What is error 99?

[uglyduckling]

My EOS Rebel shows ERROR 99 and won't take pictures. Says to turn camera on & off, but nothing works. What's the problem?

 

[Ubrales]

Welcome to Tom's Hardware Forums!

Here is some info and the fix for you:
http://www.gadgetvenue.com/canon-error-99-firmware-update-10282257/
http://www.advancecamera.com/2012/02/17/canon-eos-error-99/

 

[lourendo]

ive had this problem on a friends camera before. follow these steps carefully

go into manual mode, and set the camera to shoot without cf through the menu

turn off the camera, remove lens, remove battery, remove cf.
wait about 30 minutes.

insert battery and turn on

take a picture. if you get err 99 your camera is broken and you will need to send it in for service.

insert cf card if that gives you err 99 when you take a picture then its the cf and replace it.

replace lens and take a picture.

if err 99 then its the lens or the contacts.

clean your lens contacts on both the camera and the lens

retry. if you still get err 99 and it is a valuable lens, send it in for service.

if its a cheap lens, try gently tapping it and shaking it. repeatedly zoom in and out and focus while in manual focus setting. if no results try manually changing focus ring in autofocus mode.

if not get a new lens

 

[RebelMom]

ERR99 does not mean your camera is broken! yaaaay! it means you have to keep looking until you find the problem... For myself, I have a Canon Digital Rebel EOS and I had ERR99 for over a year and never sent it in... One day I was fed up and ready to throw it out.. with that in mind, I decided to take a really good look at it, so I took the lens off, moved the little mirror out of the way, very gently of course, and in behind the mirror there is this black flappy thing that looked uneven... grabbed a small pointer stick and gave it a little nudge on the corner that looked stuck, pushing it upwards a bit until it loosened and flapped down. Viola! My camera is working again!