lens shade

I have a Canon mini DV camcorder and am wondering, I am a noob so please bare with me on this. I have a Canon HV20 and inside the lens there is a black thing that closes and opens depending upon if the camera is in recording mode off etc. This black thing stopped closing and is totally open now, the camera records but my question is, what is the name of the part I am talking about and what is it's full purpose? I am just wondering if this staying open is going to cause any issues with anything such as different lighting situations or is this simply something that does not matter? Sorry for being such a noob to this stuff but I simply have no clue if this part being open all the time will cause any issues. Any help is greatly appreciated. I also have a great sense of humor so feel free to razz me about being so uneducated on cameras Thanks again.

Hi dellee,

Welcome to POTN! Good to have you on board here. There is a lot of information and smart people around here, so hopefully you'll hang out and share in your photography journey with us.

As for the issue you're referring too, it is nothing more then a make-shift lens cover for your video camera. It won't effect a thing other then not protecting the lens element as well when you're video camera is not in use. There's also an easy fix that sometimes works. With the camera powered on, see if you can carefully pull the two pieces closed with some tweezers (but be careful not to touch the lens element) and if you're able to move them back and forth a few times, then it may start working again when you power the video camera off. If that doesn't work, I wouldn't worry about it...it's not too big of a deal.

Also, when you come back to look at this thread, it will likely have been moved to the Digital Video forum...the Business forum is not really the right place for a thread like this. No big deal, just letting you know.

Hope this helps,
Bryan

bps wrote in post #16609226
Hi dellee,

Welcome to POTN! Good to have you on board here. There is a lot of information and smart people around here, so hopefully you'll hang out and share in your photography journey with us.

As for the issue you're referring too, it is nothing more then a make-shift lens cover for your video camera. It won't effect a thing other then not protecting the lens element as well when you're video camera is not in use. There's also an easy fix that sometimes works. With the camera powered on, see if you can carefully pull the two pieces closed with some tweezers (but be careful not to touch the lens element) and if you're able to move them back and forth a few times, then it may start working again when you power the video camera off. If that doesn't work, I wouldn't worry about it...it's not too big of a deal.

Also, when you come back to look at this thread, it will likely have been moved to the Digital Video forum...the Business forum is not really the right place for a thread like this. No big deal, just letting you know.

Hope this helps,
Bryan

You just made my day... Thank you so much for the reply. I will try and be more careful where I post in the future, thanks for the heads up and the help.