Canon Community

thangpt88 · ‎06-28-2016

I just go a canon 5d mark II from ebay and a new 85 mm f/1.8 lens from adorama. However I can't control aperture in Manual (M) model even after turning the on/off knob to the highest level (marked by a white line). is there any thing wrong with the camera or with the lens? Thanks.

diverhank · ‎06-28-2016

@thangpt88 wrote:

1) By "can't control the aperture in M mode" I meant even when I set the on/off switch to the third level (indicated by a white mark line some people here showed in their attached pictures) and dial the rear wheel (the big one with Set button on, and right next to the LCD screen) I can move f-stop up/down.

2) Someone mentioned try to reset the camera to the factory mode. How could I do it? I went through every tabs in Menu and reset camera settings and functionality setting but it didn't help. Is there any "stronger" reset?

3)when I move to Aperture in the main Display screen, I can change the aperture with the rear dial, but at the same time I can't see it in the viewfinder. I believe for 5D2, if everything works properly, in M mode and the on/off switch changed to the third level I can independently control shutter speed (by using front wheel) and aperture (by using rear wheel) while looking throught the viewfinder.

1. Try toggle the switch a few times and make sure it goes all the way up...as you described in # 3, the big dial is still working so physically it's OK. I suspect that the camera thinks that you still have it on locked (the ON position) so in M mode you can't control it. So physically there might be something wrong with the switch.

2. You can do a reset by removing the camera battery as well as the date and time battery (round battery within the battery chamber) for a few minutes (try to focus or press shutter button to deplete the residual capacitance charge) then re-install.

By the way...in the off chance that you are using the M mode but via one of the Custom buttons (C1, C2, C3)...don't do that, go out to M...the custom mode might remember everything you set at the time you registered it, including the power switch.

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TCampbell · ‎06-28-2016

@thangpt88 wrote:

3) While the camera is in the Av mode, I can control the aperture, with the front wheel (close to the shutter stop button). The rear wheel didn't work in this case. With the Q button (multifunction joystick) when I move to Aperture in the main Display screen, I can change the aperture with the rear dial, but at the same time I can't see it in the viewfinder. I believe for 5D2, if everything works properly, in M mode and the on/off switch changed to the third level I can independently control shutter speed (by using front wheel) and aperture (by using rear wheel) while looking throught the viewfinder. Please correct me if I am wrong. My problem is I can only do that for shutter speed, and everytime in order to change aperture I need to look at the big LCD screen and using the Q joystick.

Ahh... so this is telling.

First... when you use the Q button to change the settings (e.g. press the Q button, navigate to apeture on the rear LCD, and then use the dial to change it) you're not supposed to be see anything through the viewfinder (the LEDs inside the viewfinder will remain dark when you use it this way -- that's not a defect.)

Second... it tells us that your rear dial actually does work (the dial isn't broken because the camera can detect that you are rotating the dial and responds correctly).

So this begs a new question..

When you look through the viewfinder and want to change the aperture using the rear dial... do you first WAKE UP the camera by half-pressing the shutter button?

Nothing will be displayed on the internal display (nor will it respond to changing the aperture via the rear-dial) unless you wake-up the metering & focus system ... typically just a half-press of the shutter button will do this but it IS possible to map it to a back-button.

If the previous owner has disabled front button metering & focus, then the default back-button is the "AF-ON" button located on the back of the camera body -- near the upper right corner. But even this can be switched... the button with teh asterisk '*' is normally the exposure lock (AE lock button) but there's a custom function which allows you to swap the AF-ON & * buttons (so the * does the AF & metering and the "AF-ON" does the AE lock when the functions are swapped.)

Press "Menu" then navigate to the custom functions screen (it's the tab just left of the green star). Scroll down (using the rear dial) to "C.Fn IV: Operations/Others" and press the center button on the dial to select that sub-menu. (Important note: Camera must not be in the green box mode on the mode dial (that's the full auto mode) since these menus are hidden in that mode.)

At the bottom of the screen on this sub-menu you will see a row of numbers... numbered 1 through 6. Just below each of these numbers you'll see another row of numbers... most of which are probably zeros, but the top row of numbers indicates the 6 possible sub-functions and the bottom row indicates which setting was selected for each sub-option. Also note that in that bottom row (the row that probably has most choices set to "0") ... if the number is drawn in white then that option is using the factory default. If it's blue then it means the camera is using a setting other than the factory default (so this makes it easy to recognize which settings have been altered.)

You want the first sub-option (1) labeled "Shutter button/AF-ON button" (that will be the subtitle under the "C.FN IV: Operation/Others").

Canon uses a notation here... choice 0 says "0:Metering + AF start" and this is the factory default choice. But notice that choices 1, 2, 3, and 4 all have a slash (/) in the description. Everything LEFT of the "/" is what the shutter button will do... everything RIGHT of the "/" is what the back button will do (and usually teh back button is mapped to "AF-ON" but, again, you can change that.

This means that if your prior owner selected choice 3 then your shutter button will NOT wake-up the metering system on your camera. Set it to "0" if you just want the factory default behavior.

You'll notice that on that custom functions main menu (before you descend into any sub-category) there's a choice to "Clear all Custom Func. (C.Fn)" -- you can use that to clear anything that the previous owner may have set back to the factory default choices.

You'll probably want to spend time learning about all these choices... in the category of a 5D II camera (a somewhat advanced camera), the camera has a lot of capability that you can access in these menus.

Tim Campbell
5D III, 5D IV, 60Da

thangpt88 · ‎06-28-2016

Ahh... so this is telling.

First... when you use the Q button to change the settings (e.g. press the Q button, navigate to apeture on the rear LCD, and then use the dial to change it) you're not supposed to be see anything through the viewfinder (the LEDs inside the viewfinder will remain dark when you use it this way -- that's not a defect.)

Second... it tells us that your rear dial actually does work (the dial isn't broken because the camera can detect that you are rotating the dial and responds correctly).

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I think so too. I think the physical condition of the dial is okay. But as someone here suggested earlier today, there might be something wrong with the on/off switch. I'll reset the camera to see if that helps at all.

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So this begs a new question..

When you look through the viewfinder and want to change the aperture using the rear dial... do you first WAKE UP the camera by half-pressing the shutter button?

Nothing will be displayed on the internal display (nor will it respond to changing the aperture via the rear-dial) unless you wake-up the metering & focus system ... typically just a half-press of the shutter button will do this but it IS possible to map it to a back-button.

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Yeah, I understand this. I always do half-press to wake up the camera in order to see every parameters in the viewfinder.