Trouble with 30d. No shutter response.

aero-nut

Hey dgrinners,

I've had my Canon 30d now for about a year, and have not had a problem until now. Randomly, during a friend's wedding last night, my 30d started acting up. Usually the response time between when I press the shutter button fully, and the time when the shutter fires is very quick. It now takes approx 3-10 seconds of holding down the shutter button fully before the camera decides to take the picture. I noticed this only seems to happen when the lens is set on AF. It appears that the camera auto-focuses fine...very quickly..usualy within a half a second, but then the shutter doesn't fire until several seconds later. Very strange. I've tried it with multiple lenses. I've tried removing the battery and the backup battery. I've tried resetting the camera to defaults...to no avail. I've never heard of this happening with a dSLR. Any suggestions? Hard reset? Contact canon?

Thanks.

-Aero-nut

CookieS

Check and make sure you do not have it on self timer mode

aero-nut

CookieS wrote:

Check and make sure you do not have it on self timer mode

Hehe..yeah that's the first thing I checked. It doesn't matter what mode it's in...the lag seems to be a variable time between 2-10 seconds (not the usual timer period). I've taken about 4000 shots with this camera, and it has never had this lag before. The best way I can describe it is that it has to sit there and "think" before taking the shot...even though AF already locked on.

ziggy53

aero-nut wrote:

Hey dgrinners,

I've had my Canon 30d now for about a year, and have not had a problem until now. Randomly, during a friend's wedding last night, my 30d started acting up. Usually the response time between when I press the shutter button fully, and the time when the shutter fires is very quick. It now takes approx 3-10 seconds of holding down the shutter button fully before the camera decides to take the picture. I noticed this only seems to happen when the lens is set on AF. It appears that the camera auto-focuses fine...very quickly..usualy within a half a second, but then the shutter doesn't fire until several seconds later. Very strange. I've tried it with multiple lenses. I've tried removing the battery and the backup battery. I've tried resetting the camera to defaults...to no avail. I've never heard of this happening with a dSLR. Any suggestions? Hard reset? Contact canon?

Thanks.

-Aero-nut

I seem to recall something remotely similar when the camera side lens contacts were dirty. Try cleaning the contacts with a pencil eraser.

aero-nut

ziggy53 wrote:

I seem to recall something remotely similar when the camera side lens contacts were dirty. Try cleaning the contacts with a pencil eraser.

Ok, will try that. I also tried blowing compressed air around the shutter button, thinking maybe there was a dirty contact in the switch. It acutally seemed to help the problem quite a bit. Maybe the camera just needs a good cleaning.

claudermilk

ziggy53 wrote:

I seem to recall something remotely similar when the camera side lens contacts were dirty. Try cleaning the contacts with a pencil eraser.

I don't like tghe idea of using an eraser. I prefer to just use a tissue wetted with rubbing alcohol first. The eraser is abrading the contact surfaces, making it more likely to get dirty faster & eventaully will damage the coatings. This is the one place I really get paranoid & anal about the cleaning.

ziggy53

claudermilk wrote:

I don't like tghe idea of using an eraser. I prefer to just use a tissue wetted with rubbing alcohol first. The eraser is abrading the contact surfaces, making it more likely to get dirty faster & eventaully will damage the coatings. This is the one place I really get paranoid & anal about the cleaning.

As long as it is a "pink" vulcanized rubber type eraser, it usually does not have abrasives. You are right to avoid abrasive erasers, like those on certain erasable stick pens or even some drafting erasers.

When in doubt, try it on a US penny or somesuch to see if there is abrasion or just friction and stiction.

Also be concerned about the rubber partcles getting into the camera body, where they can be difficults to remove. I recommend holding the camera so that the particles fall away from the camera, and then using a lint free cloth to wipe any residue away from the camera.

tobers

I had something similar - turned out to be a dodgy memory card. In some circumsstances the power would not switch off even though the actual switch was off.