My Camera is Crooked

Canon 20D, Tamron 28-75. I realize it's possible that I'm not holding the camera correctly - but I've shot about 10,000 images with this camera and haven't noticed it before now. I'm wondering if maybe the sensor has somehow shifted or something else mechanical is wrong. Is there is some kind of test I can perform. Maybe someone else has experienced this problem.

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Tripod and bubble level mounted on the hot shoe...that should give you an answer in short order.

Place the camera on a completely flat surface and take a photo of something level sitting on the same surface? I'm sure you can come up with some effective tests using things you know are perfectly level or with spirit levels and whatnot...

Are you lining up the paralell lines with the squares in your viewfinder? Canon makes no guarantee that the ground glass in the viewfinder will stay straight, which might be what is causing this if you're lininp up your horizontals with the focus points in the viewfinder

Woolburr wrote in post #2899273
Tripod and bubble level mounted on the hot shoe...that should give you an answer in short order.

Also, make sure that camera/lens is at 90 degrees to the wall.
I’ve never heard of such a problem tho'.

The fact that the two images don't appear to tilt the same must mean that your sensor is loose .

Or as a photographer once told me, there is a loose nut on the back of my camera.

Seriously, the penta prism/mirror may be tilted slightly so that you are not seeing the same thing as the sensor.

You dont have one foot shorter then the other do you?

Thanks Guys - I realize I left myself open here. But I am pretty sure the image in appeared vertical in the viewfinder. On the first shoot, I purposefully filled the viewfinder with the brick wall - so I would have a very good frame of reference for straight lines.

"penta prism/mirror may be tilted slightly"
Maybe it's time so send it in for calibration.

If your sure its not you I would send it in.

In addition to the test that you did with the brick wall, I would suggest doing the test that Jim G from down under suggests. That would clarify whether the sensor itself is tilted or if it is a mirror alignment problem.

If you send it in (and I would highly recommend it -- Canon does excellent repair work) please follow up with a final resolution to the problem. Put it at the end of this thread so that everyone will get the whole story and not just the final results. Usually, the paperwork will give a reasonable summary of what work was done and you could probably follow-up with a call if necessary for more information.

Judging from my experience of changing the focusing screen in my 20D, I would also consider it a possibility that the frame of the image (the distance plate) or the focusing screen might have slightly shifted in your viewfinder leaving you with a slightly off-line framing rectangle. At least that would sound more logical to me than that the sensor has moved, that is firmly fixed to the camera as far as I know (unlike the distance plate and focusing screen in the viewfinder)

Maybe inspect that area a bit closer and watch out for inconsistencies in the viewfinder.

Best regards,
Andy

I would suggest doing another "brick wall" test, but with the camera mounted on a tripod for the test. Don't use any of the focus points or other things in the center of the viewfinder as a reference, but use the outer edges of the viewfinder frame as the reference. Align the outer edges of the viewfinder to the brick wall's lines and shoot a test or two. Then let us know what you found.

Take a few more shots of straight, level objects. Be sure to stand directly infront of them so that your shoulders are perfectly square to the object.

I would do some more tests myself before losing my camera for a while to canon.

Good luck

Have you tried messing with a different lens? For example, if you don't have another lens, go to a camera shop and try out another lens. A friend of mine had a lens that was doing this, and he replaced it... now it's fine. It wasn't his camera.

There are so many variables here... be sure and explore them all before concluding that it's the camera.

SBCmetroguy wrote in post #2900487
Have you tried messing with a different lens? For example, if you don't have another lens, go to a camera shop and try out another lens. A friend of mine had a lens that was doing this, and he replaced it... now it's fine. It wasn't his camera.

There are so many variables here... be sure and explore them all before concluding that it's the camera.

Must have been one of those new-fangled rectangular lenses.