and the Lexar performed fine.


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## dwarven (Dec 31, 2020)

I'm at 2 lockups now on the R6. Both times (different days) I was taking pictures of birds at 20 fps with the electronic shutter. I was using Sony's SF-G 64GB card (not a recalled serial number).


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## JPAZ (Dec 31, 2020)

Was beginning to suspect the Lexar SD card as the culprit but based on the experiences of others, this is not so clear. Since my report of November 2, it has not happened again. Still using the ProGrade CFExpress and the Lexar SD. I have two CFExpress cards and it is possible I've not used the original one (when I had the issue) since then. I do know I've formatted bot the the CFExpress and the SD since then. So still no idea what could be hardware vs. firmware vs memory cards.


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## digigal (Jan 1, 2021)

I thought I would follow up on my repeated freezes of my R5 requiring me to remove the battery to restart. It was not related to the battery status (state of charge, R5 battery vs R vs 7DMII, etc), card I was using (SD vs CFE--I was using compliant cards ie Type B CFE and SD UHS-II), shooting mode, speed of shooting, temperature, or lens. I've used all Canon batteries, lenses, and adapter when these freezes occurred. I spoke with a Canon tech at phone support and he said I would need to send the camera in so finally 10 days ago I did. They called me a couple of times to get more info while they were working on it about the episodes but basically they could find nothing wrong with the camera and were not able to replicate the crashes. They decided to replace the motherboard anyway and I received it back yesterday. I went out to shoot last night with it and shot about 1500 pictures and typically in the past there would have been a 50-50 chance of having it freeze but things were fine. Cautiously optimistic but time will tell.
Catherine
Also when I talked to the Canon tech guy, he said that the camera keeps a log of all the times it crashes and the techs can see this when they examine it


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## Chris.Chapterten (Jan 2, 2021)

digigal said:


> I thought I would follow up on my repeated freezes of my R5 requiring me to remove the battery to restart. It was not related to the battery status (state of charge, R5 battery vs R vs 7DMII, etc), card I was using (SD vs CFE--I was using compliant cards ie Type B CFE and SD UHS-II), shooting mode, speed of shooting, temperature, or lens. I've used all Canon batteries, lenses, and adapter when these freezes occurred. I spoke with a Canon tech at phone support and he said I would need to send the camera in so finally 10 days ago I did. They called me a couple of times to get more info while they were working on it about the episodes but basically they could find nothing wrong with the camera and were not able to replicate the crashes. They decided to replace the motherboard anyway and I received it back yesterday. I went out to shoot last night with it and shot about 1500 pictures and typically in the past there would have been a 50-50 chance of having it freeze but things were fine. Cautiously optimistic but time will tell.
> Catherine
> Also when I talked to the Canon tech guy, he said that the camera keeps a log of all the times it crashes and the techs can see this when they examine it


I’m very curious about how you progress with the camera from now on. Hopefully the new motherboard has done the trick. Please keep us posted


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## JPAZ (Jan 2, 2021)

digigal said:


> They decided to replace the motherboard anyway and I received it back yesterday. I went out to shoot last night with it and shot about 1500 pictures and typically in the past there would have been a 50-50 chance of having it freeze but things were fine. Cautiously optimistic but time will tell.
> Catherine



Wow. Keep us posted and good luck!


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## SteveC (Jan 2, 2021)

digigal said:


> Also when I talked to the Canon tech guy, he said that the camera keeps a log of all the times it crashes and the techs can see this when they examine it



If so, did they actually affirm that the crashes had happened?

I'm guessing they considered them real or they'd not have replaced the motherboard.


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## zim (Jan 2, 2021)

SteveC said:


> If so, did they actually affirm that the crashes had happened?
> 
> I'm guessing they considered them real or they'd not have replaced the motherboard.


Yeah, ie were there logs?
Crashes with logs are good!


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## AlanF (Jan 2, 2021)

zim said:


> Yeah, ie were there logs?
> Crashes with logs are good!


No crashes with no logs are much better. It is good that they do log crashes as computers have been doing for years.


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## zim (Jan 2, 2021)

AlanF said:


> No crashes with no logs are much better. It is good that they do log crashes as computers have been doing for years.


ha ha that's true! 
Actually had to read first sentence twice, first time i read it as...
"No, crashes with no logs are much better."


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## AlanF (Jan 2, 2021)

zim said:


> ha ha that's true!
> Actually had to read first sentence twice, first time i read it as...
> "No, crashes with no logs are much better."


Punctuation is all important. There is a book "Eats, shoots and leaves", which means something quite different from "Eats shoots and leaves".


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## SteveC (Jan 2, 2021)

AlanF said:


> Punctuation is all important. There is a book "Eats, shoots and leaves", which means something quite different from "Eats shoots and leaves".



There was a story I read once back in dead tree days (and I can't confirm it) that some Manhattan socialite whose last name was, so help me, "Screws," but whose first name I can't remember (so I'll just use "Elaine") got engaged, and the headline read "Elaine Screws, Becomes Affianced." Someone got in a lot of trouble for that comma.


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## digigal (Jan 3, 2021)

Another update: I've taken the R5 out the last 2 days to photograph the starling murmurations that have been occurring in our area recently in the evening. The first night I probably shot 1500+ pics using low speed mech shutter and no crashes. Yesterday I shot about the same or less and was using high speed mech shutter and had 2 freezes. I must state further that I extensively customize the R5 and basically custom set every button and dial for my convenience. I have the camera set for 2 back button focus buttons, one for animal face detection and one for zone focusing. I am now wondering if this extensive customization is causing a software crash in certain shooting situations. Ugh!
Catherine


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## Aussie shooter (Jan 3, 2021)

Jist downloaded the canon connect app and it seems to be freezing my R6. Not sure if anyone has had the same issue with the R5


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## AlanF (Jan 3, 2021)

digigal said:


> Another update: I've taken the R5 out the last 2 days to photograph the starling murmurations that have been occurring in our area recently in the evening. The first night I probably shot 1500+ pics using low speed mech shutter and no crashes. Yesterday I shot about the same or less and was using high speed mech shutter and had 2 freezes. I must state further that I extensively customize the R5 and basically custom set every button and dial for my convenience. I have the camera set for 2 back button focus buttons, one for animal face detection and one for zone focusing. I am now wondering if this extensive customization is causing a software crash in certain shooting situations. Ugh!
> Catherine


You could try uncustomising the buttons one at a time and shooting 2000 shots each time, which by the time you have done 100,000-200,000 shots you should know. Or, as a more practical solution, uncustomise all for 2000 shots, then if that doesn't cure the situation, it's the camera. If it does cure, recustomise half to see if returns . If it still works you know it is in the other half etc. I have done relatively little customisation, just two buttons BBF for animal eyeAF and centre point AF as I like keeping things as simple as possible.


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## digigal (Jan 4, 2021)

AlanF said:


> You could try uncustomising the buttons one at a time and shooting 2000 shots each time, which by the time you have done 100,000-200,000 shots you should know. Or, as a more practical solution, uncustomise all for 2000 shots, then if that doesn't cure the situation, it's the camera. If it does cure, recustomise half to see if returns . If it still works you know it is in the other half etc. I have done relatively little customisation, just two buttons BBF for animal eyeAF and centre point AF as I like keeping things as simple as possible.


Well, I'm moving in that direction--I've uncustomized all the dials except for two which I switched. I've uncustomized the buttons and set up a single back button focus and customized one other button to change the drive mode otherwise the buttons are unchanged. We'll see if this changes any of the crashes. But I was never changing any of my focus settings when the camera froze--it was always while I was actively shooting.
Catherine


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## Gloads (Jan 4, 2021)

digigal said:


> Another update: I've taken the R5 out the last 2 days to photograph the starling murmurations that have been occurring in our area recently in the evening. The first night I probably shot 1500+ pics using low speed mech shutter and no crashes. Yesterday I shot about the same or less and was using high speed mech shutter and had 2 freezes. I must state further that I extensively customize the R5 and basically custom set every button and dial for my convenience. I have the camera set for 2 back button focus buttons, one for animal face detection and one for zone focusing. I am now wondering if this extensive customization is causing a software crash in certain shooting situations. Ugh!
> Catherine


I have a similar setup (spot focus instead of zone) and had read it may be related. I did not had a crash on two shoots since, and the only change is that I am shooting from a window mounted gimbal instead of a bean bag. I suspect it was a intermittent disconnect between the lens and camera, as I did see an error 01 once (and a crash shortly after). I suspect I would see this problem handheld if I had the strength to still do that. I use ProGrade Coblat CF cards. I wonder if their is a FW update for my 16 year old lens...


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## Chris.Chapterten (Jan 5, 2021)

digigal said:


> Another update: I've taken the R5 out the last 2 days to photograph the starling murmurations that have been occurring in our area recently in the evening. The first night I probably shot 1500+ pics using low speed mech shutter and no crashes. Yesterday I shot about the same or less and was using high speed mech shutter and had 2 freezes. I must state further that I extensively customize the R5 and basically custom set every button and dial for my convenience. I have the camera set for 2 back button focus buttons, one for animal face detection and one for zone focusing. I am now wondering if this extensive customization is causing a software crash in certain shooting situations. Ugh!
> Catherine



Sorry to hear that. Given that they have replaced the motherboard of the camera we would have to assume this is some sort of software error right? Really hoping the next firmware release fixes this freezing.

In other news, I just had my second lockup today. This time using the RF 35mm f1.8 and Sandisk 512gb CF Express card. The first time this happened the screen just went black. This time I got an 'Error 70' message telling me to remove the battery. Has anyone else had the Error 70? Is it a seperate issue to the freezing do you think? or one and the same?


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## digigal (Jan 5, 2021)

I never get a warning message associated with my lockups--the screen just freezes and the camera is inoperable and no button or dial functions until I remove and reinsert the battery.
Catherine



Chris.Chapterten said:


> In other news, I just had my second lockup today. This time using the RF 35mm f1.8 and Sandisk 512gb CF Express card. The first time this happened the screen just went black. This time I got an 'Error 70' message telling me to remove the battery. Has anyone else had the Error 70? Is it a seperate issue to the freezing do you think? or one and the same?


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## Chris.Chapterten (Jan 5, 2021)

digigal said:


> I never get a warning message associated with my lockups--the screen just freezes and the camera is inoperable and no button or dial functions until I remove and reinsert the battery.
> Catherine



Thanks for letting me know. The Error 70 I got happened directly after I formatted the memory card in the camera and tried to take a couple of photos. I reformatted the card for a second time and it hasn't happened again. But I will keep an eye on the behaviour, because I wouldn't be surprised if it was related to the freezes.


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## dolina (Jan 5, 2021)

Has firmware 1.2 released last November resolve this problem?


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## Chris.Chapterten (Jan 5, 2021)

dolina said:


> Has firmware 1.2 released last November resolve this problem?


Unfortunately not. People are still having this issue even with the very latest firmware.


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## HenryL (Jan 5, 2021)

Chris.Chapterten said:


> This time I got an 'Error 70' message telling me to remove the battery. Has anyone else had the Error 70? Is it a seperate issue to the freezing do you think? or one and the same?


 
Haven't had this error on my R5, but did on a previous camera (IIRC it was the original 7D, maybe the Mk II though). It was a communication error relating to the CF card. only happened once. It's also a well documented communication error with certain 70D's.


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## Tony S (Jan 9, 2021)

I had this happen twice yesterday for the first time. I had only been out from about 10 minutes and then it locked up - I got the camera in November and only taken 3000 shots so far. I was using the R5 in animal eye-detection and a Canon EF 100-400mm F4.5-5.6L IS II on both instances when it froze (only about a few minutes apart) - Both times I got a still image of whatever I was looking at, no error code or information. I powered off and there was a clucking sound which I guess is the IBIS resetting? Turned it back on and it seemed to be working ok both times. It wasn't overheated as I hadn't been out long and was only talking stills.

R5 - Firmware Version 1.2.0
EF 100-400mm F4.5-5.6L IS II - Firmware Version 1.0.7


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## Aussie shooter (Jan 9, 2021)

Chris.Chapterten said:


> Sorry to hear that. Given that they have replaced the motherboard of the camera we would have to assume this is some sort of software error right? Really hoping the next firmware release fixes this freezing.
> 
> In other news, I just had my second lockup today. This time using the RF 35mm f1.8 and Sandisk 512gb CF Express card. The first time this happened the screen just went black. This time I got an 'Error 70' message telling me to remove the battery. Has anyone else had the Error 70? Is it a seperate issue to the freezing do you think? or one and the same?


I have had the error 70 msg after trying to use the canon connect app.


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## Chris.Chapterten (Jan 9, 2021)

Aussie shooter said:


> I have had the error 70 msg after trying to use the canon connect app.


Thanks for letting us know


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## Tony S (Jan 12, 2021)

FYI, My update from Canon...

"Many thanks for your response.

If you are using an LPE6NH battery (as opposed to an LPE6N or an LPE6), you will need to log a job at (Link) and send the unit in to our Camera Service team for testing and possible repair.

There's a possibility that the main circuit board is faulty. However, the unit will need to be booked-in for assessment by our service technicians. They need to physically inspect and test the camera.

Please ensure the camera is securely packaged to avoid any damage that could occur during transit. In the box with your camera please include a printed copy of your proof of purchase / sales receipt, the Canon Warranty Card and the Canon Camera Repair form, found here:"


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## Chris.Chapterten (Jan 13, 2021)

Tony S said:


> FYI, My update from Canon...
> 
> "Many thanks for your response.
> 
> ...



Thanks for the update. Sounds like a very generic reply. I wonder if Canon is now more aware of the problem? Unfortunately it seems that replacing the circuit board doesn’t always fix the issue.

How often is your camera freezing?


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## Tony S (Jan 14, 2021)

Chris.Chapterten said:


> Thanks for the update. Sounds like a very generic reply. I wonder if Canon is now more aware of the problem? Unfortunately it seems that replacing the circuit board doesn’t always fix the issue.
> 
> How often is your camera freezing?



Hi Chris - I'm lucky it has only happened around 4 times. I'm sending off tomorrow so will keep you all posted.


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## Chris.Chapterten (Jan 14, 2021)

Tony S said:


> Hi Chris - I'm lucky it has only happened around 4 times. I'm sending off tomorrow so will keep you



Interesting. How many photos had you taken and how long had you owned the camera for?

I’m really hoping it’s a firmware issue, as I’m not very keen on the service centre taking apart the camera to replace the circuit board.


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## Tony S (Jan 19, 2021)

Chris.Chapterten said:


> Interesting. How many photos had you taken and how long had you owned the camera for?
> 
> I’m really hoping it’s a firmware issue, as I’m not very keen on the service centre taking apart the camera to replace the circuit board.



Hi Chris - I only got the camera (NEW) in late November 2020. I’m also using the new LPE6NH batteries x 2 + the GB-R10 grip.
As far as cards go I only use a SONY CFexpress Tough Memory Card – 128GB, 1480/1700 MB/s - this was also brand new.

I have only taken around 3k shots and the day this issue started I had only taken around 30 still shots, this was using the RF to EF converter and my Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II USM. Just one thing I thought of was that I had switched the focal length on the lens from Full to 3m - Not sure this had anything to do with it? I have seen others using all kinds of different lenses, including RF lenses and it still happens randomly. I also have a Canon RF 24-105mm f/4L IS USM but, have not used it enough to see if happened with this lens.

Anyway, it's with Canon NZ now so I guess I will find out soon if it has been fixed - they said around a 10day turnaround. Will keep you posted.


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## Chris.Chapterten (Jan 27, 2021)

Just had my second freeze today. Screen and EVF went black and a battery pull was required, just like the last time it happened.

So far, about 8000 photos taken in total and it has never happened twice on the same shoot (usually a 2-4 hour period).

I’ve decided to wait for the next firmware update to see if that fixes things. If it starts happening multiple times per shoot after that, it will be going back to Canon.


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## Tony S (Feb 8, 2021)

After 3 weeks I finally got mine back from Canon . They seem to think it is a card issue as their diagnostics relied on them replicating the problem - So 3400 shots later and mixing all my settings up they came back with (it could have been a card write issue?) - My card which is new is a SONY CFexpress Tough Memory Card – 128GB, 1480/1700 MB/s. They said to buy a Scan disk card and see if it happens with that? - Waste of time and money sending it away! Don't bother sending away unless it is happening across different cards on a regular basis.


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## grumpycorgi (Feb 14, 2021)

I have had a few more freeze up's since I last posted, had to do my first battery pull after one yesterday. When I spoke to canon before they said to troubleshoot, however I don't have a ton of time or different cards to try. Super frustrating issue to have!

Been using the RF 100-500 lens, mostly in TV mode, with back button animal AF, freezes generally happen when pressing to focus. Both on LP-E6NH and LP-N batteries. Cards 28GB Lexar Professional CF express card and a 256 Lexar Professional 1667x SD Card. Latest was when trying to focus on show geese, screen went black and it didn't respond to anything until the battery was pulled. The top screen information stayed on it even after the camera was switched to off. Also I avoided updating to 1.2 firmware until recently and now I get photos with "?" that I cannot seem to open, not sure what that is about. 

Seems that people have had vastly different results in sending in cameras, guessing I will just need to dedicate a whole day to troubleshooting and see what happens.


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## Chris.Chapterten (Feb 17, 2021)

grumpycorgi said:


> I have had a few more freeze up's since I last posted, had to do my first battery pull after one yesterday. When I spoke to canon before they said to troubleshoot, however I don't have a ton of time or different cards to try. Super frustrating issue to have!
> 
> Been using the RF 100-500 lens, mostly in TV mode, with back button animal AF, freezes generally happen when pressing to focus. Both on LP-E6NH and LP-N batteries. Cards 28GB Lexar Professional CF express card and a 256 Lexar Professional 1667x SD Card. Latest was when trying to focus on show geese, screen went black and it didn't respond to anything until the battery was pulled. The top screen information stayed on it even after the camera was switched to off. Also I avoided updating to 1.2 firmware until recently and now I get photos with "?" that I cannot seem to open, not sure what that is about.
> 
> Seems that people have had vastly different results in sending in cameras, guessing I will just need to dedicate a whole day to troubleshooting and see what happens.


That’s frustrating... hopefully the new firmware that is due out very soon should help with the weird ‘?’ You are getting on some photos and the freezing too!


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## Australisblue (Feb 19, 2021)

I have not had my R5 lockup yet (although it’s only been used lightly) however I have had a couple of times where I’ve needed to remove the battery to get the wifi working again (so I guess you could say the wifi has locked up vs the whole camera). The iPhone app throws up an error that it failed to connect (bluetooth still seems to work). I tried a few other things, swiping the app closed, rebooting the phone, turning the R5 off and on, none of which worked but pulling the battery briefly fixed the problem immediately. If it happens again I might try disabling and re-enabling the wifi in the camera settings to see if that helps.

The wifi works even when the camera power switch is off so I am guessing perhaps that is why just cycling the power switch doesn’t work vs pulling the battery.


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## Chris.Chapterten (Feb 19, 2021)

Just had my third lockup today that required a battery pull. It seems to be happening every 2000 or so photos taken. Never had it happen twice on a shoot yet... but if it becomes more frequent I may let Canon know about it... hmmm


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## digigal (Feb 25, 2021)

Posting to follow up on the crashes my R5 has had. Because of my problem, I returned it to Canon who was unable to identify the cause but replaced the motherboard. Afterward the problem still occurred but because of upcoming trips, I did not f/u with Canon. First trip to Yellowstone ended up being essentially a landscape trip because of limited and/or very slow moving wildlife that did not require a fast shutter speed. Therefore I was using my 100-400 generally, occas 24-105, and the low speed continuous mode with a single back button focus. Temp was cold, cold, cold--reaching 25 degree high while we were there for about 10 d. No crashes. Hoping my issue was solved, we headed to Alaska for eagles 3 days after returning from Yellowstone (warmer but still below 40 the whole time). The first day I shot ~2500 pic and had 4 crashes--ugh!!! I had changed the mode to Hi speed continuous but everything else the same, BBF, 100-400, Canon Adapter, canon batteries, etc. The only factor I had not looked at was increasing the shooting speed so I increased the speed to H+ (Hi Speed Continuous + Mode) and after that I had a single crash for the next 8000-10000 pic I shot. I've since shot another 3000K bird pictures with no crashes. I do think my crashes seem to be associated with using the Hi Speed Continuous mode and it is almost ameliorated by switching to the H+ or Lo Speed.
Just my latest update on where things stand with me.
Catherine
Now I need to spend time developing muscle memory for where I finally can program my buttons rather than all this other BS!!!


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## Bdbtoys (Feb 25, 2021)

@digigal When you were doing your testing... did you try different sd/cfx cards? Or are you still using the same ones from before the MB swap? We hear a lot of people change cards, then their issues go away. The mode you are talking about that crashes more often requires more bandwidth than the one that doesn't.


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## digigal (Feb 25, 2021)

I've noticed no difference among the 3 ProGrade 128 GB CFE and the SanDisk 128 CFE (all type B). I studied that and the battery issue (R5, R, 7DMII Canon batteries and charge levels) in my initial rounds of testing before the motherboard was replaced. I've only used Canon batteries and notice no difference in occurrence of crashes depending on charge level. Use only Canon adapter. Generally shoot without a TC but haven't noticed increased occurrence of crashes on using one. Have tried multiple configurations of BBF options and noted no effect whether it was mapped to * or AF-ON or "BOX" button. Tried one vs 2 BBF buttons to try to cut down on potential factors and that's when I noted it seemed to correlate to Mode and since going back to 2 BBF that hasn't changed. (Also many other noted bird photographers were using 2 BBF and weren't having this problem.
Catherine


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## sierramike (Feb 25, 2021)

Body early series. After several lockups in 6000 shots, last week Canon service replaced the motherboard of my R5. Different lenses, cards, batteries. No common factor found. From new I had doubts about the effectiveness of IBIS, first impression is that it works as advertised now. EDIT. Still problems with IBIS after main print replacement. Canon service replaced the CMOS sensor now. Has to do with sensor readout.


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## digigal (Feb 25, 2021)

sierramike said:


> Body early series. After several lockups in 6000 shots, last week Canon service replaced the motherboard of my R5. Different lenses, cards, batteries. No common factor found. From new I had doubts about the effectiveness of IBIS, first impression is that it works as advertised now.


Mine was an early series body too but replacing the MB did not solve the problem. As above, the only thing I can correlate my crashes to currently is shooting in the Hi Speed Mode. Doesnt seem to occur in the H+ Speed Mode or the Low Speed Mode.
Catherine


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## Jonathan Thill (Feb 26, 2021)

digigal said:


> Mine was an early series body too but replacing the MB did not solve the problem. As above, the only thing I can correlate my crashes to currently is shooting in the Hi Speed Mode. Doesnt seem to occur in the H+ Speed Mode or the Low Speed Mode.
> Catherine


Stable not using H+ further confirms my suspicion that these lockup up are a media issue. 

Canon is clearly polling the card(s) for the following: 

Availability - Is there a card present?
Current and total capacity 
read/write state
Likely temp 
Because preventing data loss is the primary goal of any storage team Canon's engineers likely do not have the capacity for recovery from a failed poll to or from the card. They leave the user and the camera waiting for that poll to complete and only a loss of power will release the code loop. Canon can fix this by running a timeout and a watchdog on the storage service but if there is a failure the data being recorded at the time will for sure be lost, for those that are experiencing this issue that might be preferred because the data is likely lost when pulling the battery anyway. 

I suspect the reason Canon has not done the simple fix yet is because they have not been able to reproduce the issue in house. I run into this issue all the time with NVR's and Cameras that users have tampered with but never tell us that until we are on site...

In the end Canon really did not do themselves any favors by making the dual card slots on the R5 different. The combinations for Slot A (CFexpress) and Slot B (SD) on the R5 means that people can be running what has to be an almost endless number of variations of brands, speed, and capacity of card. There is no way to test all those combinations effectively. 

I have never had a lockup on my R5 even after almost 15k images and hours of 8k and 4k footage. My R5 is a day 1 release with a serial number in the 900's. I have always used a Sony Tough 128GB CFE card purchased from local brick and mortar shop(I did make the mistake of getting the Prograde 128GB Gold that is not fast enough for 8K Raw) and 64GB Sony Tough Card that was a warranty replacement directly from Sony. I always perform a low level format after each image\footage offload and so far I have not had any issues.

I have a colleague that has an R5 and has had loads of lock ups and I am looking forward to when we can actually shoot together again so we can swap media and see if the issue is with the SanDisk 128GB he bought for a good deal on Amazon or if the issue is his body. 

That all said the responsibility to make this right is still on Canon, they need to come up with a solution to deal with all the possible combinations for cards that users have. 

A locked up $4K USD\$6K CDN Camera is not a great look.


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## digigal (Feb 26, 2021)

Ramage said:


> Stable not using H+ further confirms my suspicion that these lockup up are a media issue.
> 
> Canon is clearly polling the card(s) for the following:
> 
> ...


What I was saying is that it appears that my camera crashes when I am shooting in the middle of the 3 mechanical options. If I shoot in the fastest of the mechanical modes, the H+ (Hi Speed Continuous +) I don't have crashes nor do I have crashes if I shoot in the lowest mechanical speed (Low Speed Continuous). It's only when I'm shooting in the middle one: Hi Speed Continuous that I have the crashes. That sounds confusing because there is a faster speed than the Hi Speed Continuous which is the one with the "+" . In summary:
Electronic only(fastest)= Not tried
Mechanical:
Hi + Speed = No crashes
Hi Speed = Crashes
Low Speed = No Crashes

Catherine


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## Jonathan Thill (Feb 26, 2021)

digigal said:


> What I was saying is that it appears that my camera crashes when I am shooting in the middle of the 3 mechanical options. If I shoot in the fastest of the mechanical modes, the H+ (Hi Speed Continuous +) I don't have crashes nor do I have crashes if I shoot in the lowest mechanical speed (Low Speed Continuous). It's only when I'm shooting in the middle one: Hi Speed Continuous that I have the crashes. That sounds confusing because there is a faster speed than the Hi Speed Continuous which is the one with the "+" . In summary:
> Electronic only(fastest)= Not tried
> Mechanical:
> Hi + Speed = No crashes
> ...


Thanks Catherine for clarifying, the behavior really is bizarre. I still think there is something going on in the Storage service but it less obvious now that you are only seeing it in Hi Speed. Mind if I pass that info off to CPS? 

Quick Question: Has the Camera ever frozen up not taking photos? Just on and doing nothing? 

I really do hope Canon addresses this issue. 

BTW I love your images, this Camera should show you more respect


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## sierramike (Feb 26, 2021)

digigal said:


> Mine was an early series body too but replacing the MB did not solve the problem. As above, the only thing I can correlate my crashes to currently is shooting in the Hi Speed Mode. Doesnt seem to occur in the H+ Speed Mode or the Low Speed Mode.
> Catherine


Last 2 lockups occurred in low speed mode, Writing to both card slots. I have one sandisk CFE card. Crashes with a lexar or sony card in the sd card slot.


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## WelshTony (May 10, 2021)

Just had my first “Freeze” since I bought the R5 three months ago.

Using the 100-500mm in Manual mode, Servo AF, High speed, Animal Eye-Focus, mechanical shutter recording RAW on both SD and CFExpress.

The CFExpress card is a Lexar professional 128GB 1750 MB/s, the SD card is a Lexar professional 128GB 1000x 150 MB/s.

Switching camera on and off didn’t resolve the problem, had to revert to removing battery from camera body and reinserting it for the ‘freeze’ to go away.

Hope it doesn’t happen again at a “vital moment”.


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## bernie_king (May 10, 2021)

My R5 only locked up once for me, and that was last November. Have shot around 10,000 frames since then with no issues. The day that I had the lockup was the ONLY time I have ever deleted images in-camera. I'm wondering if that was a contributing factor.


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## Viggo (May 10, 2021)

bernie_king said:


> My R5 only locked up once for me, and that was last November. Have shot around 10,000 frames since then with no issues. The day that I had the lockup was the ONLY time I have ever deleted images in-camera. I'm wondering if that was a contributing factor.


I delete images in camera constantly and never had a freeze so it might be something else…


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## docsmith (May 10, 2021)

I have now had 1 freeze up after >30,000 images on my R5. Not sure why it happened. Thanks to this thread, I recognized it immediately, popped the battery out and was back shooting very quickly. 

Only things I can say, the battery was fairly drained, and I had been sitting on target with AF for an extended period of time. I do wonder if, perhaps, the capacitors that hold the charge that trigger the shutter might drain slightly causing the problem. But, per speculation on my behalf.


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## Chris.Chapterten (May 11, 2021)

Of the people who have just posted mentioning their freeze, who had their freeze with a CF express card in the camera? And what firmware version are you running?

I had 3 lockup’s over a span of a few months and 6000 images taken, all using a 512gb Sandisk Cf Express card. I switched to a Sandisk 128Gb SD card and have had 0 lockup’s in the last couple of months and over 4000 photos taken. I am still on firmware 1.2.0.

So at least in my case it seems memory card related... let’s see if firmware 1.3.1 helps...


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## AlanF (May 11, 2021)

Chris.Chapterten said:


> Of the people who have just posted mentioning their freeze, who had their freeze with a CF express card in the camera? And what firmware version are you running?
> 
> I had 3 lockup’s over a span of a few months and 6000 images taken, all using a 512gb Sandisk Cf Express card. I switched to a Sandisk 128Gb SD card and have had 0 lockup’s in the last couple of months and over 4000 photos taken. I am still on firmware 1.2.0.
> 
> So at least in my case it seems memory card related... let’s see if firmware 1.3.1 helps...


I seem to have read several reports of Sandisk CFExpress cards causing freezes.


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## macrunning (May 19, 2021)

I actually had to send mine in for repair this week. At first it would freeze up occasionally And that started a few months after I got it. Then it seem to become more frequent. Usually seemed to happen with high speed continuous and servo while I would be shooting birds in flight. Then while in Hawaii last couple of weeks it froze on me several times just using the animal eye auto Focus to track birds. Hadn’t even gotten the shots off. when we got back I called Canon and they had me ship it. Very disappointing after paying several thousands of dollars for camera and gear. I’ve never been happy with the eye tracking auto focus as my experience and results seemed to be far inferior to what others online were claiming. I tried to chalk it up to learning the camera but now I believe with the freezing issue something was indeed wrong with the auto focus system on my R5. Firmware has always been kept up to date too. Using native RF glass as well. Using SanDisk 128gb SD card ii 300 mb/s


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## macrunning (May 19, 2021)

Chris.Chapterten said:


> I'm surprised that more people aren't experiencing these lockups. Glad to see that! I agree that it is hopefully a software related issue. Would be much less convenient having to send the camera in for a physical repair... fingers crossed


I realize your statement is from Oct 2020 but as of mid May 2021 the poll shows nearly 50% of the folks have or are experiencing lock ups. That is huge! Really it’s unacceptable when a company is supposedly a leader in the industry and charging several thousand dollars for the camera.


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## macrunning (May 19, 2021)

Aussie shooter said:


> Jist downloaded the canon connect app and it seems to be freezing my R6. Not sure if anyone has had the same issue with the R5


I had this issue several times with my R5. I gave up using the stupid app. Just give us a Bluetooth remote trigger.


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## koenkooi (May 19, 2021)

macrunning said:


> I had this issue several times with my R5. I gave up using the stupid app. Just give us a Bluetooth remote trigger.


The app has both a wifi and bluetooth trigger, for standalone use you can get the Canon BR-E1.


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## Jonathan Thill (May 19, 2021)

AlanF said:


> I seem to have read several reports of Sandisk CFExpress cards causing freezes.


Yeah lots of the issues are with counterfeit cards people buy for cheap on Amazon. SanDisk is one of the most counterfeited brands due to its popularity. Hard to tell the difference these days


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## Chris.Chapterten (May 19, 2021)

macrunning said:


> I realize your statement is from Oct 2020 but as of mid May 2021 the poll shows nearly 50% of the folks have or are experiencing lock ups. That is huge! Really it’s unacceptable when a company is supposedly a leader in the industry and charging several thousand dollars for the camera.


Wow, I hadn’t checked the poll recently. Not good to see. I’m grateful for the 5 year warranty we get here! Also sorry to hear that the problem with your camera was so severe. So the lockups occurred during AF acquisition? In my case they always seemed to happen when the camera was trying to write to the card.

Also worth mentioning that I have found Eye-AF less reliable than using the spot AF point and manually placing it over the eye. Most people do rave about it though.


Ramage said:


> Yeah lots of the issues are with counterfeit cards people buy for cheap on Amazon. SanDisk is one of the most counterfeited brands due to its popularity. Hard to tell the difference these days


I have heard about counterfeit cards. I bought mine from B&H photo so have no reason to doubt it’s authenticity. Very curious to see if the new firmware resolves the issue. But very few people have been reporting their experiences with CF express cards and the latest firmware.


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## macrunning (May 19, 2021)

Chris.Chapterten said:


> Wow, I hadn’t checked the poll recently. Not good to see. I’m grateful for the 5 year warranty we get here! Also sorry to hear that the problem with your camera was so severe. So the lockups occurred during AF acquisition? In my case they always seemed to happen when the camera was trying to write to the card.
> 
> Also worth mentioning that I have found Eye-AF less reliable than using the spot AF point and manually placing it over the eye. Most people do rave about it though.
> 
> I have heard about counterfeit cards. I bought mine from B&H photo so have no reason to doubt it’s authenticity. Very curious to see if the new firmware resolves the issue. But very few people have been reporting their experiences with CF express cards and the latest firmware.


So my first experience of lockup was with the Canon Connect App. Then I too had issues where it was locking up when writing to the SD card. Usually I am shooting H+ in Servo with fast shutter speeds to capture birds in flight. I've read everyone's discussion about it possibly being the SD cards they are using. But more recently while on vacation it just started locking up when just using the animal eye auto focus to track birds. Had not even taken shots! So I know it's not the SD card. I got an Error 70 msg one time on the screen when this happened out of around 6-7 times that it froze just using the animal eye auto focus option. I do have the camera set up for 2 back btn focus with one being spot auto focus and the other being the animal eye auto focus. It will be interesting to see what they come back with when I get the camera back.


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## macrunning (May 19, 2021)

koenkooi said:


> The app has both a wifi and bluetooth trigger, for standalone use you can get the Canon BR-E1.


I am aware that is has both Bluetooth and wifi for the app. Also from what I've read the Canon Br-E1 is limited in it's ability to work with the camera. From what I understand is that you need to put your camera on the 2sec or 10sec timer. I don't want that. I want to be able to hit the btn on the trigger and take a shot at that time. Plus it's waaaaaay over priced.


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## Frodo (May 19, 2021)

macrunning said:


> I am aware that is has both Bluetooth and wifi for the app. Also from what I've read the Canon Br-E1 is limited in it's ability to work with the camera. From what I understand is that you need to put your camera on the 2sec or 10sec timer. I don't want that. I want to be able to hit the btn on the trigger and take a shot at that time. Plus it's waaaaaay over priced.


Here in New Zealand, there are big variations in the price of the BR-E1. I got it for a price I thought was quite reasonable.
It is a bit of a hassle to connect: turn Bluetooth on in camera, turn drive to 2 or 10 second selftimer. But then it operates instantly, until you take a photo using the shutter, when the self timer kicks in.
In contrast, a remote release simply plugs in and needs no setting changes and can be bypassed with the shutter button.


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## digigal (May 20, 2021)

This is a follow up to my running series of posts about my R5 crashes/freezes which required removing the battery to reboot. It seemed, in my case to occur when shooting in the H speed mechanical mode with my EF Canon 100-400 lens. Replacing the motherboard did NOT resolve the issue. I purchased the RF 100-500 lens and the RF 1.4 TC and have switched to the H+ mode (some mechanical and some 1st curtain electronic) and have shot over 25, 000 pictures WITHOUT a crash or freeze. Same cards, batteries, other BBF settings, some even more extreme hot/cold temps. Don't ask me to put the EF 100-400 back on--it still works fine on all my other gear including the R so I'm not going there!
Catherine


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## koenkooi (May 20, 2021)

Chris.Chapterten said:


> [..]
> I have heard about counterfeit cards. I bought mine from B&H photo so have no reason to doubt it’s authenticity. Very curious to see if the new firmware resolves the issue. But very few people have been reporting their experiences with CF express cards and the latest firmware.


Sandisk have had a few cases where counterfeits entered the official channels, so getting it from B&H isn't a 100% guarantee. It is miles better than Ebay or Amazon, though. I haven't heard about any new cases in the past 5 years or so, which hopefully means Sandisk is in full control of the channels nowadays.


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## docsmith (May 20, 2021)

digigal said:


> This is a follow up to my running series of posts about my R5 crashes/freezes which required removing the battery to reboot. It seemed, in my case to occur when shooting in the H speed mechanical mode with my EF Canon 100-400 lens. Replacing the motherboard did NOT resolve the issue. I purchased the RF 100-500 lens and the RF 1.4 TC and have switched to the H+ mode (some mechanical and some 1st curtain electronic) and have shot over 25, 000 pictures WITHOUT a crash or freeze. Same cards, batteries, other BBF settings, some even more extreme hot/cold temps. Don't ask me to put the EF 100-400 back on--it still works fine on all my other gear including the R so I'm not going there!
> Catherine


I have only had 1 freeze.....but it was with the 100-400 II. 

But, very glad you seem to be sorted out at this point!!


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## Chris.Chapterten (May 20, 2021)

koenkooi said:


> Sandisk have had a few cases where counterfeits entered the official channels, so getting it from B&H isn't a 100% guarantee. It is miles better than Ebay or Amazon, though. I haven't heard about any new cases in the past 5 years or so, which hopefully means Sandisk is in full control of the channels nowadays.


Wow, I didn’t know this. Mine was bought in September of last year, so fingers crossed... I no longer have the original packaging but will check the card anyway just to be sure


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## AlanF (May 20, 2021)

Chris.Chapterten said:


> Wow, I didn’t know this. Mine was bought in September of last year, so fingers crossed... I no longer have the original packaging but will check the card anyway just to be sure


I would guess that fake CFExpress cards are not that common yet, but that's just a guess.


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## Bestpix (May 25, 2021)

I have had 2 lockups recently, only since Itarted using the CFexpress card, never happened when I used just the SD slot. I bought the SAndisk CFexpress from Amazon Aus although it was shipped from Amazon UK. Not a third party supplier, is there an easy way to check if it genuine?

Also it should be noted that I was using high speed mechanical shutter both times it locked up.


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## dpockett (May 26, 2021)

I bought mine under 2 weeks ago, it froze on Saturday and Sunday. I was using old SD cards until my CFexpress and V90 SD cards arrived, which they did yesterday. Hasn't frozen since, will be giving it a good test over the coming weekend.

Using the latest firmware.

I checked with Sandisk about the new cards, they said mine (from amazon) were genuine. Never had issues with my old SD cards in 5D3.

Seems like a bit of a random issue not pinpointed to anything in particular.


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## photoguy16 (Aug 4, 2021)

I’ve had I’d guess a dozen lockup’s in the past 15 months. It seems to occur when I’m shooting a sequence of a lot of images. This past Saturday I was shooting gymnasts on a trampoline in slow speed continuous and it locked up. Battery out then in and it was back working. I use a Sandisk 128GB CF Express card bought from B&H so I have to believe it’s not counterfeit.

I sent it in for repair although I’m not optimistic they actually know the root cause. The survey says 50% have experienced a lockup. That seems extremely high to me and cause for concern.

I hope this does not turn into another bad experience with Canon. My last was the 1D Mk III focusing problem. It was never resolved fully. My 5D’s were all pretty rock solid.


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## TMT (Sep 20, 2021)

Bought my R5 in June and RF 100-500 in July. Shooting manually, using Canon and non-Canon batteries, high-end CF Express and SD cards (Raw and L jpg) at the same time, etc. I have only experienced freezing when using the RF 100-500 and shooting in rapid-fire mode. While inconvenient, I can probably live with it as a) it doesn't happen regularly; b) it's an easy fix (pop out the battery); c) haven't lost any data and d) I do not want to be without this camera for an extended period as others here have sent their cameras in only to experience the same issues later. If Canon decides to do the right thing and have a recall. then I will consider sending it in.


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## photoguy16 (Sep 20, 2021)

Mine froze half a dozen times over the past year. Sent it in for service. They replaced the main PCB. So far no more freezes.


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## AlanF (Sep 20, 2021)

Mine has frozen twice in about 50,000 shots now - and it just required switching off and back on, and not removal of battery. It's not going in for service.


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## dpockett (Sep 21, 2021)

photoguy16 said:


> Mine froze half a dozen times over the past year. Sent it in for service. They replaced the main PCB. So far no more freezes.


They replaced mine about 10 freezes ago also, turns out it isn't the cause, with mine anyway. Good luck with yours though.


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## bergstrom (Oct 3, 2021)

Have you all read the public statement from canon about this? 

That's right, there was none.


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## 80kms (Oct 19, 2021)

my R5 will freeze and actually will lose the shots in the buffer. I have not been able to pin point the cause as it happens with various lenses and setups. very frustrating. It freezes and comes back, but drops the shots.


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## VegasCameraGuy (Oct 19, 2021)

AlanF said:


> As there are several reports now of the R5 freezing and requiring battery removal and replacing to restart, let’s get some more information on what proportion of owners have the problem.


I've had mine for over a year now and the only freeze was the first time I put my 100-500 on it and got Error 70. That happened once. I think a lot of this is memory card related.


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## Pixelparty (Nov 12, 2021)

My R5 has been working fine for months until today. I had been out shooting on and off for an hour or so and then took some video until it froze. It was locked in place as if it was still recording. I switched it to power "off" yet it continued to read as if it was still recording. Aside from the display info, the screen was black and wasn't trying to focus on anything. After a few minutes of resting the camera as I was trying to be patient, it seemed to feel a bit warmer. I worried it may overheat, so I removed the battery. It's back to normal now, but that was very odd. I did not get an overheating warning at all prior to this. The attempted video was not recorded at all.


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## AlanF (Feb 10, 2022)

I am bumping this thread to get more responses.


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## 80kms (Feb 10, 2022)

Mine still locks up and cant be used for critical situations as I just can't chance dropping images. I can not pin point the cause, as it happens using various lenses and cards and at various stages of battery levels. I think I got a lemon.


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## Pixelparty (Feb 10, 2022)

My Canon never locked up or reset prior to the most recent update. I wonder if that has something to do with it. Now it seems to happen while I am trying to focus on my subject.


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## 80kms (Feb 10, 2022)

I was hoping the latest firmware would fix the issue, but no such luck.


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## koenkooi (Feb 11, 2022)

I had a lockup once in the 1.5 years I've had my R5.


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## Viggo (Feb 11, 2022)

Reports coming out from people who spoke to Canon reps that said a new firmware is coming to address the lock ups “shortly”.


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## danfaz (Feb 11, 2022)

Mine did for the 1st time the other day. I was using an adapted EF 135mm lens. I've had the 1.5.0 update since release, and never an issue til I used that lens. Weird.


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## RGB49 (Feb 25, 2022)

New lockup problem with Ver 1.5.1,
Today took the R5 out with 1.5.1 update installed after having a minor problem of lockup with ver 1.5 previously. The camera was in custom mode using BBF and servo/single shot on other configurable buttons and had a problem with it locking up upon pressing AF on. 1st time switching off reset everything OK, 2nd time had to remove batteries as well. 
This didn't just happen with my R5 but a friend who was with us had an even worse scenario where the R5 was constantly locking up.
point of interest after switching R5 off the shooting info was still showing in the top screen, but obviously couldn't alter anything.
I never had any problems using BBF on Ver 1.4.
Has anyone else seen problems with this ver?


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## AlanF (Feb 25, 2022)

RGB49 said:


> New lockup problem with Ver 1.5.1,
> Today took the R5 out with 1.5.1 update installed after having a minor problem of lockup with ver 1.5 previously. The camera was in custom mode using BBF and servo/single shot on other configurable buttons and had a problem with it locking up upon pressing AF on. 1st time switching off reset everything OK, 2nd time had to remove batteries as well.
> This didn't just happen with my R5 but a friend who was with us had an even worse scenario where the R5 was constantly locking up.
> point of interest after switching R5 off the shooting info was still showing in the top screen, but obviously couldn't alter anything.
> ...


Not me, both the R5 and R6 are working fine on 1.5.1, but that doesn't prove anything. I have both the AF-on and * buttons for different AF, modes, full eye tracking and point, respectively. I use servo in all modes.


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## 80kms (Feb 26, 2022)

damn thing froze twice shooting a football game last night. v1.5.1 using BBF in servo mode. EF 300mm f2.8 lens with adapter. I give up!


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## Viggo (Feb 26, 2022)

I’m so curious about what causes the freezes, it’s so widespread and it’s not the same number of freezes for everybody. Some experience 20 freezes in 15 minutes and some more seldom. And I’ve never ever had a single lock up, so what’s the difference?


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## RGB49 (Feb 26, 2022)

Viggo said:


> I’m so curious about what causes the freezes, it’s so widespread and it’s not the same number of freezes for everybody. Some experience 20 freezes in 15 minutes and some more seldom. And I’ve never ever had a single lock up, so what’s the difference?


I believe its something to do with customisation set ups, but also the firmware version itself, I never had any problems within Ver 1.4, the odd lockup with 1.5 but more with 1.5.1. 
I wish I could reset back to 1.4 but EOS utility won't let it happen, it did from 1.5 to go back to 1.4 but not in the latest ver.


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## YuengLinger (Mar 7, 2022)

Viggo said:


> I’m so curious about what causes the freezes, it’s so widespread and it’s not the same number of freezes for everybody. Some experience 20 freezes in 15 minutes and some more seldom. And I’ve never ever had a single lock up, so what’s the difference?


Define your use of "widespread," and back it up with something other than "A lot of posts."
Thanks!


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## Viggo (Mar 8, 2022)

YuengLinger said:


> Define your use of "widespread," and back it up with something other than "A lot of posts."
> Thanks!


If you haven’t been living under a rock since the R5 was released I’d say you already know how widespread this is. The definition of widespread is when Canon releases a firmware to fix it, and use the phrase “in rare cases”.


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## YuengLinger (Mar 8, 2022)

Viggo said:


> If you haven’t been living under a rock since the R5 was released I’d say you already know how widespread this is. The definition of widespread is when Canon releases a firmware to fix it, and use the phrase “in rare cases”.


I don't know what threshold Canon has for responding with a FW update, but, you are right, they took the complaints seriously enough to target the freezing/lockups with a minor update.

But the same posters who complained before 1.5.1 are complaining after it. I'm not sure Canon engineers even knew what they were trying to fix. It seems the variables and the combinations of possible culprits is approaching infinity.

So, my understanding is that your definition of "widespread" is a problem addressed by a FW update. Fair enough, but I'm still curious about the percentages. Supply chain issues may have resulted in some willingness by Canon to go with new sources for parts, and no matter how well engineered or programmed the R5 is, a part that is slightly dodgy, combined with memory cards that are also seeing new sources of parts, and Canon and aftermarket batteries that might or might not be involved...

Fortunately, the problem is not affecting me. That's all I can say with certainty regarding R5 lockups. And I can say with certainty I haven't had any of the AF troubles you've had with pretty much every camera you've had. This should not, however, make me blind or insensitive to the problems others are having.

I'm also curious about whether other brands are going through similar cycles of elusive issues.


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## 1D4 (Jul 1, 2022)

My R5 has never frozen (other than lens errors with my RF70-200) until today. Haven't changed anything (same settings, same SD card, etc.) -- it just happened out of the blue. Turned it on, looked through the EVF and it was black. Took my eye off the EVF and back on, and nothing. Tried turning the camera off, and the top LCD stayed on, with all my shooting settings still showing. Popped out the battery, the camera finally shut down...put the battery back in and turned it on, and it started functioning normally again. I've been on the latest R5 and 100-500 firmware for a while now (updated them as soon as both were released).


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## JPAZ (Aug 16, 2022)

Still getting an occasional error "writing to card 2" which I fix by powering down, popping the sd card out then reinserting, and moving forward. Am going to update to 1.6 this week but it is such an intermittent problem that I won't know if it matters.


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## 80kms (Aug 16, 2022)

I found the error happened more when using back button focus in servo mode.


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## cmraman (Dec 16, 2022)

VegasCameraGuy said:


> I've had mine for over a year now and the only freeze was the first time I put my 100-500 on it and got Error 70. That happened once. I think a lot of this is memory card related.


What is the possible relationship with the memory card with this? I just got 2 R5, so far one has done it 3 times in my first outing. I had my 200-400 f.4 with built in 1.4 extender adapted to my camera, wasn't until later I was in Electronic 1st curtain shutter. it would do it at the beginning of my burst, then I shut it down and started and it was fine. But again kept reoccurring. I am still in testing phase and haven't tried all my EF lenses yet to see if this happens and it's only been on one body so far. I should add I was writing to a new prograde CF express 256 type B card.


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## unfocused (Dec 17, 2022)

cmraman said:


> What is the possible relationship with the memory card with this? I just got 2 R5, so far one has done it 3 times in my first outing. I had my 200-400 f.4 with built in 1.4 extender adapted to my camera, wasn't until later I was in Electronic 1st curtain shutter. it would do it at the beginning of my burst, then I shut it down and started and it was fine. But again kept reoccurring. I am still in testing phase and haven't tried all my EF lenses yet to see if this happens and it's only been on one body so far. I should add I was writing to a new prograde CF express 256 type B card.


A lot of people have tried to tie it to memory cards, but there is no evidence that there is any relationship. Nor is there any evidence it is related to lenses. In fact, there is no simple or even complex cause and effect relationship, despite what some people think. Some individual cameras seem more prone to it than others. If you have a new camera that does it regularly, I'd suggest a return. At least one forum participant was having issues almost every time they shot. I have had intermittent issues with two R5s (one is my wife's) and one R3. Recent firmware updates seem to have made some improvement, but have not fixed the issue. 

It took quite some time, but Canon has apparently now acknowledged the problem exists (based on their attempted firmware fixes) but they have not resolved it. Whatever the cause, it is apparently very difficult to diagnose and correct.


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## tron (Yesterday at 1:36 PM)

Once when in firmware 1.5.2 trying a semi-macro shot with 85mm f/2 lens.

SInce then I have upgraded to 1.7.0 and took a few thousand shots with no lockups yet


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