Went to the Obama-Oprah rally in NH tonight... Got some decent shots of the signs, crowd, and the 'pre-show' stuff.Right as Oprah was starting to come through the door, Err 99.I figured it was the lens. I shut the camera off, removed and reattached the lens, and tried again. Still Err 99.Long story short, I tried shooting without a lens, without a CF card (and even both combined!). I took the battery out for a while, and took the CMOS battery out of a while. No matter what I did, the Err 99 is still coming up.I'm guessing that it's the shutter. (Which is a shame, since it's under 50K actuations.) But what I don't get is that if I use Sensor Clean, the shutter goes up just fine. If I use mirror lockup and take a shot, I just get a click, as if the shutter were moving, but it doesn't move. The fact that it's opening in Sensor Clean without a problem is driving me batty, though!Anything else I should try? I don't see the point in me spending time cleaning lens contacts when it's happening with no lens. (And AF and metering works with a lens, and no lens shows "00" for an aperture, so all indications are that it works fine.)And, assuming that I'm right in my diagnosis of it as the shutter, what do I do? It looks like it's about $200 to get the shutter replaced by Canon. (Is this accurate?) I'd really rather not spend that much... Is there much of a market for used 10D's with defective shutters? Or a cheaper fix?Thanks in advance!

It might not be the shutter. Is there anywhere local you can take it to get someone else to check it? Or I suppose you could call Canon.Not sure what else to suggest. But it sounds to me like something in the electricals. Might be cheap or costly to fix, but you could perhaps get a quote.

I had a similar issue with my 10D. I spent in to Canon (Jamesburg NJ).The response was $295 for labor and minor parts. They did not even per se identify the shutter. Since it is hardly worth much more than that on Ebay working, I declined the offer and had it returned.After it came back, I exercised the shutter in various settings at slow speed and in different angles of the camera battery. It went from constantly having error 99 ( no lens on it) to the point I could fire some multi exposure bursts. Since I had been using it as a backup for a while, maybe it needed some exercise ! --As with many things in life a great photograph has strong appeal for what is NOT in the picture.

I'm guessing that it's the shutter.just put a fresh battery inside, screw the lens off and run sensor cleaning. if you can't see the sensor but just the shutter, then you know what's screwed up.in case of dead shutter you should also be hearing a different sound when releasing shot. it's more dumped than usual.

I agree with the last comment, if the problem is with the shutter you should probably hear a different sound on things like sensor clean. My 10D shutter died over a period of time, I could take a few shots then the shutter would sound weird and I would have an Err 99. I would turn of the camera, wait a bit and then I could take a few more pictures. This was not a big deal since my 10D is my secondary camera, but I really like the images from my 10D so I decided to bite the bullet and pay $200 bucks and have it fixed. I am glad I did, my 10D works great and I am glad to have it back in operation.. -- http://www.cbrycelea.com/photos/

Shutter release, when (trying to) taking a picture, does sound different. A bit higher-pitched than usual. I take it this is a bad sign...Sensor clean sounds like it's taking a shot normally. I don't do it often enough to know the sound of sensor clean by heart, but I still find it really strange that it can open (and then close) the shutter with no problems for Sensor clean.

It is my understanding that if the shutter does not complete its cycle in a specific amount of time you will get an error 99 message. It could be that your shutter is gummed up or has some grit it a critical spot so that the shutter is slowed up out of tolerance.

Can I do anything about it? It LOOKS fine... The last thing I want to do is start spraying WD-40 in there, but whatcanI do to try to revive it?

I really don't know. Maybe try cycling the shutter for an hour or so while you watch tv will loosen the mechanism up. Try shooting with a long shutter speed 1 sec or so. With mine it was intermittent but seemed to get worse so I did have it services (for $200.) I still have the camera as well as a 5d and now use the 10d in areas where I might be concerned for the cameras safety.

I hadn't thought earlier of using mirror lockup to watch the shutter action better.When I press the shutter, the whole shutter shifts up ever so slightly, just a small fraction of an inch. It returns to the same place, though; I can't actually see it do that. It seems to happen as the mirror's being lifted.I'm almost positive now that it's the shutter, but I'm really not willing to send it into Canon... Before I try to sell it for parts, is there anything else worth trying?Edit: in my increasingly desperate attempts at getting the shutter to budget, I ended up gently prodding the blades upwards... This definitely didn't help anything.

The shutter is only 35 dollars and you can order from canon, and this link will let you do the change yourself.http://www.pbase.com/domotang/canon_10d_disassembly_project -- Bless Those that smile upon us, and allow us to take their picture.