Canon XSi: It takes multiple clicks to take a photo

Lemming51 wrote:

Dave503 wrote:

I have a Canon XSi and recently it started giving issues. I tried with multiple lenses, both in AF and MF modes, but it won't go away.

When I try to take a photo by pressing the shutter button nothing would happen. Even after multiple attempts of pressing the shutter button nothing happens. Sometimes this gets fixed if I zoom the lens back and forth. When that doesn't work, changing the mode in the Camera helps.

Any thoughts on what I should be looking into to fix this issue?

Thanks in advance.

Have you recently acquired this camera, or have you had it for a long time and it only now is misbehaving?

The shutter button has two stages, half-press for metering and AF, and full press to release the shutter. It could be the contacts in this switch are worn or broken and not functioning.

or

With autofocus active and the AF mode in OneShot or AI Focus, the shutter will not release unless the AF system can confirm focus on something. In manual focus or AI Servo AF mode the shutter should release when fully pressed without regard to confirming focus. This might be the reason you get it to work after switching modes.

or

Is the camera freezing with and ERR 01 or other code? It could be the lens is faulty. The aperture and af motor inside communicate with the camera via a flexible ribbon cable that folds/extends with zoom. If the thin wires break or short, it'll keep the camera from shooting. Could be why zooming the lens in/out can sometimes restore order temporarily. Try another lens to determine if the lens or the camera has the problem.

Thanks for the reply.

I owned the camera for 6 years and it only started doing this within last few months. I was mainly using my 50mm lens (which was bought used) and when it started giving errors I thought it might be my 50mm lens and I was planning on replacing that lens. Then last week I was using my 28-135mm and I got the same error. Then only I realized that it might be the camera, not the lens.

In AF mode it will lock a focus point and it will light up in red in the viewfinder, but still it won't take the picture.  When I mention that it works when I change modes, I meant changing among Av, Tv, Auto, Portrait, etc...

There are not error codes and it gives the error even when I change the lens. I tried with all 3 lenses I own.

Any thoughts?

User8303410032 wrote:

Dave503 wrote:

Lemming51 wrote:

Dave503 wrote:

I have a Canon XSi and recently it started giving issues. I tried with multiple lenses, both in AF and MF modes, but it won't go away.

When I try to take a photo by pressing the shutter button nothing would happen. Even after multiple attempts of pressing the shutter button nothing happens. Sometimes this gets fixed if I zoom the lens back and forth. When that doesn't work, changing the mode in the Camera helps.

Any thoughts on what I should be looking into to fix this issue?

Thanks in advance.

Have you recently acquired this camera, or have you had it for a long time and it only now is misbehaving?

The shutter button has two stages, half-press for metering and AF, and full press to release the shutter. It could be the contacts in this switch are worn or broken and not functioning.

or

With autofocus active and the AF mode in OneShot or AI Focus, the shutter will not release unless the AF system can confirm focus on something. In manual focus or AI Servo AF mode the shutter should release when fully pressed without regard to confirming focus. This might be the reason you get it to work after switching modes.

or

Is the camera freezing with and ERR 01 or other code? It could be the lens is faulty. The aperture and af motor inside communicate with the camera via a flexible ribbon cable that folds/extends with zoom. If the thin wires break or short, it'll keep the camera from shooting. Could be why zooming the lens in/out can sometimes restore order temporarily. Try another lens to determine if the lens or the camera has the problem.

Thanks for the reply.

I owned the camera for 6 years and it only started doing this within last few months. I was mainly using my 50mm lens (which was bought used) and when it started giving errors I thought it might be my 50mm lens and I was planning on replacing that lens. Then last week I was using my 28-135mm and I got the same error. Then only I realized that it might be the camera, not the lens.

In AF mode it will lock a focus point and it will light up in red in the viewfinder, but still it won't take the picture. When I mention that it works when I change modes, I meant changing among Av, Tv, Auto, Portrait, etc...

There are not error codes and it gives the error even when I change the lens. I tried with all 3 lenses I own.

Any thoughts?

Sound stupid but... is shaking the camera helping, I mean false contact might be temporarily 'solved' because when you zoom in or out or change setting the camera shake and the contact is back.

Thanks for the reply. I tried the shaking thing. Out of 40-50 attempts, it worked in 4-5 instances.

sleibson wrote:

Sounds to me like it might be an intermittent body/lens connection. This could be caused by dirty contacts in the lens mount (check to see if they look bright or dirty), or it could be dirty/scratched connectors on (multiple) lenses, or it could be a frayed/broken wire connected to one of the camera body mount's connection pins, or it could be deeper in the camera body. It does not sound like the lens because you see this problem with more than one lens and it's unlikely that this problem would suddenly turn up with multiple lenses. The common denominator is your XSi body.

You can try to get a repair quote, but I suspect a newer, refurb body from Canon will be almost as economical and would also be an upgrade.

Good luck!

I looked at the connection pins and they are nice and shiny. So I guess it might be a loose cable

User8303410032 wrote:

Dave503 wrote:

sleibson wrote:

Sounds to me like it might be an intermittent body/lens connection. This could be caused by dirty contacts in the lens mount (check to see if they look bright or dirty), or it could be dirty/scratched connectors on (multiple) lenses, or it could be a frayed/broken wire connected to one of the camera body mount's connection pins, or it could be deeper in the camera body. It does not sound like the lens because you see this problem with more than one lens and it's unlikely that this problem would suddenly turn up with multiple lenses. The common denominator is your XSi body.

You can try to get a repair quote, but I suspect a newer, refurb body from Canon will be almost as economical and would also be an upgrade.

Good luck!

I looked at the connection pins and they are nice and shiny. So I guess it might be a loose cable

When checking the lens electric connectors on body side, they should be on springs, did you check that they all should move down on light push and spring back about 1mm?

Yes, they do

tenordrum wrote:

Can you take a thin business card or stiff piece of paper, and run it under the shutter button, around it, so to speak, in case some dirt or grime has built up or lodged in there. It may not work, but if it does, it may be a low cost interim solution. If that works temporarily perhaps you can work on cleaning that area.

I tried shooting with my IR remote and it seems to help. I will investigate a little further, but maybe it's the shutter button like you said.

rmexpress22 wrote:

Dave503 wrote:

I have a Canon XSi and recently it started giving issues. I tried with multiple lenses, both in AF and MF modes, but it won't go away.

When I try to take a photo by pressing the shutter button nothing would happen. Even after multiple attempts of pressing the shutter button nothing happens. Sometimes this gets fixed if I zoom the lens back and forth. When that doesn't work, changing the mode in the Camera helps.

Any thoughts on what I should be looking into to fix this issue?

Thanks in advance.

Any chance you changed the shooting mode to time delay? I think it would be obvious if it was doing that since it should beep when doing so but maybe it's not as obvious with the XSi. You can try resetting the camera to factory settings to see if that helps also.

Time delay doesn't seem to help either. I'm looking into see if it's the shutter button.

I had something similar happen to me recently.

80% of what I do is macro in live view with a wired remote, or lately using DSLR Controller on an Android tablet.

The other day I was playing with a used 2x teleconverter I bought from B&H.  Every time I'd hit the shutter release button on the camera, I'd get a click, the viewfinder would go dark and... nothing.

I had recently had the camera and tripod tip over on a table, and was afraid I'd damaged something.  However it worked fine from live view.

I did a little research and was reminded that I'd been using mirror lockup with a 500mm mirror lens to avoid mirror slap.  I reset all of the custom functions, killing mirror lockup.  It worked just fine after that.

You may have inadvertently set something or forgotten that you set it.  Reset the camera back to defaults and see what happens.