What did I do to my camera?

October 31, 2009 1:43 PM

What have I done to my camera (Canon Rebel Xti)?

I recently bought a used Canon in August. It has worked tremendously for the past 3 months. I haven't got around to reading much in the manual, admittedly, mostly just point and shooting.

After shooting with it last weekend and uploading the pictures, it will no longer shoot in automatic focus. It has to be set to MF. I don't remember pushing any buttons or changing any settings. When I try to take a pictures some yellow lights flash where I'm looking, but my eye sight is too poor to figure out what they mean. No battery issues, no issues when it is set to MF.

I'm a complete camera novice and have no clue what to even look for in the manual to try to resolve this. Help! I'm happy to give more description on the settings, etc - if you tell me what to look for - thanks.

posted by quodlibet to technology (22 comments total)

This might help.
posted by HopperFan at 1:48 PM on October 31

Thanks - I'm not sure if I know what to do what they are saying on that site...BUT I did figure out how to make the inside view finder more in focus so I can actually read it (it isn't just my eyesight, thank god).

Lit up inside when I hold it down on AF, is an eyeball, a number that changes (15-50), a number that is around 5.0, a 9 and a flashing dot.
posted by quodlibet at 1:54 PM on October 31

"Clear Settings" on the 5th window of your menu restores all settings to factory default.

Have fun!
posted by snsranch at 2:32 PM on October 31

Did that - no luck :(
posted by quodlibet at 2:37 PM on October 31

So are you getting any AF motor sound when trying to focus in AF?

I have two more suggestions. 1. Take the battery out for a few seconds and 2. take the lens off and check the contacts.
posted by snsranch at 2:58 PM on October 31

Also, is there an AF/MF switch on your lens?
posted by snsranch at 2:59 PM on October 31

No motor sound.

Took the lens off, everything looked clean? I don't really know what to look for though.
Did the battery, no luck.
posted by quodlibet at 3:00 PM on October 31

Does your lens have an MF/AF switch?
posted by filmgeek at 3:33 PM on October 31

Wait - I see you've mentioned it...do you have another lens?
posted by filmgeek at 3:33 PM on October 31

There's a tiny manual slidey switch on the side of the lens. Not a button that you press- a black plastic thing you slide to AF or MF.
posted by twistofrhyme at 3:35 PM on October 31

The switch probably looks like this.
posted by twistofrhyme at 3:37 PM on October 31

I have the switch, I can swap it back and forth. On MF, it takes pictures. On AF, it won't (obviously).
posted by quodlibet at 4:15 PM on October 31

No other lens, just the standard 18-55.
posted by quodlibet at 4:17 PM on October 31

Not a Canon, but the same thing happened to my Nikon. The AF motor is in the lens in that case, so this may not help...While trying to shoot in AF , very carefully, manually try and focus. Like kick starting the AF motor.
posted by Gungho at 4:22 PM on October 31 [1 favorite]

Do you have a local camera store? Take it there and try one of their lenses to see if you can isolate it to the lens or the camera.

The lights in your view finder are the light meter giving you the current shutter speed (15-50), F-stop (5.0), and that it's too dark or bright to take a good photo given those settings (the flashing light, which is probably under a scale running from minus 2 to plus 2). You want to try to get your shutter speed and F-stop tuned so that the dot is under the triangle in the middle of that scale.
posted by willnot at 4:53 PM on October 31

I believe the camera is telling you it doesn't think it can focus. On a working camera you mostly encounter that in a low light situation, or sometimes if you are pointing at something very low contrast. When testing, try being somewhere bright (outside daylight) and pointing at a high contrast subject). Also try holding down the little crosshair button and turning the wheel; that changes the autofocus point. Put it in the AF mode where it uses all points, does that help?

When you try to take the picture you should hear the focus motor running as it tries to focus in on the subject. Do you hear that? If not, maybe something is wrong with that lens' autofocus. Try another lens.
posted by Nelson at 6:02 PM on October 31

I have an XT and it sounds like you have a dead AF motor. I have a nice sigma lens that just did the same thing to me. I do have other lenses though so I am able to test to see if it's the camera or the lens. You'll probably need to get the lens serviced or replace it (the older kit lens is not very good).
posted by chairface at 6:40 PM on October 31

One possibility is that the camera is in focus-priority not release-priority mode, which means it will refuse to release the shutter unless the focus sensors see that something is focused. There should be a menu setting somewhere that puts it in release-priority, which means it will fire the shutter even if nothing is focused. I'm not a Canonite so I don't know where such a menu item will be for you, but it's a common feature/option to implement.

Of course if you're in AF mode and it's not focusing at all in good light, something might be busted. Sorry.

Since it's a Canon, the focus motor is in the lens. Try cleaning the lens' and body's contacts with isopropanol and a Q-tip (don't get any liquids or fibres in the mirror-box); if they're dirty the body will not be able to talk to the lens or the lens might not get enough power to run its focus motor.
posted by polyglot at 8:51 PM on October 31

I presume you're using the 18-55 3.5-5.6 kit lens? It's eminently possible that the focus motor could be damaged on that lens. The construction is definitely not up to the scratch of higher-spec pieces of kit.

When it's switched to AF, it should take significantly more effort to manually move the focus ring than it does when it's switched to MF. That's because this lens isn't designed to be manually focused while in AF mode, so if you were doing that, then it might've damaged the motor somewhat.

I have a 400D/XTi myself, and I used to set AF to the button on the top right back of the camera, the one with the asterisk above it. That meant that I could focus and then shoot away without the camera having to refocus every time I hit the shutter button. This will also uncouple the requirement for it to have finished autofocusing by the time it takes a shot.

If you want to do this, navigate to custom functions in the menu and then turn option 4 (the Shutter/AE lock button) to 1. It should say "1:AE lock/AF." You'll then use the AE Lock button (the one with the star) to autofocus, and a half press of the shutter will lock exposure.
posted by Magnakai at 3:58 AM on November 1

Try cleaning the contacts on the lens and camera; if that doesn't work try calling Canon tech support. I have had to send 2 cameras back to them for warranty repairs and have been very happy with their service, so if you can't fix it yourself and have to send it in it shouldn't be too much of a hassle.
posted by TedW at 5:00 AM on November 1

Happened to my 20D recently, and it turned out it was the lens. A ring inside was broken and needed to be replaced, for $130. You really don't want to drop that thing, ever.
posted by Dragonness at 10:39 AM on November 1

Alright - thanks for the help. Guess I'm off to my local camera store for their help - hopefully it's just me being a dummy and not a new part that needs replacing!
posted by quodlibet at 4:25 PM on November 1