RIP Canon 300D :(

[LCARSx32]

My trusty 300D has finally bit the dust. I was taking pictures of a laptop to sell when all of a sudden the pictures started becoming mostly black, with only about a quarter of the image showing up. At first I though my built in flash got triggered some how and my shutter was outrunning it. But the flash wasn't up. Here's an example of what it's doing:

Having had another 300D who's shutter failed, I began to fear the worst. So, I took off the lens and lifted the mirror. Shutter's fine. Hmmmm. I decided to set the camera to a 30 second exposure so I could inspect the sensor (no touching, just looking). When I hit the shutter button, the main mirror slapped up like expected, but the secondary mirror (for the auto focus) stayed down. *heavy exhale*.

After a few minutes of comparing my old 300D's mechanism to the current one (the mirrors still move correctly on that one), I noticed a small peg was missing out of my new(er) one.

It turns out this is a common problem with 300D's. I found a website (while looking for the service manual, ironically) that shows how to fix the problem. Looks like I'm tearing apart a camera tonight, lol.

Here's the website I found:
300D repair adventure

I can still use the camera by flipping the secondary mirror up against the primary mirror. It will stay up. But then I don't have auto focus. It just hunts back and forth. That wouldn't be a big deal since most of my lenses are manual focus m42 mounts, but AF confirm doesn't work either.

Anyway, I just thought I'd share the solution in case anyone else ran across this issue.

 

[o hey tyler]

Damn man, that really sucks. Post some info on how the repair procedure goes. I've got my fingers crossed for you.

 

[Derrel]

Our father who art in Japan,
Hallowed be thy shutter,
Thy actuation cycle be done,
Thy black-dom come,
On-sensor as it is in night...


err...something like that...

 

[LCARSx32]

Thanks. I've got to leave for college soon, so I'll probably try tonight when I get home, as long as class doesn't take too long. All of this because of a stupid plastic peg. It looks like Canon expected it to fail, too. It's removable. I can't think of any other reason it would be removable other than they expected it to be an issue. So why didn't they just put in a METAL peg?!

Greed. That's why.

When (if) I fix it, I might just sell it and upgrade. Dunno. It's got me wondering how much life it has left.

Our father who art in Japan,
Hallowed be thy shutter,
Thy actuation cycle be done,
Thy black-dom come,
On-sensor as it is in night...


err...something like that...

:lmao: