Canon EOS 40D: no function after exposure failed and mirror locked up

[No-Frills]

My wife bough ta used Canon EOS 4D, camera worked until today. Shutter count is 4,450, CF card is new.

This evening I took some shots of a store window with Fuji X-T20 with 1/30 ISO 1600 f5.66.

Then I would take a shot with the Canon. I saw 1/20 IS0 800 f5.6 and pressed accidentally the shutter button. The image wasn't recorded. After the accidentally shot  I saw that the Mode Dial was in Flash off mode.

As I tried to make the image with the Canon the mirror went up. I couldn't hear the shutter because nearby was loudf life music. The mirror didn't return. I turnd the camera off an on again and the mirror was locked up.

I turned the camera off, remived the battery and the mirror returned at once. I plugged the battery in, turned the camera on and I saw no menu items, menu button was without function, shutter didn't work. And that is the state since 4 hours.   

[Ray-uk]

It sounds as though you have mirror lock up enabled in the menu. Refer to your user manual on how to disable this, if you haven't got the manual you can download it from the Canon website.

[No-Frills]

Perhaps I didn't spoke out clearly: the mirrow went down again after removing the battery. Since the failure there is no Menue and there is nothing displayed in viewfinder and on the top display.

[Ray-uk]

Take the battery out then put it back in, if the mirror goes up then press the shutter button, does the shutter operate ?

[No-Frills]

Sorry, I mentioned yesterday that the shutter button didn't work since the exposure failed.

[Waddizzle]

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@No-Frills wrote:

Perhaps I didn't spoke out clearly: the mirrow went down again after removing the battery. Since the failure there is no Menue and there is nothing displayed in viewfinder and on the top display.

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That doesn’t sound good.  If the mirror was locked up, it could have run down the battery.  Make sure it is fully charged.

[No-Frills]

Thanks Waddizzle. That is a clue. We've checked the battery after returning home. The manual says: Red light blinks three times per second, 90% or higher lights on. That's what we get and I presume the main battery is fully charged. But I will plug it in tomorrow a longer time to make shure. E.g. our Fuji charger failes sometimes, showing green light for full load and the battery isn't complete loaded.

I presume the error could be caused by exhausting the button cell. The manual says there is a button cell in the 40 D to store time and date. I havent' found it yet.

The enigma is: what caused failure and trouble?

Meanwhile I've found in a German Canon forum a post dated back to 2011. The user has had a similiar problem with the 40D. But it's uselesse. Problem wasn't solved and the blockheaded mod closed the posts in 2012 as "one year old and uninteresting".

[BurnUnit]

Are you using genuine Canon batteries and charger?

[No-Frills]

Sorry guys, no answer gives me a clue why I got a problem with a 40 D with shutter count about 4450. But Canon gave me an advice never again to buy a 11 old Canon.

I asked Canon for support in this case and Canon send me a free parcel stamp to ship the wreck to the support. They also shipped the wreck back for free. That's  great.

Not so great: The camera is wrecked. Canon support mentioned not why. Canon support mentioned only that they have no spare parts for EOS 40D in stock.Is that poor? I hesitate to say yes.

My analogue Nikon F build about 1968 coild be fixed 40 years later, my analogue Nikkormat FT3 could be fixed after 10 years and couldn't be fíxed 20 years after it's production. And there were no spareparts for my old analogue Nikon EL2 after 10 years.

I presume, 10 years is the lifetime we have to expect for a good reason. After 10 years 2, 3 or more camera generations offer more features. Sometimes morte scrap, e.g. plastiv body instead of mtal or alloy bodies.

[Waddizzle]

The most common reason for a company to drop support for repairing older electronic gear is the fact that one or more electronic components on the circuit boards are no longer being produced by a THIRD party.