I have a 1D MkII that is just 4 years old. Two years ago, the shutter broke and the whole shutter box was replaced, after some 63000 activations. This weekend the shutter failed in the same way (a blade could be seen resting diagonally in front of the sensor), this time with even fewer than 60K activations since the replacement. I am having it repaired again, but somehow, I feel that there must be something else wrong mechanically that puts strain on the shutter. The specs call for 200K activations, and the camera gets heavier use by sports shooters, bird shooters and PJ's than what I do with it.

Any thoughts?

Also, has anybody replaced the plastic LCD cover on the back of the camera? The part is fairly inexpensive (about $12 from Canon), but how does it get glued back? Mine has some scratches, probably caused by the strap rubbing against it in the camera bag, and I find it annoying. I chimp a lot and the abraded area is prominent in the frame.

I also killed a 1Ds shutter at a little less than 100K actuations. It is advertised at 150K. A friend killed his at 80K. Seems like Canon either is lying to us, or their quality control system sucks. Or maybe both.

And many others are far past their advertised shutter life and still going just fine. A single-digit sample does not justify a blanket indictment of Canon...

Walter,
I did it twice (also on a 1d2). Canon sells a double-sided adhesive to attach/glue the cover on the body. Replacement is very easy and take about 10 minutes... Use a suction cup to gently remove the cover then clean the sticky stuff thoroughly. Now it becomes tricky as the adhesive tape is very fragile and sticks to everything. I ordered 10 of these inexpensive (less than $1/each IIRC) and thin tapes and wasted the first two. Once the tape is in place, just put the cover back on, apply a bit of pressure to make it stick. Make sure that the inside of the cover is clean when you put it back as fingerprints or dust will immediately be visible.

Edit: the double-sided ahesive tape was referenced as:

CB3-0079-000 TAPE, TFT DOUBLE SIDED $0.86/piece

That was in 2005, part numbers & prices may have changed.

I'm not trying to indict Canon, but I am trying to get my camera repaired so that whatever blew the shutter twice in relatively few activations doesn't do in the third shutter.

I know that when Canon says that the shutter was rated at 200K activations that is just the mean. However, I would like to see what the standard deviation is.

If there is no mechanical factor hastening the self-destruction of 2 shutter boxes, then what is the likelihood of having got two early-expiration shutter boxes on one camera?

Thanks for the heads up on the tape. I'll try it.

Be sure to order a few of these inexpensive adhesive tapes and find a quite room to do TFT cover swap.