New X-T20: Was working fine, now locks up while focusing & won't take a picture

I'm just getting into photography, bought my first mirrorless today. Snagged an X-T20 kit with the 18-55mm from a local shop, and I was super stoked. The store is very reputable.

I was using the camera for a few hours tonight and it was fine, but then randomly after changing it to High Performance mode, I was using the touch screen to focus, and the camera locked up with the green focus light blinking with the LCD still working. Even flipping the on-off didn't shut down the camera, and I had to remove the battery in order to turn it off. Now the camera does this every time I even try to focus, whether it be pressing the shutter release or touching the screen. Sometimes the screen completely locks as well and other times the screen + sensor is still active but locked.

Nothing seems to resolve the issue: I have reformatted the SD card, reset all the settings I think I am able to, and nothing seems to change. I'm quite frustrated. I had updated all of the firmware (body + lens) before ever using the camera.

Any ideas on what the issue may be??? I feel like my best bet is to just bring it back to the store, but this was their last kit, so I'm pretty bummed.

Return it.

I don't suppose there's any chance that like me, you're color blind to red and green? Maybe the indicator lamp is blinking red.

The manual says the longest shutter speed in the AE modes is 30 seconds, so before pulling the battery to reset, let at least 30 seconds pass by. Put the shutter speed dial on something fixed, like 1/60 s, to make sure this isn't an issue. Except the indicator lamp would be glowing orange if it were.

Are you experimenting outside in the daylight?

Haha, unfortunately, no I'm not color blind. I was experiementing both inside and outside with no issue. The camera froze up when I tried doing a low-light, indoor shot, ironically while watching a YoUTube tutorial on getting to know the T20. Idk how pertinent that is as it seems the issue is pretty severe. Haven't been able to take a picture. Just waiting for the store to open so that I can call them and plan on bringing it back in. I would LOVE for this to just be an issue of my own human error, but at this point the chance of that I think is near zero. I have scoured all the forums and haven't come across a single person with a similar issue. I think my best hope is the store owner doesn't turn this into a headache and I can just exchange it or wait for him to order another one.

Sounds like you got a dud. I would exchange it for a new one.

glum32 said:

Just waiting for the store to open so that I can call them and plan on bringing it back in.

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Let us know what happened at the store.

BurpeesAreHard said:

glum32 said:

Just waiting for the store to open so that I can call them and plan on bringing it back in.

Click to expand...

Let us know what happened at the store.

Click to expand...

Sorry, I just got back onto this site (new post) and saw your reply!

The store owner seemed surprised and was nice enough with allowing me to exchange it for a new kit (unfortunately they only had a black version, so I had to say goodbye to my broken graphite x-t20, oh well).

I will say that the box of the "new" kit I exchanged it for had a rip on the back that had been taped back up. Given the fact that my original kit was broken, this had me quite skeptical about the credibility of the store, but my black x-t20 has been working out issue-free for the past month. I added a used 35mm f2 to my arsenal and am looking to add the 16 f1.4 as well (the topic of my new post). Clearly, I have an addiction, but the camera and everything has been going well! I'm just super paranoid now with anything I purchase, unfortunately that's the only camera store locally.

Did you do a default reset before you exchanged it? Last option under the user setting menu.

Yeah, the store owner tried everything too. Just a dud. Oh well. Current one has been working fine and it's protected for 3 years anyway. Thanks for all the help guys!

Thanks for the update.