Problems with my Rebel

[supermombritt]

I am so sad because my Rebel is not working. I push the button to take a picture and the flash will blink a little bit and the camera will never take the picture. Has anyone had this happen? Does anyone have any suggestions? I am panicked because Christmas is coming and I need my camera.

[supermombritt]

Okay, I think I need to give more details so here they are. My camera is a Rebel Xsi.

1. When I push the button to take a picture, the flash flickers/blinks.
2. When I look through my camera, not on the screen, there are numbers inside that blink. It is hard to see because they are blurry. I did notice the past few times i used my camera, things looked a bit blurry, but the picture turned out clear. Sometimes before this, it will blink busy.
3. On the screen, after I push the button, in the left hand upper corner it will blink these random numbers. Here is what they are 0"8 then 0"6 then 0"5. Another time it blinked this 1"3 then 1". Sometimes it will blink a fraction 1/15 then 0"6 then 0"5 then 1/4. I have not played with any settings on my camera (at least not that I remember) and I shoot in automatic. I can take a picture in P, Tv and in Av, but in that mode, the shutter stays closed forever. it is on F 5.0 and I can't get it to go any lower. I am able to take a picture in M and A-DEP as well.

5. I looked in my manual and it does not have anything about this in the trouble shooting guide.

Is there anywhere that I can go/call that might help me? I don't know if there is a troubleshooting place through Canon or pictureline. I was hoping someone on here might be able to help me. Many thanks in advance to anyone who might help an extremely frustrated person who wants her camera to work for Christmas.5.

[Laurie Millar]

Well...here's my best shot.

I'm not sure what's up with your flash. If you're trying to take pictures on automatic and your flash isn't working (not popping up automatically in less than ideal lighting situations) then you'll want to get that checked out.

Those flashing numbers that you're seeing, those are your shutter speeds. When you're not in manual or Tv, your camera chooses the best shutter speed for a decent exposure. So if it is dark, it will choose a longer shutter speed. Does your lens have the ability to go larger than F 5? 3.5? If so, set that in manual and as a tester try a shutter speed of 1/60 and see how your exposure comes out. Since f5 is a little smaller than I usually use, why not try upping the iso? That will speed up the shutter.

Just a brief lesson on your settings...so that you can mess around with them...
-P chooses your shutter speed and your fstop. You just choose if you want the exposure lighter or darker.
-Av is an aperture priority setting. You choose the fstop and your camera will choose a shutter speed that will give you a medium exposure. (unless you tell it otherwise)
-Tv is "time-value" so you choose the shutter speed and your camera chooses the aperture for the medium exposure.
-M as you know is where you can manipulate everything.

If the picture is blurry when you look through the viewfinder it's possible that you accidently changed the eyepiece setting. There's a little dial right by the viewfinder that has a little T and a plus or minus sign (I think...I'm pretty sure. I should probably grab my xti) anyway, there's a dial by the eye piece. Look through the viewfinder and spin the knob to adjust the clarity. It's made to adjust to your eyesight.

Sorry for the novel. Is your flash popping up? You can manually pop it up. As far as I know I don't think your camera is broken. Without looking at it, this is the best I can do. Hopefully it helps! If not, try DPS (photography forum...very helpful people) or calling Canon.

Good luck!!!

[Laurie Millar]

I forgot to mention that if your camera is flashing shutter speeds at you and won't let you take a picture, that means you need to change your shutter to at least that speed to get a decent exposure...according to the camera. Hopefully that clarifies what I was saying a little.

[supermombritt]

Thanks Laurie. I will try those suggestions. I am wondering if one of my kids got my camera and changed some things. They are 6 &8 and like buttons. I hope your suggestions work.

[supermombritt]

Laurie you solved my blurry viewfinder problem so thank you. My flash does automatically pop up, so that is good. When I look through the view finder and try to take a picture in automatic, this is what it says the number on the left said 25 then bumped up to 30. the number to the right of that said 5.0 the ISO is at 800 and the number to the right of that says 9. does that help? I relly wonder if my kids changed something because I don't know what happened between now and the last picture I took. I will try that forum you suggested as well.

[Laurie Millar]

Sounds like it's all working pretty normal. Are you taking pictures indoors where it's a little darker? It sounds like it from what I can tell. The 25 and 30 are the shutter speed...it changes based on how the camera is metering the light. They represent 1/25 and 1/30 of a second. 5.0 is the widest aperture for your lens on automatic so that's another reason why I think there's not a lot of light. The nine is a normal thing. Your camera has 9 sensors and the little dot that pops up with it is the focus confirmation.

I put my camera on automatic and tried a few lighting situations. In the darker corners I pushed the button halfway to focus and then finished pressing the button...I did have to push down a little longer so try that. Taking a picture outside was completely normal.

Let me know what you figure out!

[supermombritt]

I will give it a try. I got on the forum you told me about, but so far nobody has posted anything. 37 people have viewed it though.

[supermombritt]

Laurie here is what I was thinking I might try. I found in the manual where you can clear all the settings and it will revert back to the original ones. I tried that and when I did, my camera popped up the message busy. Is this normal?

[Laurie Millar]

Busy with the flash sign? When it says busy on the lcd and in the viewfinder that's pretty normal. Rebels aren't great for multiple shots in a row with the flash up so it takes a little longer for the flash. Hey Brittany, I'm sending you a pm