Telephoto toggle sticking on A70 and spot mode problems

[stduc]

I had a strange experience taking some more pics of Mr Blaine (in the box) yesterday I'd thought I'd share with you all.

I was shooting away, using spot mode, turning the camera on & off as my subject got up or lay down. Firstly, I noticed that the camera kept reveting to centre weighted average and I had to keep on selecting spot metering mode after each power up. Is this normal?

Next, I was trying to alter the shutter speed (I was in Tv mode) and couldn't - in fact I couldn't alter any settings, only the power and shutter buttons were working. Thinking I might have a low power problem (I have been using this set of NiMH's for 3 weeks now) I changed the batteries. No change. Then I noticed the zoom lever was stuck. Further investigation revealed it has lost it spring and was stiff. It had to be manually centered otherwise it stuck on the full zoom or full wide angle position. Once centered, the controls came back to life. This made the rest of the shoot a right pain!
On the way home I fiddled with the control, flicking it, tapping it, trying to lift/depress it, whatever. Suddenly it freed itself and has been fine since. A bit of grit or what?
I hope it won't make a habit of this. Any thoughts anyone?

[Matzzzy]

stduc wrote:
I had a strange experience taking some more pics of Mr Blaine (in the box) yesterday I'd thought I'd share with you all.

I was shooting away, using spot mode, turning the camera on & off as my subject got up or lay down. Firstly, I noticed that the camera kept reveting to centre weighted average and I had to keep on selecting spot metering mode after each power up. Is this normal?

Next, I was trying to alter the shutter speed (I was in Tv mode) and couldn't - in fact I couldn't alter any settings, only the power and shutter buttons were working. Thinking I might have a low power problem (I have been using this set of NiMH's for 3 weeks now) I changed the batteries. No change. Then I noticed the zoom lever was stuck. Further investigation revealed it has lost it spring and was stiff. It had to be manually centered otherwise it stuck on the full zoom or full wide angle position. Once centered, the controls came back to life. This made the rest of the shoot a right pain!
On the way home I fiddled with the control, flicking it, tapping it, trying to lift/depress it, whatever. Suddenly it freed itself and has been fine since. A bit of grit or what?
I hope it won't make a habit of this. Any thoughts anyone?


That sounds really annoying.
I have had only one erroneous thing with my A70, and that was "E-18".
I got really scared, because I didn't want to be without my little baby, so I tried shutting it on and off, and on and off, and it loosened...but came back at the next poweron.
After a change of batteries, it has not come back, and that was over a month ago...so I'm happy.
Hope you'll be rid of your problem in the future aswell.

[stopbath]

Yes, sadly the designers didn't figure any of us would like to use the spot meter more than occasionally. So Spot is not 'saved' like the other two settings. Thus select center weight, turn off and on, still center weight, select spot, turn off and on, back to center weight.

As for the sticking zoom lever, sounds like grit, or sticky subtance. Keep an eye on it, and if it repeats, you may have to contact Canon about a replacement part (you might be able to do it yourself - or may not).