New Camera/Help

[CoreyS]

Hello my name is Corey,
I wanted to get my steps into photography and have never owned a Camera. I just bought a used 40D yesterday that came with 2 lenses.(70-210 & a 35-135). It also came with a 2 GB Memory card, 2 batteries, a battery grip, and a case. Anyways.. Now to where I need help..

It will only turn on with the battery grip(With just one battery in the battery compartment it won't work. The Camera came with out a battery door unfortunately so I ordered a new one and hopefully that will solve the problem.

An additional problem.. To take pictures I can rarely get it to snap any pictures with the primary button(idk what it's called). How ever with the battery grip button it snaps pictures just fine. Could this be because the battery grip is attached? I have reset the camera settings, and turned off the battery switch and still nothing..

Thanks for your help and time!

[Peter]

About the battery door. You have a micro switch there that will need a closed battery door or an attached battery grip. Else the camera will not power up.

[Ray-uk]

The on-camera shutter button should work even with the grip attached.

It sounds as though you may have a faulty shutter button, it is quite common for these to get dirty contacts and become a bit erratic on all conon DSLRs not just the 40D. I would suggest that you try repeatedly pressing it while the camera is turned off in the hope that it might clear.

There have been some DIY fixes posted on the internet by squirting cleaner fluid into the battery compartment but I would be reluctant to try this because you could damage the top LCD.

If you bought this camera from a dealer then perhaps they might fix the problem for you otherwise you may have to pay to get the shutter button replaced.

[TCampbell]

Most Canon battery grips have a spot where it hides the battery door.  The long post that inserts into the battery bay may actually have your door hiding on the side of it (it would be easy to miss if you didn't realize it was there.)

[CoreyS]

Got yeah, thanks for confirming. I bought a camera door for it so that should hopefully fix that issue.

[CoreyS]

Oh wow thanks I found it! Hopefully I can cancel my order on the battery door lol. Thanks!

[CoreyS]

When I hit the shutter button it still focuses, but won't capture the picture. Could it be the button it self or something else? Thanks

[CoreyS]

Just to add.. The shutter button still focuses and activates the flash, but I can rarely get it to capture a picture.

[Peter · Accepted solution]

A quick search at Google tells me it's not an unfamiliar problem with the 40D. Search for 40d shutter button or  Contact cleaning the shutter button in Canon 40D. Also  Fix shutter release button not working Canon 30D 40D 50D.

The best is probably to open the camera up and clean the contact. The easiest is probably to put alcohol at the battery place holding the camera upside down. Don't forget to clean the battery compartment before. To get a 40D reparied costs probably more than the camera is worth.

[Ray-uk]

The shutter button has 2 seperate sets of contacts, the first one turns on the metering and the focusing, the second one actuates the shutter so it is possible that it is only the second contact that is causing the problem.

The fact that it is firing the flash is a bit misleading because the intial flash that you see is probably the pre-flash that is triggered indirectly by the metering contact this is normally followed by the main flash that is triggered by the shutter mechanism. Normally this happens in quick succession and you do don't notice it flash twice. I wouls suggest that you are only getting the pre-flash because the shutter mechanism isn't moving.