Canon 400d Faulty

Hi all,

Think this is my second or 3rd post here. Following on from my first original post (trying to get in to photography)...

I am trying to do this the cheapest way possible, I know most of you will say im perhaps a little crazy with what im about to do, but it combines another hobby of mine, 'tinkering'.

I'm looking to buy a faulty camera from ebay or wherever. The one I am looking at, at the moment is this:

It has probably taken a bath or been neglected in a moist environment.

The mirror is always down unless an exposure is being made or a camera is in cleaning mode. I would avoid this one unless you have a very specific set of parts that you need-parts that are not electrical or mechanical...

The rust only means that water got in around the lens mount, which happens with rain, or a total soaking.

The mirror up is not normal, and, of course, the fact that it won't power up. Both of those issues may or may not be related to the cause of the rust.

If you can get it for a couple of bucks and keep it for parts, well, OK. Otherwise it ain't worth anything...

looks like corrosion or water deposits on the contacts too.

This isnt one I was going to buy, there are some others I am watching. they are roughly around £50 so not expensive at all and in my eyes, worth a play...

Thanks for your replies!

So I take it from this that if the mirror is up, its a no go....

[QUOTE=Stuuk1;13225631​]This isnt one I was going to buy, there are some others I am watching. they are roughly around £50 so not expensive at all and in my eyes, worth a play...

Thanks for your replies!

So I take it from this that if the mirror is up, its a no go....[/quote]

Not necessarily. The mirror can get stuck merely because the light seals got sticky and are holding it up. That's a pretty easy fix.

However, if the camera has jammed partway through a shutter cycle that also can end up with the mirror up.

The way to tell the difference is to gently try to push the mirror down, say with the tip of a plastic tweezer at the front edge. If it's just the light seals, it will drop into normal position, but likely will have some traces of black "goo" around the edges. If the camera is jammed mid cycle, you probably won't be able to coax the mirror down, or it will probably flip back up on it's on (this can differe from model to model).

The camera in the photo either got wet and wasn't dired or was left in a really humid environment, to end up looking like that.

If solder points are rusted...