Canon 300D only gets top of image

Got a 300D on ebay; I bought it cheap because the owner claimed it gave a 99 code; I only wanted it for the vertical grip. So, I'm happy 'cause I now have the grip and it works fine. But I figured I'd play and see if the 300D could be made to work. I don't get an error code, but any card I put in shows 999 for exposures, and the screen shows only the top 15-25% of the photo. I'm guessing it's toast and will just toss it back on ebay to see what I can get, but I'm curious what it might be....

You've experienced the sub-mirror failure that far too many DR/300D units succumbed to. The small mirror that directs light down to the autofocus sensors in the bottom of the camera is no longer getting out of the way when you take a picture.

Depending on your mechanical skills and your determination to make the camera work, you could try to fix it yourself. Back in the 300D's day, there were a number of web sites that had repair instructions. It's not easy, and there's a tiny chance you could finish destroying the camera in the process.

You could sent it to Canon, but they'll probably charge you over $200 to fix it. I doubt the camera's worth that much.

[No other Canon DSLR model had this problem. It was specific to the DR/300D.]

  What I see in both the LCD in the back, and on the pic when I use my card reader, is only the top of the image. If the mirror is taking its sweet time to get out of the way, that would certainly explain it. My other 300D works fine, which is why I bid on this one just for the grip. So, I'll play around online, and perhaps see if I can fix the mirror thing... if not, I'll just post it on ebay again. The price I paid for all ($38) is fine for the grip, so I'll be happy if I get anything at all for the camera. And if I can actually fix it, better still, although I'll still want to get rid of it. Got too much stuff as it is...

Wyvern03 wrote:

  What I see in both the LCD in the back, and on the pic when I use my card reader, is only the top of the image. If the mirror is taking its sweet time to get out of the way, that would certainly explain it. My other 300D works fine, which is why I bid on this one just for the grip. So, I'll play around online, and perhaps see if I can fix the mirror thing... if not, I'll just post it on ebay again. The price I paid for all ($38) is fine for the grip, so I'll be happy if I get anything at all for the camera. And if I can actually fix it, better still, although I'll still want to get rid of it. Got too much stuff as it is...

Here is the article I used to repair my broken sub mirror. It also describes the issue in some detail.

http://grumt.blogspot.com/2009/06/how-to-repair-broken-sub-mirror-on.html

Just make sure that you also go to radio shack and get a 1k ohm resistor to discharge the flash capacitor ... I got a very nasty shock while repairing mine. Proceed with care as the capacitor holds a very dangerous 400 volts of potential, but the repair works.

Read this version to see how to discharge the capacitor:

http://stevencastle.wordpress.com/2008/02/17/canon-300d-sub-mirror-pin-failure-another-story/