Strange 300D "autofocus mirror" problem

[joust]

My 300D has an interesting problem. The "autofocus" mirror (it's the mirror that seems to sit behind the main mirror that you can see when you look into the body of the camera without a lens) isn't "popping up out of the way" when the shot fires, leading to half of the sensor being covered up by it.

AFAICT the autofocus mirror is sprung loaded, and is meant to get out of the way when the viewfinder mirror moves up (presumably by just the sheer force of the mirror moving up) and then flip back down when it comes down (again I assume just by the force of the mirror moving).

I can happily "pop" the mirror out of the way (put the camera into sensor clean mode, and just gently push up on the mirror), and it then stays attached all the time to the main mirror, but then autofocus doesn't work. If I then pull it back down (it's sprung loaded and easily "pops" back into place, autofocus works fine, but then half the sensor is obscured on each shot.

Does anyone have any pointers to any known issues with this, or is it a trip back to Canon to get it sorted?

Thanks,

J

[Podie]

Are you getting an error message on the LCD?

[joust]

Nope.

Looks like I might need a new mirror (ah - the power of google...)

http://photography-on-the.net/forum/a
http://photography-on-the.net/forum/s

and

www.abo.fi/~jskata/300Drepair/

Looks like the lever that flips up/down the secondary mirror has broken, off to Canon it goes (or I might try that self repair process and heck, I might just buy a 5D whilst I wait for it.... )

J

Edited by joust on Wednesday 14th June 11:40

[Podie]

joust said:

Nope.

Looks like I might need a new mirror (ah - the power of google...)

http://photography-on-the.net/forum/a
http://photography-on-the.net/forum/s

and

www.abo.fi/~jskata/300Drepair/

Looks like the lever that flips up/down the secondary mirror has broken, off to Canon it goes (or I might try that self repair process and heck, I might just buy a 5D whilst I wait for it.... )

J

Edited by joust on Wednesday 14th June 11:40

Send it to Canon

[prelude4ws]

weird, my wife's 300D has also just been fixed for a very similar problem!

We took ours to Colchester camera repairs, took them about 2 weeks as they are very busy. they are one of only 3 approved canon repair centres in the UK. They should be able to give you a quote over the phone as its apparently a common prob on 300D's after about 10k images.

[rude girl]

prelude4ws said:

its apparently a common prob on 300D's after about 10k images.

That's handy to know, I won't panic so much if it happens to mine then. Thanks

[prelude4ws]

rude girl said:

prelude4ws said:

its apparently a common prob on 300D's after about 10k images.

That's handy to know, I won't panic so much if it happens to mine then. Thanks

Perhaps more useful would be that Canon will (if pushed a bit) fix it under warranty even if the warranty ran out some time ago.

[joust]

I was going to write a 'dissapointed' letter to them this week, I'll report back.

I have a feeling this sounds like a design fault, and I doubt if it would be considered 'fair wear and tear' under a claim under the Sales of Goods Act so we'll see what happens.

I'll report back.

J