Bad habit on quick lens change???

[iND]

I have three cameras in action when I shoot a wedding just so I do not have to change lenses and settings.
I know I have my 24mm 1.4 set and ready to go, I have my 24-70mm with flash attached and another for my 70-200mm 2.8.
Even with this I find the need to change my prime lens from 24 to 50 or 85 during the wedding.

I usually do this on the fly and frequently do not turn the camera off in the process.

My question is: Is this a problem?

Are there disadvantages of not turning off the camera power when changing lenses?

[andnowimbroke]

Yep. Bad idea. Sometimes it doesn't recognize the new lens, or the contacts arc for lack of a better word and mess things up.

[Sean Setters]

Some people think the charge on the sensor when the camera is on may cause it to attract dust more readily. I'm not sure if that's the case, but it's still a good idea to power off the camera before a lens change.

[dsiegel5151]

I always forget to turn my cameras off when switching lenses. I've never had any problems, but that's not to say that this is a good thing to do. I was always told that a powered up sensor will attract more dust and that the only negative was that your sensor will get dirty faster.

iND, I see you are in St. Louis. I was up at Creve Coeur park last week and a beautiful young buck was standing right off the trail in a nice evenly lit shady spot (literally 20 feet from me). I pulled my camera up, hit the shutter, and.......WOOPS! I forgot the darn CF card!

[Sean Setters]

...I pulled my camera up, hit the shutter, and.......WOOPS! I forgot the darn CF card!

I was on a fairly involved portrait session--lights set up, assistant ready with reflectors, etc...when I realized every single CF card I had (about 6 at the time) was sitting on my desk at home. I had to give my house keys to my assistant and have him get the cards from my house while I entertained the client. Thank goodness my home wasn't terribly far away. :-)

[dsiegel5151]

I was on a fairly involved portrait session--lights set up, assistant ready with reflectors, etc...when I realized every single CF card I had (about 6 at the time) was sitting on my desk at home. I had to give my house keys to my assistant and have him get the cards from my house while I entertained the client. Thank goodness my home wasn't terribly far away. :-)

The worst part was that my card wasn't in the camera so my girlfriend could download this picture she made me take of her cat! Terrible.

[w349]

Hahaha! I'm sorry but that picture is hilarious. Kudos to your girlfriend.

[Agilulfo]

I always forget to turn off and also have bad habits as keeping the lens and body caps in the pocket. When I had a 20D I had to clean the sensor every month but I've never clean the 5DII, so the camera sensor cleaning must work fine.

...when I realized every single CF card I had (about 6 at the time) was sitting on my desk at home.

It happened to me from time to time. But them I always remember a couple of times that I opened the back of a film camera just to realize I didn't rewind. Another advantage of digital cameras, dumb proof.

[rgravel]

I never turn my camera OFF while changing lens. Hasn't caused any problems.

[Steph]

Looking at the lens rear contacts of my EF-S 17-55mm, I see that the width of the contacts are wider than the space between the contacts. That means, when one turns the lens with the camera ON, that those contacts are short-circuited. Apparently this didn't cause any problem to others, and it's perhaps even taken into account in the design, but that's not very electronics friendly IMHO.

I've done it a few times as well as removing the CF card with the camera ON but that's something I'll try to avoid.

Cheers,
S.