Canon EOS 4000D takes photos on its own

[amarildo]

Hello everyone,

I am new here, so hopefully you can help me. I have been using Canon 4000D for the past six months. I use 18-55mm and 75-300m lenses. 

Today I was taking photos during a soccer game, and as it was raining, so it get wet. Later on, my camera started to behave really weirdly. Once I turn it on, there is nothing on my display, but if I switch it to some of manuel modes, it takes photos on its own, and literally there is no break - it takes tens of photos without me touching the shooter. When I go to video mode, I can see it on display, but in other modes I can see menu on my display only for a moment while switching modes. I have tried different lenses, I have changed my card, charged battery - it is always the same.

I know I have made a mistake by not protecting it enough, but what is important to emphasize here is that the same thing happened a month ago in normal weather condition, and somehow it fixed itself after a couple of days.

[Tronhard]

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@amarildo wrote:

Hello everyone,

I am new here, so hopefully you can help me. I have been using Canon 4000D for the past six months. I use 18-55mm and 75-300m lenses. 

Today I was taking photos during a soccer game, and as it was raining, so it get wet. Later on, my camera started to behave really weirdly. Once I turn it on, there is nothing on my display, but if I switch it to some of manuel modes, it takes photos on its own, and literally there is no break - it takes tens of photos without me touching the shooter. When I go to video mode, I can see it on display, but in other modes I can see menu on my display only for a moment while switching modes. I have tried different lenses, I have changed my card, charged battery - it is always the same.

I know I have made a mistake by not protecting it enough, but what is important to emphasize here is that the same thing happened a month ago in normal weather condition, and somehow it fixed itself after a couple of days.

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Right now all you can do is put it in a warm, dry place and hope to let it dry itself out.  As to the previous event, it might be worth going back and seeing what exactly was going on at the time.  There may be some element that impacted the camera that you have forgotten.  If you seek to have it fixed you are liable to be told that getting it wet negates any warranty, and the cost of fixing a camera of this type is propably not worth it.

[amarildo]

Thanks Trever.

It just feels so strange, because it looks like nothing is broken,. In all manuel modes it takes dozens of photos, and the only way to stop it is turn off the camera (when I do it I see on display "Recording photos"). In some automatic modes it just takes one photo, while in a couple of them it also takes unlimited photos without break. It sounds like some kind of lack of communication between hardware and software, If I can define it like that.

[Tronhard]

Water is an insidious material.  Once it gets inside the body it causes short circuits and as time goes on it degrades the metal of the circuits, essentially corroding away at them.   As you go up the levels of cameras they have more and more environmental protection, but lower-end consumer cameras, like the 4000 series have none.  If you shoot in wet weather you need to have plastic around the camera and lens - even a bread bag with the camera inside is better than nothing.

I am very conservative with my gear, and even though I have the pro-level EOS cameras, I am very careful about using them with extra protection in inclement conditions.   It's a tough lesson for you. 

[wq9nsc]

It isn't just the rain that causes the issue but the moisture wicked inside the camera carries with it salt transferred from the operator's skin along with other contaminants that had built up on the case and around the controls.  Your best bet is to remove the battery and place the camera where it is warmed slightly above room temperature to aid it drying.  The warm air output from a portable dehumidifier works well because it is bathing the camera in warm and somewhat dry air.

Although cameras with limited weather sealing shouldn't be exposed to anything beyond a very light mist, if you keep the case and particularly the area around the controls and any other openings very clean and residue free then problems are less likely. Canon (and other cameras) designed for use in bad conditions have weather seals around every opening to prevent problems. I shot a swim meet yesterday and I cleaned the three 1DX series bodies and lenses carefully both before and after the meet.  I also drove in with the camera bodies and lenses heated by the car floor vents so that they would be above rather than below the ambient temperature on the deck to avoid condensation issues.  

The combination of water and contaminants has produced one or more somewhat conductive paths where they shouldn't exist in your 4000D and that is responsible for the continuous photo taking.  Hopefully it will be OK once it dries HOWEVER once a conductive path has built up, you will find that an even smaller amount of moisture will be sufficient to cause malfunction next time because with a conductive path just a little moisture greatly increases the conductivity.  I restore vintage electronic gear and in some cases I will actually wash it in water but that is for cases where there is extreme contamination and it will get multiple rinses with distilled water (and also deionized water for high voltage circuits) followed by a complete drying before power is applied.  If there is an existing leakage path, I will clean it with a chemical cleaner.  But this requires careful work and you can NOT simply spray cleaner or water dispersant throughout a camera body.

I shoot soccer and football in the rain but only with my 1DX series bodies with weather sealed lenses.  I have Canon covers for my small, medium, and large lenses I use for sports which cover the camera and the body and if I am in really heavy rain I will use those even though it isn't absolutely necessary with 1 series bodies.  I also have a couple of 5DS bodies but I never use them without rain covers if there is any precipitation. 

Rodger

[Tronhard]

Absolutely agree with Roger - which is why I referred to water rather than rain specifically. Still, rain seems to have been the final undoing of your camera. I still shoot with consumer-level cameras, but I avoid moisture like the plague. I also have taken to wearing a mask (now no big deal in the new COVID reality) as I have to lather sunscreen on my face to avoid skin cancer, but that becomes liquid in the heat and the mask stops it transferring onto and into the cameras.

[ebiggs1]

Most likely you are SOL. But here is what you do, use a warm heating pad. Now the key here is warm not hot. Open all possible openings on the camera. No battery, no SD card, no lens. Leave all this open. Leave it on the warm heating pad for weeks, yes, weeks and don't touch it.  Perhaps on a shelf somewhere out of the way. Then cross your finger and perhaps your toes! 

BTW, don't use any rice or listen to anyone that says it will help, it won't and can make it worse if possible to. Also silica gel isn't practicable either unless you have a ton of it. The two worse things that can happen to a camera is dropping it or getting it wet. Try the heating pad, who knows?

[Tronhard]

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@ebiggs1 wrote:

Most likely you are SOL. But here is what you do, use a warm heating pad. Now the key here is warm not hot. Open all possible openings on the camera. No battery, no SD card, no lens. Leave all this open. Leave it on the warm heating pad for weeks, yes, weeks and don't touch it.  Perhaps on a shelf somewhere out of the way. Then cross your finger and perhaps your toes! 

BTW, don't use any rice or listen to anyone that says it will help, it won't and can make it worse if possible to. Also silica gel isn't practicable either unless you have a ton of it. The two worse things that can happen to a camera is dropping it or getting it wet. Try the heating pad, who knows?

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Ernie is right about the SOL.   I had some cameras damaged by water when the supposedly weather-proof bag they were in leaked and turned into a bucket.   When I sent the cameras to Canon they advised that the circuits were showing corrosion and that the cameras would continue to degrade and show random errors.  Insurance might be a good consideration.

[amarildo]

Thanks a lot for your advices. Just to update you folks. I tried to dry it out, but it didn't work so I had it sent to the repairer. He said that the shutter button got damaged, he tried to fix it, but the issue reemerged so he had to change it with the new one. According to him, the shutter button was really low quality (cheap one, not produced by Canon), so he had to replace it with the new one from some broken Canon camera.