PLEASE HELP Rebel new won't take picture at night

Ok in short how do I focus my rebel at a full dark setting, auto mode doe snot work in pure darknees, I turn to manual but how can you see the heavens etc. 2. I sometimes with rebel in auto mode on lens it won't take picture on low light settings I have to turn to man on lens.
I only want to shoot low light pictures and I am having a really hard time trying to figure out how to do it.

That is a problem with most cameras. They need some light to focus. It is as impossible for the camera to focus as it is for you to manually focus. You can focus on something that you can't see.

I don't know how to explain this to you other than you need light to see and to focus. That's and simple limitation of all cameras. I don't know of any cameras that will focus in pure darkness and low light is problematic.

Mark

small flashlight to point and focus on works for some people. i have done that then just shoot the picture. granted i could be slightly retarded. but its all good. lol.

johnstownwildfire wrote in post #4287986
Ok in short how do I focus my rebel at a full dark setting, auto mode doe snot work in pure darknees

What's the point? If you can't see anything, neither can the camera. All you'll end up with is a black frame anyway. You can create that in photoshop!

If you looking to shoot the sky at night w/ a tripod then set lens to manual mode. Turn focus to infinite. Use MLU and use remote shutter release or timer. If you are shooting a subject within reasonable distance like 10ft or so then you can try using a laser pointer as a focus assist. If you have a ETTL flash like a 430 or 580 use can use the focus assist beam from the flash to help focus. After focus is obtained switch focus to manual and then turn off flash and then take picture.

cdifoto wrote in post #4288058
What's the point? If you can't see anything, neither can the camera. All you'll end up with is a black frame anyway. You can create that in photoshop!

You can also do that with a lens cap like in the old film days.

lostdoggy wrote in post #4288060
If you looking to shoot the sky at night w/ a tripod then set lens to manual mode. Turn focus to infinite. Use MLU and use remote shutter release or timer. If you are shooting a subject within reasonable distance like 10ft or so then you can try using a laser pointer as a focus assist. If you have a ETTL flash like a 430 or 580 use can use the focus assist beam from the flash to help focus. After focus is obtained switch focus to manual and then turn off flash and then take picture.

Good advice.. but most(?) modern lenses will focus past infinity so you'll still need to focus on something in order to achieve infinity focus. You can instead focus on something very distant that's bright like a radio tower beacon, the moon, a far off street light, etc. You may be able to auto-focus on something very bright like the moon (some claim their lenses and camera are able to auto-focus on bright stars but YMMV) and then switch to manual focus or you can just manually focus (a right-angle viewfinder magnifier will help). The focus on some lenses can be easily moved so sometimes a wide rubber band or piece of tape is useful to keep the focus ring from accidentally moving.

When shooting the sky, you'll also want to stop down the lens a bit. Stars will bring out all of your lens' flaws so you'll want to minimize any possible CA and vignetting and increase sharpness by stopping down. I'd also recommend starting out with your widest lens unless you have something more specific in mind.

cdifoto wrote in post #4288058
What's the point? If you can't see anything, neither can the camera. All you'll end up with is a black frame anyway. You can create that in photoshop!

As long as there's some light, you can capture an image with a long enough exposure. This is how its possible for a camera to "see" amazing things in the sky that only appear as vague grey smudges to the human eye.

Ok I thank you all for your thoughts, I still have the other question why won't the canon take the picture. Wehn I am in auot mode? If I turn the lens to Manual the camera takes picture. I have had this problem in all modes of the camera. Auto mode it wants to use flash, etc. The othe problem with above night time as stated I could turn camera to ... focus to infinite.. but this lens (Note during day time focus I have notice the lens placed in one direction full top shoul dbe infiniting but it's not I have to turn it off full open to sharpen picture. My old 35 MM trun the the lens to Infinite and I was set. ) They say the the new SLR are like the old 35 MM, maybe but I do see a lot of difference between the two. I want to say thanks to each of you for helping me here.

Don't know why you decided to create two separate threads regarding this but ...

Try this, keep the lens cap on the lens and leave it in Auto mode... look through the viewfinder and hit the shutter button. You see the blinking dot at the bottom? This means the camera can't focus on anything so it won't shoot it. Same principal applies to night time... the camera can't see anything so it won't shoot.

In manual mode, the camera doesn't do any thinking because you're telling it to trust you to everything manually.

johnstownwildfire wrote in post #4292881
....I still have the other question why won't the canon take the picture. Wehn I am in auot mode? If I turn the lens to Manual the camera takes picture. ....

When the lens is in auto-focus mode, the camera won't release the shutter until it can reach focus-lock. The camera does this in order to prevent you from taking a blurry photo before the lens has had enough time to auto-focus properly. Pretty much all auto-focus cameras work this way.

If you set the camera to AI Servo it will take the shot.

My fault on the two threads, could not find the 1st one I did. Maybe I should buy a low light lens. A lot of people who shoot the heavens have years under their belt, I do but with an old I mean old 35mm Vivatar, great camera but it's 35mm. The new range of SLR digitals is great almost as good as a 35mm. I just have to get used to using it. Again thanks for understanding and helping.

Sorry but what and where is this -- AI Servo it will take the shot