Camera Question

[Bert Kemp]

First of all I know nothing about DSLR's but have a love for photography. Always had Digital point and shoots, but their limited in what they can do. Anyway long story short a Friend of mine gave me one of his old cameras a Canon 60D the day he gave it to me he took off on a vacation to return who knows when LOL so I can get help from him. I was looking thru the view finder and too a couple pic's and then the finder went dark.Went online did all they said still no view finder . I decided to take the lens off and found the mirror had fallen off.
My question is can I just glue the mirror back on. l looked at sending it in but its very expensive. My other alternative is just take the mirror out and use the LCD screen but I'd really rather use the view finder.
So what do you think can I glue the mirror back in?:confused:

[Jim Koepke]

This is one of the situations where it is difficult to give a valid reply without having had the same problem or being able to see an image of the construction of the assembly.

It may be the mirror holder is a friction fit, a spring holder or it may have been glue that failed.

Is there a way you can post an image?

jtk

[Mike Henderson]

I looked up the selling price of a used Canon 60D on eBay and it's under $200. So I'd try to glue the mirror back on - you won't lose too much if you destroy the camera. I'd try super glue if that's the way the mirror is attached.

Mike

[Bert Kemp]

this is what it looks like I can tell you its just the mirror came out the holder is still in there 437912

[Bill Dufour]

Contact cannon they had free warranty repair on some of there SLR's mirrors. They reglue it and add support clips on both sides as well. Do not add too much weight since it has to move fast. Your camera may be too old and no longer has the recall parts made.
Bill D

[Bert Kemp]

Contact cannon they had free warranty repair on some of there SLR's mirrors. They reglue it and add support clips on both sides as well. Do not add too much weight since it has to move fast. Your camera may be too old and no longer has the recall parts made.
Bill D


yea the recall was not for this camera:(

[Bert Kemp]

I'm gonna go ahead and try to glue it in. I don't have any super gluer but I do have some Gorilla Clear grip which works really well on the things I've used it on.Wish me luck, LOL

[Bert Kemp]

well I glued it in a hour or more ago just took a few test pictures, so far so good, its holding:)

[Bert Kemp]

now the shutter seems to be sticking. I'm getting a shadow across the bottom half of my shots. Would it hurt anything to spray some contact cleaner in there see if it loosens things up?

[Bruce King]

I wouldn’t spray anything in there but would jostle it around some and upside down too, medium light smacks should do it.

[Kev Williams]

Just looked into this camera, original retail $1099--
438008 438009
--and has a vertical plane shutter, which means it's possible the vapor from the superglue gassing off found it's way to the shutter leaves and is causing them to stick.

Another possibility is the mirror isn't opening all the way. The mirror swivels from the bottom-up, and pics are projected onto the CCD upside-down, so if the mirror isn't raising far enough, it'll cast a shadow onto the top of the CCD, which would be the bottom of the photo...

Examine the photos, if the shadow does look like a shadow, darkening the image but the image is still there, then it's likely the mirror is in the way.

If the shutter isn't fully opening, it will totally block the light reaching the CCD, and the bottom of the photo will be pretty much jet black..

[Bert Kemp]

the top 2 3rds of the image is clear the bottom is dark shadow. doesn't happen on every picture but at least 75% of them. Don't have anytime today till later this afternoon to play with it. PGR all morning.

[David Bassett]

the top 2 3rds of the image is clear the bottom is dark shadow. doesn't happen on every picture but at least 75% of them. Don't have anytime today till later this afternoon to play with it. PGR all morning.

Dark shadow means it's getting some exposure, just not as much as it should.

Off the top of my head, it could be the mirror not raising all the way. (Did your glue job add extra weight? Make something rough that might me binding?)

Or, it could be the leading shutter blade dragging over that last third of it's travel. (Your shutter uses blades, or sets of blades, the first opens supposedly at a fixed speed and the other follows at the same speed after your exposure interval. Everything gets the same exposure, though a very slightly different points in time. If the first set slows down at the end and the second doesn't, that section of your exposure gets some light, but not as much as the rest of the photo.)

[mike stenson]

take the lens off and release the shutter and tell us what happens.

[Kev Williams]

Thanks for the refresher on shutters Dave :)

--it helps with theorizing the problem... shutter speed is determined 2 ways. The shutter is essentially TWO shutters, one fully opens at its max speed, the other shutter follows to close, at the same max speed. The camera's baseline shutter speed depends on the time it takes for the first to fully open plus the time for the second to fully close. In the old days, horizontal-travel shutters baseline speed was typically ~1/125 second, vertical shutters (like this Canon's) ~1/250th. -if I remember correctly ; -- could be 1/60 and 1/125... Anyway- slower than baseline shutter speeds require the second shutter to wait before closing, and faster shutter speeds require the second shutter to begin closing before the first shutter is fully open. At high speeds, the shutters get very close to each other, leaving a very thin slit for the light to pass thru..

SO -- IF one of the shutters is dragging, then what happens depends on which one is dragging. If the first (leading) shutter drags, the second shutter may close the gap before full exposure. Result, the unexposed portion of the photo will likely be black. If the second (trailing) shutter drags, then the result will be a full photo but the portion where the drag occurred will be overexposed...

Because you're getting some exposure, and you haven't mentioned overexposure, my guess is the mirror is the issue. Ways to test: take some photos at 1/30, 1/60 second, 1/250, 1/500 speeds. If the shadow goes away on the slow exposures, and appears on the fast exposures, then the mirror is moving its full travel but isn't moving fast enough. If the shadowed image is apparent in ALL the pics, then the mirror isn't moving its full travel and is partially blocking the light; something may be restricting it's travel...

[Bert Kemp]

shutter opens about 20sec--35sec--50sec this is slow motion but you can slow it down more in the setting at lower right

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yIcjzSS5nRo&feature=youtu.be

[Kev Williams]

I don't have a way to record from your video, but if you watch the video at .25 speed, move the timer to 34 seconds or 49 seconds and closely watch the mirror raise, you'll note that the whole mirror moves from bottom to top in like 1 frame, but to fully seat it takes about 3 frames- no clue if this is normal or what, or if the tiny distance between not fully raised and fully raised would account for your shadow. Could also be a simple shock absorption thing that's by design. There was no visible shutter drag, I couldn't find a frame in the 35 and 50 second shots where the shutter was caught in motion, one frame it's fully shut, next frame fully open for several frames, then within one frame it's fully shut. Not sure of the shutter speed you used, but it was slow enough to that the shutter WAS open for a few frames...

Based on what I saw in your video, and I'm not a camera mechanic to be sure ;) -- aside from the slow-to-fully-raise mirror thing which may be normal, the mirror and shutter appeared to work normally...

Could be optics? Have you checked the lens? Something as small as a hair on the lens can cause quite a bit of light scatter. About 20 years ago my brother had the internet abuzz over the 'ghostly' thing in the hallway of his apartment caught on his surveillance camera, looked like a long fuzzy whitish piece of twine with fuzzy balls attached to it, appeared to take up the whole hallway. It WAS pretty eerie... Turned out to be about a half inch of a single strand of spider web stuck to the lens, the fuzzy balls were the hallway lights reflecting off of and lighting up the web strand. :)

[mike stenson]

Tell you what, take a picture of a white background and post it. The more evenly illuminated, the better. I really didn't see any indication of the mirror really looking slow. As in trailing the shutter.

[Bert Kemp]

I'll use a different lens tomorrow. Also I used my finger and raised and lowered the mirror several times after I took the video and the lens was off then I toook a picture and it looked ok. Maybe like you said it was sticking a little will take more pics tomorrow see what happens. Just to hot to mess withj it anymore today still 101 at 830 pm hope its a little cooler in the morning

[Bert Kemp]

put on a different lens the shadow happens for a couple pictures then goes away, put the other lens back on and no shadow. I'm thinking the lens is sticking but after a couple shots it loosens up. Guess I'll just have to see how it goes. I don'r take a lot of pictures so might be a while to see if this camera will work ok or not.

[Kev Williams]

So-
mirror falls off
glue mirror on
pictures get fuzzy
something must be wrong with the glued on mirror
check it out for days
finally figure it's not the mirror but the lens...http://www.engraver1.com/gifs/pullinghair.gif

Yet another entry to my list of:
"things that I've fixed that immediately caused something else to go wrong with the thing leading to endless troubleshooting only to find the second thing that went wrong with the thing had absolutely nothing to do with the first thing that went wrong that I fixed."
;)

[David Bassett]

put on a different lens the shadow happens for a couple pictures then goes away, put the other lens back on and no shadow. I'm thinking the lens is sticking but after a couple shots it loosens up. Guess I'll just have to see how it goes. I don'r take a lot of pictures so might be a while to see if this camera will work ok or not.

I can't think of anything in a lens that would cause a stripe across the bottom of a photo. (In general, the lens is symmetrical around it's axis. So dark corners and maybe edges of the wider part, etc.)

One thought, though I don't remember the optical geometry, is that different focal length lenses use different amounts of the mirror. It may be the mirror clears the light rays for one lens, but lags and interferes with the projected image of another.

[Bert Kemp]

OK just took 4 shots 1st big shadow nd smaller rd and 4th no shadow 438326438327438328438329

[Jim Koepke]

I can't think of anything in a lens that would cause a stripe across the bottom of a photo.

One detail often forgotten in photography is the image is usually turned upside down by the optics. In this case the bottom of the image is actually at the top of the surface collecting the light. This could mean for some reason the mirror isn't getting out of the light path in time.

jtk

[Lee Schierer]

Set your camera in the Priority Apeture (P) mode and multiple shots when you press and hold the button. That will give you several shots very quickly so the third or fourth should be good.

[Bert Kemp]

yea but just wish I could get it to work right the first shot. Mirror stick for a couple then ok . I can't believe it has anything to do with my gluing in the mirror . I used the end of a toothpick to apply the glue the drop was so small I didn't know if any glue was actually on the pic LOL So I think if that were the problem it would stick all the time. Guess I'll have to live with it. :(

[mike stenson]

One detail often forgotten in photography is the image is usually turned upside down by the optics. In this case the bottom of the image is actually at the top of the surface collecting the light. This could mean for some reason the mirror isn't getting out of the light path in time.

jtk

It's more commonly shutter lag. Bert, what are the shutter speeds in the pictures above?

[Bert Kemp]

Didn't pay attention the cam was on full auto just wanted to show the shadow
Like said I just got this camera and have no experience with DSLR cams. So setting are very unfamiliar

[mike stenson]

Didn't pay attention the cam was on full auto just wanted to show the shadow

The upload to the site stripped all the EXIF. I'd be willing to bet this is related to shutter speed. You can likely view the information in camera. If this were a Nikon I could tell you how, but I've never been a Canon shooter..

[Bert Kemp]

Next time I try it I'll look these were junk shots and I deleted the folder from the camera so infor is gone.

[Lee Schierer]

Next time I try it I'll look these were junk shots and I deleted the folder from the camera so infor is gone.

There should be a dial on top of the camera where you can see the Auto setting (A). There is also several other letters. rotate the dial to M and you can adjust shutter speed manually.

You can get a manual for your camera here (https://id.canon/en/support/0300401901).

[Bert Kemp]

There should be a dial on top of the camera where you can see the Auto setting (A). There is also several other letters. rotate the dial to M and you can adjust shutter speed manually.

You can get a manual for your camera here (https://id.canon/en/support/0300401901).

When I got the camera the first thing I did was download the manual. These shots were taken while camera was in full auto mode. I assume that means the camera will or should pick the right speed and aperture for the shot its about to take. Since I have no experience I have no idea what to choose for those setting in a manual mode, there for I let the camera decide.

[Kev Williams]

I took your first two pics and added some extreme light, to see if the image slowly fades to black, or if the image is sharply cut off-

- it kinda does both..?
438363 438364

I added less light to the 2nd pic, it better shows the fade transition, or lack thereof. It gets to jet black in a short space...

What stands out to me is the transition between light and black isn't the least bit straight, and both are different. If the shutter is to blame, it should show a straight edge. Could be angled, but it would still be a straight edge. But pic 1, the edges roll down and there's a slight dip in the middle, pic 2 runs downhill left to right, a bit larger dip, and similar roll down on the right as pic 1...

If the problem is the shutter I would expect the transition to be quite straight. Same with the mirror, but the mirror's edge that would block incoming light is a long way from the shutter opening, and it's hinged and mechanically operated, so vibration and errant light reflection and blockage could account somewhat for the non-straight transition, but I'm still puzzled about how the mirror could cause the roll-down on both ends. Could the lens be contributing in some way? I'm left to wonder if your CCD sensor isn't quite up to snuff...?

[Bert Kemp]

Your right it is weird that the shadow line is not straight . I don't understand whats going on.I just took a bunch of pictures the first 3 had the shadow slowly go away after that no problem changes lens and still ok. eem like after the camera sit over night or for a period of time it happens.

[mike stenson]

FWIW, this looks exactly like every sticking shutter I've ever seen. It's rarely been a hard and fast straight line. Especially if you have a multiple zoned image (which you do).

[Malcolm Schweizer]

I have not read every reply, but likely the reason you are getting a dark area is the glue weighted the mirror down, so it is not coming up fast enough and is blocking Your image. Sorry if this was already said.

[Erik Loza]

FWIW, this looks exactly like every sticking shutter I've ever seen. It's rarely been a hard and fast straight line. Especially if you have a multiple zoned image (which you do).

Agree with Mike. I used to really cherish my camera bodies back in the analog days: Nikon F3, F100, F5, etc. Got sentimentally attached to them, like your car or piece of shop machinery. Then, once I switched to digital, it seemed like unless you were willing to pay thousands of dollars for the newest pro body, you might get a decent sensor but the parts were all plastic. I've gotten to the point now where I no longer view my bodies the way I used to. If it dies or falls and breaks, then I would just buy another one. Each digital body I've bought since those days has been used. Let someone else take the hit to get the newest/latest. Bert, for $200, I'd just buy another one on Ebay. Hope my logic makes sense and best of luck, whatever you decide to do.

Erik

[Bert Kemp]

Buying another is not an option. This one works ok after a few shot.

[John K Jordan]

...
438008
--and has a vertical plane shutter

It doesn't take a lot for a mechanical shutter to stick. 40+ years ago when I dabbled in camera repair someone brought me an Olympus (film) camera he had dropped off a low trail bridge into a mountain creek. After disassembly and drying everything worked except the shutter was dragging. Turned out the creek water must have left some kind of deposits on the shutter blades. I cleaned those carefully with distilled water then PGA and all worked again. (Those compact Olympus cameras were both an engineering marvel and a nightmare to work on!)

Don't know about this one, but on some SLRS there is a small external button or lever to lock the mirror up. If it has that, try shooting a series of pictures with the mirror locked. If you still get the dark area it's not the mirror.

JKJ

[Bert Kemp]

I'll see if my camera has that feature and give it a go if it does. Thanx
It doesn't take a lot for a mechanical shutter to stick. 40+ years ago when I dabbled in camera repair someone brought me an Olympus (film) camera he had dropped off a low trail bridge into a mountain creek. After disassembly and drying everything worked except the shutter was dragging. Turned out the creek water must have left some kind of deposits on the shutter blades. I cleaned those carefully with distilled water then PGA and all worked again. (Those compact Olympus cameras were both an engineering marvel and a nightmare to work on!)

Don't know about this one, but on some SLRS there is a small external button or lever to lock the mirror up. If it has that, try shooting a series of pictures with the mirror locked. If you still get the dark area it's not the mirror.

JKJ