500D has a mind of its own

Peter-T

Peter-T

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Pete
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My 500D (which is actually a Rebel T1i) has developed a mind of its own. Ive had it for just over a month now and its worked brilliantly up untill this evening.
The other day i bought a cheapo wireless flash trigger; cost me £30 but i just wanted to experiment with off-camera flash.
It was delivered this morning so when I got in from work it was time to have a play.

I turned the sender unit on, selcted channel 1, put the batteries into the reciever, slid my flash onto the reciever and mounted the lot onto my tripod.
checked everything was turned on and connected, turned on the camera, and took a photo. No flash. I tried it a couple of times, nothing.
Turned it all off, turned it all back on, changed the batteries, nothing.
The trigger came with a short cable, one end fits into the sender unit on the hotshoe, the other into the reciever on the tripod. tried connecting that up and it still wouldnt flash.
Then i noticed that the cable end that fits into the sender is the same fitting that a wired shutter release cable has. Thought i would try that, and this is where it went mad.
The camera now, when i turn it on, it starts taking pictures, and opening the built in flash, it flashes repeatedly, changes mode settings (i.e M to Av, Tv etc) it autofocuses when the lens is set to manual focus. The shutter release button doesnt work, nor the menu button, none of them do. The scroll wheel on the top works for the shutter speed but for nothing else. it wont always respond to the on/off button, and it wont connect to the PC via USB.

its gone totally mad! im gutted as ive just enrolled on a photography course starting in January and now ive broken my bloody camera! :bang:

if anyone knows how I can reset the camera it would be a great help. I've tried removing the battery for several minutes etc to no avail, or anything else I can try to fix it.
:help:
Thanks in advance
Pete
 
Hmm, strange. Try taking out memory card and the battery and also try taking out the small coin battery that retains certain info (not sure where it is on the 500D). Leave it off for a good while and then turn it back on. If that doesn't fix it, try and update the firmware to see if that does the trick.
 
How about trying to reset the whole thing back to its factory default settings
 
Go into the menu option and select the last option (spanner)

~Scroll down and select clear all camera settings and press SET to confirm

It'll ask you to confirm - select OK

Once you've done this try the camera in <P> mode and select flash on and off to see if it has recovered itself!

Let uskno how you get on
 
Buck said:
Go into the menu option and select the last option (spanner)

~Scroll down and select clear all camera settings and press SET to confirm

It'll ask you to confirm - select OK

Once you've done this try the camera in <P> mode and select flash on and off to see if it has recovered itself!

Let uskno how you get on
Click to expand...

i cant do any of that, my buttons dont work, i cant get onto the menu...
 
OK

OK, try this

Remove the main battery

Remove the SD card

Leave for 5-10 mins and then reinsert the main battery
 
Sorry, re-read your post and realised you'd tried the battery out option.

The 500D does't have a user-removable time/date battery so you will need to leave the battery out for some time to drain this 2nd battery :(

...unless anyone else has any ideas?
 
Buck said:
OK

OK, try this

Remove the main battery

Remove the SD card

Leave for 5-10 mins and then reinsert the main battery
Click to expand...

battery has been out for about 20mins, just put it back in, soon as i turned it on, it popped up the flash and started taking photos by itself. I can now change the shutter speed and the aperture with the scroll wheel, but no other buttons work
 
Buck said:
Sorry, re-reade your post and realised you'd tried the battery out option.

The 500D does't have a user-removable time/date battery s you will need to leave the battery out for some time to drain this 2nd battery :(

...unless anyone else has any ideas?
Click to expand...

i'll leave the battery out now till tuesday when everywhere is back open, i've emailed canon customer support so hopefully this'll get sorted!
thanks very much for your replies :)
 
you plugged a flash into your shutter release port ?
try connecting a normal shutter release button into the port to see if that "resets" the port ?

that's the only thing i can think of. what possessed you to do that though ?!
 
it autofocuses when the lens is set to manual focus.
Click to expand...
How can a lens auto focus when in manual focus, its impossible as the switch releases the focus ring so it can be used manually. :thinking:
 
recrudesce said:
you plugged a flash into your shutter release port ?
try connecting a normal shutter release button into the port to see if that "resets" the port ?

that's the only thing i can think of. what possessed you to do that though ?!
Click to expand...

no luck. tried that, nothing happened!

Andy said:
How can a lens auto focus when in manual focus, its impossible as the switch releases the focus ring so it can be used manually. :thinking:
Click to expand...

exactly! i dont know what its doing?? :bang:

ive left the normall battery out for 4 days now hoping the internal battery would die and reset the camera, but it hasnt, and the break from doing nothing has not fixed it.
I emailed canon helpdesk, and got a reply last night. they said it would have to be fixed at a service center. the closest center on the canon website to me is over an hours drive away :( im a little worried about how much this would cost me aswell!

any more suggestions people?? :(
 
well im no expert (which doesnt help obviously) but the one thing i could probably solve is that the on board flash has a pre fire thing used to get correct exposure. also have you switched the lens and the body to manual focus, that might solve a problem.
 
nope, lens has stopped focusing itself but still none of my buttons work :( i'll ring the canon helpdesk tomorrow morning
 
what happens if you take the lens off ?
 
When you phone them I would probably leave out the bits about connecting a flash trigger to the remote shutter port on the camera.

You may have a problem regarding buying a US T1i and using it in the UK if thats where you are international warranties and all that.
 
Little John said:
When you phone them I would probably leave out the bits about connecting a flash trigger to the remote shutter port on the camera.

You may have a problem regarding buying a US T1i and using it in the UK if thats where you are international warranties and all that.
Click to expand...

yeah, i left that bit out, looks like its going to stoke-on-trent (about an hours drive away) to be repaired when i can get hold of the place. thats the nearest canon repair center to me! :( oh well. as long as i get it back before my holiday i dont care!
 
Well the camera has been sent off to the repair place, theyve told me it needs a new PCB which i take to be a printed circuit board, its costing me £216.20 to be fixed which im abit gutted about, but oh well. i'll have it back for my holiday!

on another bad point, i bumped my car today into a church wall after sliding on the snow! :( thats more money again! :(
 
Peter-T said:
Well the camera has been sent off to the repair place, theyve told me it needs a new PCB which i take to be a printed circuit board, its costing me £216.20 to be fixed which im abit gutted about, but oh well. i'll have it back for my holiday!

on another bad point, i bumped my car today into a church wall after sliding on the snow! :( thats more money again! :(
Click to expand...

:( Sorry to hear about that. Not a great time for you then. But isn't bumping into a church wall punishable by lightning strike? I'm just saying, watch out.

Tom N.
 
TommyPhoto said:
:( Sorry to hear about that. Not a great time for you then. But isn't bumping into a church wall punishable by lightning strike? I'm just saying, watch out.

Tom N.
Click to expand...

lol that did make me laugh!
he can lighting strike mother nature, not me lol
thanks for your comments both!
 
ouch £216 for a 1 month old camera that failed, ok possibly due to user error but ouch, I'm so happy I bought mine in the UK and not the states if thats what canon warranty is like for US items. If it starts to do funny things it will go back to the shop.
 
Yeah, im starting to wish i'd bought in the UK now. I've got the company I bought from in New York phoning me next week, see what we can work out??
 
Sorry to hear about the repair cost and your car Peter (oh and the potential lightning strike too!)

Hope you can work something out with the NY store (even if it means sending it off to them for an exchange/repair)

For your holiday it might then be worth looking at hiring a 500D...
 
Thanks for your kind comment Buck. I can't believe how badly 2010 is going already lol and now 2 weeks before i fly to Bulgaria to go SNOWBOARDING, we get like a foot of snow!
 
as it happens as i had the bump this afternoon, i was testing out my manfrotto car suction mount whilst borrow my parents video camera. so I have a short video of me spinning the car ans bumping the wall! lol
 
Need to see that film!

Also, wait till the end of the snow and ice before doing any car repairs, cos the law of sod says that you fix it, to bump it again!
 
Right, ive been in touch with H Lehmann a couple of times. Thay have said that they have been waitingfor a part since the 13th that is due in tomorrow and if it arrives tomorrow, then it will be fixed by wednesday. Just in time for them to post it back to me RMSD just in time for my holiday on Saturday!! talk about cutting it fine. I'll be calling them again wednesday to check if its been done, Fingers crossed!!
 
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