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General discussion

Canon 20D not aking pictures, yes I know it is an antique...

Jan 15, 2011 1:25AM PST

I know it is old but it is what I have and can afford right now and it works, well not all the time.

It will take pictures, sometimes, but often-maybe more often than not- it will focus and do everything it should, but just not take the picture. Any ideas?

Discussion is locked

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Canon 20D
Jan 15, 2011 11:46AM PST

Some things to try.

You should reset the camera just in case you have inadvertently set something that may be causing the problem.

The reset is in the menu (setup section).
If you can't find it, get out the User Manual and find it.

Then think about the battery.
Recharge the battery and make sure that the charge cycle looks normal.
The charge light blinks to tell you how much it is charged.

Since the camera sometimes works, it can still be a failing battery.
The 20D was introduced in Aug of 2004.
Batteries don't last forever.

Unfortunately, the only way to rule out the battery as the source of the problem is to replace the battery.

Some other things to try:
Use a different memory card.
Use a different lens.

..

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same
Jan 7, 2012 11:34PM PST

same camera, same exact issue here.

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Canon 20D
Jan 8, 2012 3:33AM PST

You need to do some trouble shooting.
If the camera sometimes will not take a picture you need to do some trial and error tests.

It is likely that the camera failed to achieve focus.

You must reset the camera back to factory settings in case you have inadvertently set something that is causing a problem:
Look in Manual Page 31, near the bottom of the page "Clear Settings".

If the camera continues to fail, switch the camera to Manual Focus (User Guide - page 70).
Manually focus the camera and see if it will take a photo.
If it does, the problem is probably failure to achieve autofocus.
Page 70 lists the reasons for such a failure.
You can also change the AF metering mode (page 71) to see if that helps..