Canon DReb - Error 99 - Help needed

OK, TechGods:

Hoping that you guys can tell me what I am doing wrong... My setup is this: Canon 300D in ike housing + Ike Substrobe DS125 + Ike Manual controller + ike TTL cord.

When I go to take pictures, I can take 2-3 pictures, whereafter my camera goes into the error 99 mode.

I have read that this could happen if you turn off the maunal EV controller for shooting available light pix, however, this happens to me even if my manual controller and strobe are on!

I have camera set on manual mode, the manual controller set to 0.5, and the strove set to TTL mode...

Help!!!

Marjo, I encountered this once when trying my rig for first time

last week. It really spooked me. Fortunately didnt come back

after I just shut off everything. I always turn on flash after camera :?: :?:

Lars

We can not explain this phenomenon. We have only experienced it with a lens that was not properly seated. Even had the little pin stuck in body that was not popping out into lens. Check camera manual for error causes. You might assemble without the Manual Controller to see if any of our components are at fault. Manual controller in-between power switch settings can cause strobe to signal erroneously. Turning off the strobe is the only error 99 cause we know about.

This may not even be related to your setup as quoted. I have had some odd Error 99-200 or 202 errors that are not listed in the manual. Make sure you catch the full error code if it happens again.

All I do to clear the error is to shut the camera down and then turn it back on again. Do wait until you see the write light go off before doing this of course.

I had a couple of these happen in a small time frame about a month ago but nothing since and I have almost 9000 shots on my DRebel.

Thanks for all your suggestions!

I will try all of the above, make sure that the lens is properly seated, make sure the controller is not in-between settings etc

I conclude that I must have something set wrong with the housing, controller or strobe, as I never got thgis message "on land", although I have used it quite heavily. I only had this rig in the water twice, and it happened on both occasions. Therefore I doubt that the lens would have been not well connected just on those two occasions.

Could I be using the wrong cord? I doubt it as the cord was picked out for me by the vendor who is apparently a real UW camera pro :wink: I use the 4103.51. Or could the cord be attached "backwards"? The connectors look to be the same at both ends.

Could I have the controller adjustment jumper set wrong?

I am not able to go test this at least for two days, as am in midst of systems updates at work, but will report what I find as soon as possibe. Meanwhile I would be grateful for any further suggestions

You are not perhaps using a Sigma lens are you?

Controller should be in "A" or "no preflash" position. Sync cord makes no difference because the housing only connects two conductor sync circuit. We only heard of "error 99" a few weeks ago and have not had time to devise a standard set of response lies yet. Whoops! Did I say that?

Ike,

Could this be the same problem as the "dual strobe" resistor fixed on newer Nikon cameras in the 90's? IE strobe overloads camera circuitry, causing error necessitating shut down?

When you got the strobe-camera overload on the older Ike strobes, turning camera off and on would fix the problem...

Cheers

James Wiseman

aka the only one w/ Ike strobes old enough to have experienced this...

Folks,

Ikelite electronics genius Roger and I "discovered" the ERR 99 while playing with the EV controller and an EOS 300D camera a few weeks back as Ike related. Couldn't duplicate it with any situation except lens release being hit or turning the strobe off....All single wired DS50 and DS125 strobes WITHOUT an EV controller in line fired for dozens or more flashes.

That said, I practice what is "standard" for electronic cameras and flashes as someone already posted. Camera turned on first, then any strobe, land or underwater. Any ERR shows up on the LCD (which I had this a time or two on my D100 with hard wired DS125) I shut the strobe off, then camera and restart camera first, then the strobe.

Clears whatever electronic gremlins caused the camera's electronics to go haywire.....I even had this happen with a Nikon N80 film camera a couple of times.

Hope this helps. You'll love your EOS 300D the more you shoot with it!

David Haas

davidhaas@sbcglobal.net

www.pbase.com/dhaas

We only heard of "error 99" a few weeks ago and have not had time to devise a standard set of response lies yet. Whoops! Did I say that?

Ike, that's why we love you... wouldn't be too happy with a shoppkeeper who would try to hide problems instead of trying to find solutions Hopefully you will get to the bottom of the well of wisdom on this one, I'm sure you will and we'll read about it here soon

I did discover that sometimes you can clear the err99 by turning on/off the camera, and get 2 more shots before needing to reset, however that is kind of frustrating when you try to catch the moment. Also, after a while, not even tuning camera off/on would work, the err99 would just return at the first shot.

Will be diligent about turing camera on before strobes. Although I am quite sure I did do that, I can't swear to it 100%. It would be the logical thing to do...

Will do the "camera direct to strobe" test, and also will be very careful about the resetting as per Davids suggestion.

Thanks all!

You are not perhaps using a Sigma lens are you?

Andre: Nope. I want to get the Sigma 12-24 in the future, but sofar I have not used one.

Latest findings:

Finally got home from work and intended to do test. Turned on camera. Made sure manual controller was not inbetween settings. Turned on strobe. Now strobe made pathetic suqeeling noise. Not the happy even beep you might expect, but a fluctuating painful sort of beeping noise. Also the read ready gauge lights did not come on. Stobe mod light did come on.

Is the unhappy beep just a sign of low battery or is it a sign of something going wrong?

It is a bit odd that the light would have gone empty of juice, because I charged it just before going diving and it was not a long dive, and I did not fire the strobe that many times....

That is why my DS125 does when the battery is about dead. After 5 minutes it will finally charge the capacitor and will quit making noise...Untill you fire the strobe again.

I found that the Canon 300D camera does a Hot-shoe reset and anything that is attached and does not do a handshake, will cause the error 99. Taking out the battery off a eTTL control circuit and try running with it will cause the error 99.

To solve this, make sure you don't turn off the eTTL controllers.

I'm using the Aquatica A300 housing with ICU e-TTL with DS-125

Curtis

FWIW, I have had the dreaded "Catch-99" with my DRebel with no u/w or other external equipment attached. Seems to happen most with my Canon 50mm 1.8 attached but I can't determine consistent cause for the problem.

Error 99 is a generic error message as well.

Oddly enough, last weekend I went diving and the problem was gone! I do think that I originally must have turned the stobe on before the camera or something... I guess it is really important to keep in mind not to turn on strobe first before camera,

I did notice that turning the manual controller off for available light pix sent the camera to err 99, but the easy fix is just to turn the manual controller to the lowest setting.