Troubleshooting a Canon EOS 20D
November 26, 2016 5:41 PM   Subscribe

My neighbor lent me his Canon EOS 20D to photograph art and other merch for Etsy. I haven't dropped the camera or anything like that, but it's suddenly not turning on. Or if it does turn on, it lets me take a few pictures and then dies. There is a double battery, and both are fully charged. The red light doesn't come on when I turn it on. What can I try to fix it?
posted by mermaidcafe to Technology (7 answers total)
 
Response by poster: I just reseated the batteries again, and it let me import my photos. Maybe fixed?
posted by mermaidcafe at 5:44 PM on November 26, 2016


Are you sure the batteries are still good? The 20D is over 10 years old; if the batteries are original (or even close to it), it's likely they won't hold a charge (which might cause them to claim to be charged, but not work well).
posted by primethyme at 6:21 PM on November 26, 2016 [1 favorite]


Double batteries on the 20D would mean it's got the battery grip. Sometimes the contacts on that get tarnished, and reseating the grip might help.

You can completely remove the grip and put a single battery in, if you can't get the grip to reliably send power to the body. To do this, you'll need the battery door, which is removed when adding the grip.

The grip screws to the tripod mount with a thumbscrew just on top of the grip.
posted by tomierna at 7:07 PM on November 26, 2016


Oh, yeah, good point tomierna. It's been a long time since I've used the battery grip on a 20D, and I do recall it being a bit flaky. I'd recommend just removing it unless you really need the double batteries or vertical grip.
posted by primethyme at 8:19 PM on November 26, 2016


To do this, you'll need the battery door, which is removed when adding the grip.


The door is hopefully stored in the slot that's made for it, which is in the part of the grip that extends into the camera's battery compartment.
posted by zsazsa at 8:47 PM on November 26, 2016


As others have already pointed out, the batteries are old and may not work so well any more.

If you have to use the battery grip, try using a pencil eraser to clean the contacts. Works well for flaky lens connections as long as you carefully control the eraser sheddings so they don't fall in the sensor cavity.

Finally, old electronics are prone to inexplicable failure.
posted by bz at 9:12 PM on November 26, 2016


Response by poster: Thank you guys. This is making me feel better. Like I said, I borrowed the camera and don't want to break it.
posted by mermaidcafe at 12:31 AM on November 29, 2016


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