[shuttertalk]

I attended a beautiful wedding yesterday of a close friend, and the main photographer was a friend of theirs which had done a few weddings before. I was sitting on his table, and saw that he was using a Rebel XT / 350D with a few assorted lenses, and Sigma flashgun. Halfway through the night though, the camera wouldn't take anymore pics - with ERR 99 on the display. I'm not sure if it was the cause, but he had stepped away and left his gear on the table, and a couple of the guests started having a play around, and the camera stopped working when he got back. Hm...

He reset the camera, replaced batteries and memory cards, and I suggested changing lenses, but to no avail.

It was really unfortunate, as there were other things to be taken, such as speeches, cutting of the cake, etc. I happened to have my Nikon D50 with me so he ended up borrowing my camera... but understandably he wasn't familiar with my gear and flashgun, and most of the pics were underexposed.

Pretty sad story, and I really felt for the guy because that sort of thing could happen to anyone. I guess though that there are a few learnings if you're doing an important shoot:
- make sure you have backup gear (hard to do if you're not a pro, I suppose)
- keep your gear close, and don't leave it unattended, or securely pack it away

Any other tips people can suggest? Also has anyone seen that particular error before? Wierd...

[smarti77]

What a nightmare... Its a brave person that become a wedding photographer to begin with.

I did find this though:
http://www.richardsnotes.org/archives/20...ct-points/

...in fact it seems to be a common problem with the camera. A google search come up with a ton of similar stories. Most seemed to be caused by a non canon lens / dirty lens contacts or a card that needed to be reformated...

[shuttertalk]

Interesting... thanks for that Shane. He was using a sigma lens throughout the day, which is why I suggested changing lenses, but it didn't seem to fix the problem. And I think he had a Canon lens on at the time.