Canon T1i won’t automatically focus

[Rwalters93]

My camera won’t focus, I’m not use to the buttons or how they work, just what my mom showed me, but the auto focus for my regular lens will not work. Can anyone give me advice as to what I can do?

 

[beagle100]

My camera won’t focus, I’m not use to the buttons or how they work, just what my mom showed me, but the auto focus for my regular lens will not work. Can anyone give me advice as to what I can do?

is the lens switch set to "AF" ?

 

[weepete]

There's usually a small switch on the lens that says MF and AF, make sure that's switched to AF. Then put the mode dial to the green box and see if that works

 

[Rwalters93]

I’ve tried that

 

[Rwalters93]

My camera won’t focus, I’m not use to the buttons or how they work, just what my mom showed me, but the auto focus for my regular lens will not work. Can anyone give me advice as to what I can do?

is the lens switch set to "AF" ?

Yes, but it still won’t work

 

[RowdyRay]

Ok. What lens are you trying to use? Are the contacts clean?

 

[Rwalters93]

Ok. What lens are you trying to use? Are the contacts clean?

18-55mm and where exactly where are the contacts?

 

[RowdyRay]

Not the greatest of videos, but will explain what I meant. Are you getting an error code? Do you have any other lenses? Do they work?

 

[Rwalters93]

Not the greatest of videos, but will explain what I meant. Are you getting an error code? Do you have any other lenses? Do they work?

No error code & yes I have one other lens & it works fine. Thank you for the video.

 

[RowdyRay]

Not the greatest of videos, but will explain what I meant. Are you getting an error code? Do you have any other lenses? Do they work?

No error code & yes I have one other lens & it works fine. Thank you for the video.

If the contacts are clean and it still isn't working, then the lens may have something broken inside. Unless it's under warranty, not worth it to have it repaired. They can be found used for cheap.

Might be a perfect excuse to replace it with a better lens.

 

[beagle100]

Not the greatest of videos, but will explain what I meant. Are you getting an error code? Do you have any other lenses? Do they work?

No error code & yes I have one other lens & it works fine. Thank you for the video.

If the contacts are clean and it still isn't working, then the lens may have something broken inside. Unless it's under warranty, not worth it to have it repaired. They can be found used for cheap.

Might be a perfect excuse to replace it with a better lens.

yes, time to upgrade that 18-55 kit lens
www.flickr.com/photos/mmirrorless

 

[TCampbell]

The EF-S 18-55mm is a very inexpensive lens, but it doesn't have a high build-quality. It's designed with "affordability" in mind so that you can get a camera body + lens combination at a rate mere mortals can afford.... and then let you upgrade your system over time.

The replacement for it is the new EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 STM (it's the "STM" tag that is important ... that indicates the lens has Canon's new "stepper motor" technology). The stepper motor will seem quite a bit different because it's a "focus by wire" lens (when you rotate the focus ring, it's just an electronic input ... there is no mechanical linkage from the focus ring to the focusing elements within the lens). But this also means that the focus motor will only move the lens when the focus system is active (if you rotate the manual focus ring when the camera's focus system isn't active then nothing will happen.) But this new STM lens is better than the previous 18-55 in many ways... optically, build-quality, responsiveness, etc. etc. many things have been improved.

The price of the STM is only $50 more than the non-STM version and, in my opinion, it's worth every penny of those $50 for all the improvements.

If you've got some extra funds... the EF-S 17-55mm f/2.8 IS USM would be the lens to get. That lens is a lower focal ratio lens (it collects more light ... because it is physically larger) and it can provide an f/2.8 focal ratio at any focal length (unlike your currently lens which has a max aperture of f/3.5 but only at the 18mm end and it quickly drops to f/5.6. An f/2.8 lens collects 4x more light than an f/5.6 lens. That means you can shoot in darker situations without having to boost the ISO as much... or instead you could use shutter speeds up to 4x faster.)

 

[espresso2x]

My camera won’t focus, I’m not use to the buttons or how they work, just what my mom showed me, but the auto focus for my regular lens will not work. Can anyone give me advice as to what I can do?

Try taking the lens off the camera and then put it on again.

 

[Rwalters93]

The EF-S 18-55mm is a very inexpensive lens, but it doesn't have a high build-quality. It's designed with "affordability" in mind so that you can get a camera body + lens combination at a rate mere mortals can afford.... and then let you upgrade your system over time.

The replacement for it is the new EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 STM (it's the "STM" tag that is important ... that indicates the lens has Canon's new "stepper motor" technology). The stepper motor will seem quite a bit different because it's a "focus by wire" lens (when you rotate the focus ring, it's just an electronic input ... there is no mechanical linkage from the focus ring to the focusing elements within the lens). But this also means that the focus motor will only move the lens when the focus system is active (if you rotate the manual focus ring when the camera's focus system isn't active then nothing will happen.) But this new STM lens is better than the previous 18-55 in many ways... optically, build-quality, responsiveness, etc. etc. many things have been improved.

The price of the STM is only $50 more than the non-STM version and, in my opinion, it's worth every penny of those $50 for all the improvements.

If you've got some extra funds... the EF-S 17-55mm f/2.8 IS USM would be the lens to get. That lens is a lower focal ratio lens (it collects more light ... because it is physically larger) and it can provide an f/2.8 focal ratio at any focal length (unlike your currently lens which has a max aperture of f/3.5 but only at the 18mm end and it quickly drops to f/5.6. An f/2.8 lens collects 4x more light than an f/5.6 lens. That means you can shoot in darker situations without having to boost the ISO as much... or instead you could use shutter speeds up to 4x faster.)

Thank you so much! I will definitely look into that!!!

 

[Rwalters93]

My camera won’t focus, I’m not use to the buttons or how they work, just what my mom showed me, but the auto focus for my regular lens will not work. Can anyone give me advice as to what I can do?

Try taking the lens off the camera and then put it on again.

I have tried that. I’ve basically tried everything, just think it’s time to upgrade!!