40D Owners - Is this normal?

Hey everyone I just got a new 40D and took it out for the first time today. When I am looking through the viewfinder the display inside of it is flickering from normal brightness to dim. Has anyone else seen this before? Is this normal?

I have a 30D and never experienced this before.

I only took about 70 images with it today and it was doing it pretty much the whole time. Oh and this was with a fully charged known good battery that I used in my 30D all the time so I don't believe that this is a battery issue.

Thats never happened on my 40D

That doesn't sound right. The two I had never did that. Might need a trip to Canon, or to the store where you bought it for an exchange.

never had it happen on mine either

prime80 wrote in post #5741489
That doesn't sound right. The two I had never did that. Might need a trip to Canon, or to the store where you bought it for an exchange.

That is what I was afraid of... It almost looks like a loose connection. I guess an RMA is in order

I just got mine today and it looks fine...

Mine does not do that and I assume you don't want your's to. Send it back.

Agreed that a return to the store for a replacement is in order.

If you have an extra battery I would try that first. I've seen some pretty weird things happen sometimes on laptops with bad lith batteries - it's 1:1000000 of course, but I would give it a try.

MaxxuM wrote in post #5742572
If you have an extra battery I would try that first. I've seen some pretty weird things happen sometimes on laptops with bad lith batteries - it's 1:1000000 of course, but I would give it a try.

I will give another battery a try but as I said the one that I used was one of the ones I use in my 30D all the time and they are the same. It certainly can't hurt. I would rather have a bad battery than a questionable camera body!

The brightness of the display inside the viewfinder adjusts automatically to the ambient light level. Sometimes, if you have certain types of artificial light sources, they can flicker faster than the eye can see, but the camera will try to adjust according to them.
Make sure you test this outdoors too, before you consider your camera sick.
I know you wrote that you "took it out", but I just want to make sure you mean "outdoors", not just out of the box.

apersson850 wrote in post #5743367
The brightness of the display inside the viewfinder adjusts automatically to the ambient light level. Sometimes, if you have certain types of artificial light sources, they can flicker faster than the eye can see, but the camera will try to adjust according to them.
Make sure you test this outdoors too, before you consider your camera sick.
I know you wrote that you "took it out", but I just want to make sure you mean "outdoors", not just out of the box.

Interesting, This was outdoors and in vastly varying lighting conditions (Sun / Deep Shade) so maybe I was detecting the auto adjusting of the display??? Of course being a typical electronics users I haven't even cracked open the manual. If I would have I probably would have read that somewhere

I checked the owners manual and I didn't see anything mentioned on the display automatically dimming. I haven't had a chance to do any further investigating yet. I need to take it out this weekend but have 30 days to return it if need be.

Assuming the camera is working properly, it's easy to see. Set to manual or Av, select an aperture of f/22 or so and check the viewfinder display when you repeatedly press the stop down key on the camera.

apersson850 wrote in post #5743367
The brightness of the display inside the viewfinder adjusts automatically to the ambient light level. Sometimes, if you have certain types of artificial light sources, they can flicker faster than the eye can see, but the camera will try to adjust according to them.
Make sure you test this outdoors too, before you consider your camera sick.
I know you wrote that you "took it out", but I just want to make sure you mean "outdoors", not just out of the box.

I am still new - but can you explain further? I thought what you saw in the viewfinder of an slr is just a reflected image that comes through the lens. I was under the impression that the only think affecting this brightness you see here would be the aperture of the lens.

I understand the Live view has the option of simulating exposure - so when you are looking at the lcd you might get an odd sort of brightening & diming.

It seems I have lots to learn still!

My initial thought was it might be related to a faulty IS lens.