Anyone else have this problem with Canon Rebel? Most of the picture blacked out??

[kctwinmommy]

Last week I took the kids to the zoo, shot about 200 pictures, at least, with my Canon Rebel and the Tamron 75-300 lens. I use it a lot to get in close to those wonderful animals. Anyway, I went to my parents afterwards, and we were just sitting out front, I was snapping a few shots. I happened to look at the screen and noticed that the bottom 2/3rds was black. I thought I did something, tried again, and same thing.

My dad (a long time Canon owner) took a look at it. He's had the Rebel, which he sold to my DH, then the XTi, and now the 40D. He kept it through the next day so he could research it. It appears that the 2 mirrors in there wear out, and a spring that keeps them together, will break. Soo... according to things I've found, it's like $150-200 to repair it.

Just wondering if anyone else had this problem??

 

[Code]

Sounds to me more like your shutter has failed.. also about a $200 repair, I think.

 

[Michele]

OMG, I can't believe this thread is here. This just happened to me today. I have a Digitial Rebel. I was on my DS's 8th grade class trip to Chicago. Taking pictures fine all day until we got to the tour of Soldier Field. All of the sudden all my pictures are black on the bottom 2/3. I had a feeling it was a shutter problem.


We just booked airfare to WDW in 10 days!!!!!!! I can't afford this now!!! But I can't afford to go to WDW without my Rebel either!?!

 

[Michele]

This is getting even wierder, I just noticed you are from Chicago. What is up with Chicago and digital rebels today!?!?!?

 

[alan]

This is a fairly common problem with the Rebel, as far as I remember. But it normally doesn't occur until something in excess of 15,000 shots.

Your dealer should be able to recognise it, but I have no idea how much it will cost to have it repaired

regards,
/alan

 

[Michele]

Well, I am definitely in excess of 15,000 shots. I've had my Rebel since early 2004.

This is just terrible, there is not a camera repair in my town, have to tarvel about 1 hr and I know they are not prompt, and my 8th grader has graduation in 4 days.

Help, are there online rental places??? There are not any in my town.

 

[MarkBarbieri]

All shutters eventually wear out if they are used long enough. Canon has never published the MTBF numbers for their non-1 series cameras, although lot's of rumor numbers are floated around. The most often I hear for the Rebel series is 50,000. Even with that, there is no guarantee that your shutter will last for 50,000 clicks. In fact, depending on how the calcuate the MTBF, even the average shutter might not last that long.

I know that you can rent cameras at a shop here in Houston, but I haven't checked online. An unethical course of action would be to buy a new camera, use it while yours is being repaired, and then return it (possibly paying restocking fee). I wouldn't recommend that, though, and companies are increasingly cracking down on that sort of thing - particularly for frequently rented items like radar detectors, video cameras, and big screen TVs (especially around Superbowl time).

The sad truth is that the shutter on a camera is something that wears out. Even on the top of the line pro series cameras, they eventually fail. They are designed to last longer, but even they only have an MTBF of around 150K to 200K.

This discussion frequently draws the question of "how do I know how many times my shutter has clicked?" The simple answer is that, for Canons other than the 1 series cameras, you can't tell. Canon supposedly can, but they haven't shared that with us. The only way of knowing is by either keeping track or using the file number sequences. Even if you do know, it doesn't tell you when it will fail.

 

[Pea-n-Me]

I think I'd rather invest in a new body than drop $200 (and you know it'll be more) on a repair to the old one, where eventually, something else will probably fail.

Good luck, especially you, Michelle, with your upcoming trip. You better get hopping!!

 

[kctwinmommy]

I guess it's bad Rebel day in Chicago!! I'm taking both bodies in today, so we'll see what they say... I would LOVE a new body though!!

 

[Nikel]

I think I'd rather invest in a new body than drop $200 (and you know it'll be more) on a repair to the old one, where eventually, something else will probably fail.

I agree.


There are several places you can rent a body. I've used rentglass several times. Their pricing is pretty good, and they have some canon bodies in stock right now. http://www.rentglass.com/shop.aspx?type=Canon

 

[mabas9395]

You guys are lucky. I wish my shutter would go out so I would have an excuse to upgrade.

 

[madiscrapper24]

In January the same thing happened to my rebel(first one that came out, I got in 2004). I had been taking pics and without warning the bottom 2/3's was black. My husband and I both posted on many sites and finally I sent my camera off to canon. They said it was the sub mirror not functioning. The estimate stated it would start at $195.90 but could possibly be more if anything else found once in there.

I decided that after taking 17,000 + pics I had worn it out! I did not see putting that much money in fixing it, so I went ahead and purchased the XTI. This was several newer models than the one I had. I only had to get the body since my lenses would work on the XTI.

Now that Im hearing that more of us had this happen, makes me wonder what is going on. Good Luck on getting yours looked at.

sherri

 

[webshark3]

I'm from Chicago, and my Rebel is still going. I know I'm in excess of 60,000 clicks. Mark is right, I think they're unoffical rated at about 50,000.

Replacing the shutter is expensive on this model (well, all models; but the rebel is old). You can pick up a used rebel for about the same as a shutter replacement. Or for a bit more, a new DSLR. Buddy of my just paid $300 to replace the shutter on a Nikon D70.