Got my 20D back from factory service today

Had it serviced for the known flash underexposure issue. Camera's ok now,
but something else bothers me now: after I took a few test shots I noticed
that the file number index has had moved up from ~450 to ~9600. Does that
mean the folks at the service center actually took approximately 9000+ shots
with my camera while trying to calibrate it? If that's actually true, then
(assuming the shutter life on the 20D is 100,000 cycles, and that's being
optimistic since 350D allegedly only has 50,000) the life of the shutter has
been shortened by one tenth, and that's just in the 3 days that the camera
was being serviced at the center... I don't like that one bit...
Has anyone, who had the similar experience of sending their 20D (or maybe
any other Canon dSLR) to be serviced by Canon, noticed the fact the file
counter index had jumped by almost 10 thousand?


P.S. I'm going to call them tomorrow and actualy ask them (the Canon service
center) that question myself.

 

It means they replaced your "digic" with another one and it ain't new!
They're allowed to, under warranty laws... Replace or repair, says the
wording.

 

Sue the bastards.

 

Try to take a CF card from a camera that has the index number set to ie.
4000 and set it in a camera have a much loer index number. Then format the
card and try to take a picture. The new picture will get the high index
number +1...

 

No, all is fine. They just tested it with a CF card that had been used
in another camera.

The same thing happened to me when I first bought my 20D. I noticed that
the shot index seemed to be incredibly high. It was a display camera,
and I was stressing for a while that perhaps it was actually a return.
Then I found something on the web that mentioned that the file index can
increase if the CF card has been previously used in a camera with a
higher index. This made sense, because the CF cards I was using in the
20D had previously been used in my old G3.

 

Incidentally under what conditions was the flash underexposing? I posted
a message a few weeks ago about my new 20D underexposing when I bounce
the flash, but I'd since decided that I was just going to have to live
with it. Was yours underexposing all the time or just when you bounce or
diffuse the flash?

 

There may be the actual number of shutter cycles stored in the full exif
somewhere. I thought I remember reading about this somewhere once.

 

As others have said, this is normal if a CF card previouly used in another
camera was used in yours, as the camera always jumps to the last number on
the card +1.
Try it between any two Canon cameras and you'll see.

Alan.

 

Thanks, Eugene! That actually makes perfect sense (assuming that the Service
Center most likely is using the same CF card on most cameras that come in
for repair).

 

Mine was badly underexposing in plain flash set up (flash, being the main
source of light, pointed directly at the subject) both, internal or external
(the 420 in my case, which I'd borrowed from a friend).

 

Ah, OK, sounds like a different problem then. Mine works fine when
pointed directly at the subject, just seems to get confused when I
bounce or diffuse.

 

In message <433d63cb$0$19269$>,

If they had any consideration for the user, they could easily adopt a
workflow that didn't do this. In fact, nothing changes at all if they
remove your card and use USB and a computer to take test images.
--

 

Could they not just format the cards before using them?

 

In message <dhm132$1vqg$>,

That should work, too, but it is probably easier to forget.

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