One Lens Works and One Does Not

I am having a problem with my Canon EOS Rebel 1100D. I was attempting to take pictures in a large room with low light - I had it set on MANUAL and noticed that the pictures were coming out extremely dark, even with the flash. I changed it to AUTOFOCUS and it would not take the picture. It seems to be stuck in a continuous state of trying to focus. I took the lens off and a rather small black piece, with gold prongs fell out of the camera. However, when I changed lenses to my zoom, the pictures came out perfect.

I don't know if it's a problem with the lens or the camera. I'm trying to figure out if it makes more sense to buy a new lens for everyday use or if my camera needs repairing. I hope I've explained the problem - it has me stumped. Especially because I can't see anywhere that looks like this piece came out of.

SheriLynn512 wrote:

I took the lens off and a rather small black piece, with gold prongs fell out of the camera. However, when I changed lenses to my zoom, the pictures came out perfect.

I don't know if it's a problem with the lens or the camera.

Sounds like the issue is with the first lens since the other lens and body are working as expected. Can you submit a closeup pic of the part that fell out and the rear of the lens ? Which lens is it and is it under warranty?

SheriLynn512 wrote:

I am having a problem with my Canon EOS Rebel 1100D. I was attempting to take pictures in a large room with low light - I had it set on MANUAL and noticed that the pictures were coming out extremely dark, even with the flash. I changed it to AUTOFOCUS and it would not take the picture. It seems to be stuck in a continuous state of trying to focus. I took the lens off and a rather small black piece, with gold prongs fell out of the camera. However, when I changed lenses to my zoom, the pictures came out perfect.

I don't know if it's a problem with the lens or the camera. I'm trying to figure out if it makes more sense to buy a new lens for everyday use or if my camera needs repairing. I hope I've explained the problem - it has me stumped. Especially because I can't see anywhere that looks like this piece came out of.

Well, you got already some information, in particular that you should provide more information.

but given the second lens seems to work fine, everything points to the fact that the contacts fell off your first lens. Was it an old manual lens with a focus confirm chip attached to it? Those could come off easily.

Now, even though there may be something wrong with your lens, the scenario you describe is also problematic. I.e. a large dark room will give issues, because the built in flash of the camera will probably not be strong enough to light it up, and if the room is dark, no lens will be able to focus in a very dark room - and you need focus assist lights from the built-in flash, or from an external flash. However, if the flash is not strong enough it will not help either. It depends how big the room is, which you did not specify. In any case, if a lens cannot focus because it's too dark, of course it will hunt trying to focus.

The fact that the pictures come out dark in manual mode simply mean that you did not set the settings right. While it may be too dark for automatic operation, in manual mode you should be able to set aperture f2.8 for example, and 15 seconds (or some other long exposure, depending on the situation) exposure time (on tripod), which should give you a good exposure even in dark situations. Of course without tripod, this would be blurred.

So, there may be a whole lot of things going wrong here, not just the lens. Having said all about the dark room, given that you state the second lens gave fine pictures, it would indicate that room was not that dark, and was good enough for AF.

However, in the absence of sample pictures, iinformation on what shutter speeds, aperture, ISO etc you were using, it's not easy to judge what is going on.