XT350 won't fire

[Saudidave]

On a couple of occasions now, my 2 week old XT350 has hunted focussing but but won't fire whilst in Av mode.

Is this normal, or am I doing something wrong? It's happened with a canon 75-300 f4-5.6 usm and a Canon 28-70 usm.

regards

Dave

[formula4speed]

Are you shooting inside or in low light conditions when this happens? My guess would be that the aperature isn't pulling in enough light for autofocus to function and since it can't focus the camera won't fire. Try stopping it down or putting it into manual focus to see if it will fire.

[Titus213]

There are indeed several reasons why autofocus can not be achieved. Low light certainly. Low contrast is another. I have experienced it with the 300D and resolved it by shifting the focus to something with more contrast, getting a lock and re-composing for the shot. It is an amazingly accurate system in most cases.

[Saudidave]

The light has been reasonable - 9.00 a.m on a summer morning on one occasion(very,very hazy though). Manual focussing and it fires no problem. Also I haven't experienced it with the kit lens.

[CyberPet]

If it can't find focus (blinking green light in the view finder), it'll decide that you aren't supposed to take a picture - hence does not fire. I think you can turn that off somehow, I just forgot where.

[jimsolt]

On a couple of occasions now, my 2 week old XT350 has hunted focussing but but won't fire whilst in Av mode.

Is this normal, or am I doing something wrong? It's happened with a canon 75-300 f4-5.6 usm and a Canon 28-70 usm.

regards

Dave

The camera will not "fire" if it can't focus IN SOME MODES/SETTINGS. Others have mentioned low light. Other possibilities are in your AF modes. Under certain circumstances an object may move and cause the camera to not take a picture. If you are in A1 Servo mode, single shot, the camera will fire without indicating it has focus.
It can be a bit tricky deciding which mode(s) to operate in under which conditions. My camera behaves much the same way, so I suspect there is not a camera problem and you've tried 2 lenses, so I'd guess it's not a lens problem.
Jim

[jobber73]

The light has been reasonable - 9.00 a.m on a summer morning on one occasion(very,very hazy though). Manual focussing and it fires no problem. Also I haven't experienced it with the kit lens.

I think that confirms what the others have said, it's not locking focus and won't shoot until it does.

When you focus manually, the camera lets you do the work and just shoots when you tell it to. In Av mode, it won't fire until it locks focus.

[Saudidave]

Thanks everyone for your help. It's most reassuring. Obviously, I'm still learning with my new toy.

I have to say I am well pleased with it so far!