shutter/mirror repair on Canon rebel eos gII

[kmillican]

I was out today doing a photoshoot for a friend.  The camera operated fine untill halfway through the second roll.  When I pressed the shutter release button, it seemed like it would stick open....all i could see through the viewfinder was black.  The camera would then randomly take one or two shots by itself.  I thought it was the batteries, but the battery meter was giving off full charge.  Arrived home to check it out and the mirror would stick in the up position but the shutter will function properly.  I'm thinking maybe using some compressed air to remove any dust that might be causing it to stick, but not sure how the air will effect any other components.  Thank you for any feedback you may provide.

kevin

[nelsonfoto]

Damn, I thought you fell off the planet. Good to see you around.

I have no help for you, but hope you find some here.

Best wishes,
C.

[kmillican]

nah...just been extremely busy.  and of course a problem came up so i turned to those who would know best lol.  

kevin

[ImageMaker]

You want to be pretty careful with compressed air inside SLRs, especially those with multi-leaf metal shutter curtains; you can disarray the curtains and make things worse instead of better.

I'm not very familiar with the Rebel line, but from the little I do know, it sounds as if the shutter release contacts might be sticking.  Cleaning under the release button might be indicated (and no, I can't help you with actually doing that; I've never even handled that model).

[Graham Serretta]

As this camera does not have mirror lock-up or mirror pre-fire, I will ask the obvious - is the self timer perhaps engaged, and are all of the contacts on the rear lens mount and on the camera lens mount clean?  besides these points and a battery problem, I can't think of any other obvious reason for the behavoit that you describe.

[melek]

Another thing to be mindful of when using compressed air is that it sometimes can blow dust or debris around so that it lodges between the prism and the focusing screen. It doesn't affect using the camera, of course, but it's annoying to see debris in the viewfinder.

However, if this camera uses mirrors rather than a prism, perhaps this doesn't apply.

I also might check the contacts, as well as inserting a new battery. Sometimes "new" batteries aren't that new, and you can occasionally run into a very weak battery out of the package.

Then again, maybe you've simply reached the useful end of the shutter's life.

OT: There's a guy on DPreview who shot 11,000 photos in a month with a new digital camera and then returned it to the store saying he wasn't satisfied with it, got a refund and then bought the next higher model (read the thread here).

[kmillican]

thank you for the replies.  i'll just take it in to get cleaned when i get a chance to.  that sounds safer than doing it myself and using compressed air lol.  it may be time for new batteries since the ones i have in it now have had a lot of use.

[jake]

Mirror cushion sticky? That little strip of foam that the mirror hits at the top of its flip-up can get sticky. I know this is a relatively new camera, so I actually have no idea, but in the old days....12 minutes ago.... Might check nonetheless. Sounds though like a plastic gizmo gone in the whatchamacallit though.

Time for a Canon F1!

J Ake :twisted: