20D issues, need advice

Hi all, my friend is having some issues with her 20D and I was hoping someone might have a clue as to what may be wrong.

There are 2 problems to speak of:
1.) the camera will no longer autofocus - I can use the joystick and move the focal point around, get the focus points to light up, etc, but the camera doesn't obtain focus on anything. Tried multiple lenses, AI - Ai Servo- One Shot, etc...

2.) The tripod thread on the bottom has become dislodged, ie it moves around, out of the prescribed hole in the body...

Apparantly, both of these things occurred yesterday. I looked at it today, cleaned the contacts, cleared all the settings, etc... still no dice. I could manually focus and shoot fine, but could not get the autofocus to engage.

I am going to try re-seating the focus screen tomorrow.

Don't know what the deal is with the loose tripod thread... Any other suggestions?

Any chance you overcranked the tripod mount and tweaked something inside the camera in the process?

BluewookieJim wrote in post #10753054
Hi all, my friend is having some issues with her 20D and I was hoping someone might have a clue as to what may be wrong.

There are 2 problems to speak of:
1.) the camera will no longer autofocus - I can use the joystick and move the focal point around, get the focus points to light up, etc, but the camera doesn't obtain focus on anything. Tried multiple lenses, AI - Ai Servo- One Shot, etc...

2.) The tripod thread on the bottom has become dislodged, ie it moves around, out of the prescribed hole in the body...

Apparantly, both of these things occurred yesterday. I looked at it today, cleaned the contacts, cleared all the settings, etc... still no dice. I could manually focus and shoot fine, but could not get the autofocus to engage.

I am going to try re-seating the focus screen tomorrow.

Don't know what the deal is with the loose tripod thread... Any other suggestions?

I don't think messing with the focusing screen will help in this case. Unless it's visibly out of place, avoid unnecessarily sticking fingers inside and messing with it


Couple of things that could be the cause of your missing AF:

Check custom function 4. Depending what that is set to, AF can activate from the shutter half-press or from the * button on the back.

Clean the contacts on the body, could possibly be a communication error.

You could also try a full camera reset. To do so, remove both batteries (main and the cell) from the camera for a few min. Just be aware that doing so will reset your camera to it's factory settings.


As for the tripod mount, mine seems to wiggle around as well ( I have a friend with a 20D and their's does not wiggle) but it hasn't fallen off internally or prevented me from having a grip mounted on the body.

(Edit: just re-read your post more closely. If all the things I mentioned above didn't work, and all the lenses didn't have a sudden AF breakdown, I think a call to Canon is in order. There is the loyalty program if worse comes to worse.)

Thanks.

I don't know how the tripod thread thing happened. Like I said, it's not my camera, its a friends. Personally, I never take the QR plates off my cameras...

On the focus screen front, def not planning on using my fingers, I have to tool that came with my 5DII replacement screen, was going to give that a try. From my visual inspection, I didn't see any displacement with it.

I've got a 20D myself, so I tried all of the things I can think of, and all the things you mentioned, except removing the "other" battery.

Just trying to help her out, and I did mention the loyalty program to her as a worst case scenario...