PLEASE HELP Rebel new won't take picture at night

It is one of the auto focus modes. It does not require a focus lock to activate the shutter.

If you are trying to take night sky shots you can always try to find a bright star to focus on. To get a focus lock the sensor needs some type of contrast to lock on to.

have a small flashlight with , look at focusing distance on lens, or go back a fraction from infnty. if you are using bulb settings do your math, for example if you crank up your iso to 3200 or 1600(whataever your camera goes to) set ap to widest, and shutter to 30 sec, you should be able to see where that gets you. if that setting exposes for example 1 stop underexposed , double your time with bulb. heres where focusing comes in, for every full stop increase in apeture, double your exp time. at f8 you should be pretty close if you just guess with the guage on your lens. then. start doubling time for every full increment in iso you crank down. at f8 and iso at 200 or 400 you should be shooting for 10 15 minutes ( i know i kinda rambled there but that should get you thinking about getting close in guessing with focus and exposure)

Strick wrote in post #4293008
If you set the camera to AI Servo it will take the shot.

Well, that's true BUT you'll get a blurry unfocused shot if the camera can't find something with enough contrast to actually focus on. I wouldn't recommend AI Servo auto-focus mode for night shots unless you're trying to focus on something very bright that's also moving.

1st I want you folks to know how much this all means to me thanks. Do you know that Canon web site has very little support. Unless I missed it. I have no idea how to even find this auto focus mode. You talk about green. In a way right now I miss the 35mm.

its the green box

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, 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.

try manual focus with flash??? see what happens.....