Help? New 350D blank frames

[puttick]

I have just picked up a replacement 350d - the first one had no serial number (out of the box!). This one is producing some all-black frames. It seems to be related to leaving it switched off for over about 10 mins, or switching off and putting another card in. First few frames are all black (EXIF shows the expected shutter speed and aperture but no image) then works OK. It is the same on 3 different cards, so it's not the card. It doesn't seem to matter what exposure mode, quality setting, or ISO setting is in use.

Any ideas?

Nigel

[Michaelmjc]

Try recharging the battery, reseting all the settings on it, and try it in full auto. If that doesn't work, take it back to the store.

[puttick]

Try recharging the battery, reseting all the settings on it, and try it in full auto. If that doesn't work, take it back to the store.

OK, thanks - I've just done that and for the moment all seems to be normal. I hope so, as I'm off on a 4 day sailing trip tomorrow!

Thanks
Nigel

[puttick]

Actually, I meant to say - thank you VERY much.

[RodneyCyr]

I have the same problem with my 18-month-old Digital Rebel. It appeared (or I first noticed it) about a month ago. When I turn the camera on in the morning, the first picture is either black or severly (10-stops or so) underexposed. The second and later pictures are fine.

After discovering this problem, I tried testing with manual exposure to make sure that both exposures were taken with the same shutter speed and aperture. THis did not fix the problem.

I tried a) removing for several hours and replacing batteries, b) different Canon lenses - no effect.

I just got it back from the shop (4-year extended warranty from Best Buy). They didn't fix the problem either.

Are there any others with this problem?

[robertwgross]

If the image is completely black, then this suggests a couple of things.

First, possibly the shutter is failing to open (at all). The EXIF shows the shutter speed that the processor thought it was commanding to the shutter, but if the shutter were stuck closed, then you get a black image. Maybe it works once something is warmed up.

The other possibility is that the mirror is not flying up. Same deal.

---Bob Gross---

[puttick]

Unfortunately the fix suggested did not work. The next day the problem was back - and I was on a sailing trip in Scotland. Fortunately I managed to cajole it into taking actual images on about 50% of attempts, by switching back and forth between "L" and "Raw +L" - don't ask me why, but that seemed to fool it. Today I took it back to the dealer who exchanged it without further question when I showed them the blank frames with valid EXIF exposure data. This was on 2 different 1GB cards which had worked perfectly up till now. The new body seems to be behaving OK so far.

My theory - as the mirror is going up and the shutter seems to be opening - is that data is being written to the buffer but not to the card. This may be borne out by observation that after it had taken a blank frame I could not immediately fire the shutter again.

So I am now on my 3rd 350d body: 1st had no s/no, 2nd blank frames, 3rd time lucky?

Nigel

[robertwgross]

My theory - as the mirror is going up and the shutter seems to be opening - is that data is being written to the buffer but not to the card. This may be borne out by observation that after it had taken a blank frame I could not immediately fire the shutter again.

Very strange.

If I understand what you wrote, the mechanics of the shot seem to happen, and the shot data is being written to a file which is stored on the CF card, yet the actual image data was not stored. Very strange indeed.

It sounds like the main image processor has gone out to lunch!

---Bob Gross---

[tim]

Sounds like a faulty shutter to me.

[puttick]

It's all irrelevant now, as it's gone back to Canon UK and I have a new 350d. But worth noting in case anyone else has a similar problem.