dudeman44,

My first question would be: what does Canon say about this? I don't own Canon gear but Nikon is very precise in their instructions for updating the firmware of my D70 dSLR. I would think Canon would have a similar approach.

Frans Waterlander
pixographer

Canon advises to remove the lens before updating the firmwar. When I updated my 20D's firmware, I forgot that part (blame it on a senior moment) and left the lens on. The installation was successful, and the camera was working properly afterwards. I was curious about the importance of lens removal and emailed the question to Canon support. Their response was that lens removal during firmware updating is precautionary, and if the installation is successful, life is good. I suspect that things might be different with a third-party lens on the camera, but don't have any evidence for that suspicion.....

You know...I read the instructions 3x's before I started the firmware update and I still forgot to remove the lens before I started. My update completed successfully also, and the camera appears to be working great. I was just wondering if anyone had experienced problems afterward if they had left the lens on.

Life appears to be good...

Thanks all for the reply.
dudeman44

Duh! I never even thought about it, how stupid can one get! Anyhow the update went well with my 28-135 on.

MikeG

Quote:
Would anyone have any idea what would happen if you left the lens on Canon dSLR when you update the firmware (...hypothetically...)?

They recommend this because some time ago, when the 20D was still very new, there was a problem with upgrading the firmware on the 20D when you had a lens on. The upgrade could lock up the whole camera, and the only solution was to bring the camera to a Canon service center.

Even though that issue has been solved (it won't happen with a 20D that you buy new now, or with any other Canon DSLR), they recommend you take off the lens to prevent potential problems.