T3 does not work in M mode

[NonniRazzi]

I own a T3 and love it. I have only used the 'auto-focus' option (green square) until about 3 weeks ago. I started attending a 6-week camera class and learned what all the other options were! It was then that we found out that my M option will not focus, (and the others too)  EXCEPT, like I said, the 'auto'; green square.  I cannot find my instruction manual, and I have looked on YouTube, Google, everything I can think of. Teacher of class is stumped too. We tried different lenses, so, not the lense- has to be the camera itself, right? She suggested a camera place that is about 50 miles away, and their hours of operation do not work with mine. Any ideas? I'm thinking it may have never worked? CAN it he fixed or am I out of luck? HELP?! ~Nonni

[jrhoffman75]

Here's manual

http://www.the-digital-picture.com/Owners-Manuals/Canon-EOS-Rebel-T3-1100D-Digital-SLR-Camera-Owners...

[cicopo]

The camera does NOT control the AF through an on or off setting using the menus or by using one of the buttons / switches. You set AF on or off on the lens using the 2 position switch marked AF / M

M on the mode dial refers to manually setting both the aperture & the shutter speed to a setting that will produce a correct exposure by using the information the built in light meter supplies.

[ebiggs1]

" It was then that we found out that my M option will not focus, (and the others too)  EXCEPT, like I said, the 'auto'; green square."

Let me understand, you say the only mode that will let the lens AF is the full auto 'green' square.  No other mode will AF?

And you leave the lens' AF/MF switch in the AF position?  If this is true, take her advice, "She suggested a camera place that is about 50 miles away ...".  You can call them first to see if they can help before you go.

Second option is to send it to Canon.  It is easy and Canon is very good.  Give them a call, too.

[Waddizzle]

I'm a bit surprised that the instructor your camera class could not give better advice than "take it t a camea shop."  Read what Ernie posted carefully.  It is easy to read it too fast, and miss what he's saying.  Make sure that your camera lens has the AF/MF switch set to AF mode.

When you say that it doesn't focus, does it try to focus at all and just fails to find a lock?  Or, is nothing happening at all?

[TCampbell]

One big difference is that if you use the full-auto mode (the green square) the camera will not let you pick the auto-focus point. The camera will activate all 9 AF points and will decide which one to use for focus (it will tend to select the AF point which can lock focus at the nearest focsuing distance to the camera.)

When you switch to any other mode (P, Tv, Av, or M) then YOU get to choose the auto-focus point (or you can put it in the mode where it will use all 9 AF points and auto-select one for focus.)

Put the camera into a different mode (such as "Program" mode (P)) and then press the AF point selection button (that's the button in the upper-right corner of the camera back.  It has an icon of a white rectangel with 5 white dots in a "+" shape).  When you press the button, you can roll the main dial (front of camera next to the shutter button) and it will cycle through each AF point or to a mode where it highlights all 9 AF points.)

Select an AF point (hint: the center point is a "cross type" point and is more sensitive than the other 8 AF points... which are single-axis points.).  Then point the camera at a subject with some contrast (so plain white walls or plain blue skies don't count) -- taking care to put position your view so that the AF point you chose is on the target you want to use for focus.  When you press the shutter button half-way, the camera should focus.

ANOTHER POSSIBILITY is that someone (perhaps you) changed the custom function to activate "back button focus".  The button with the asterisk (*) on the back of the camera is the "back button".  If that mode is enabled, then the front button still takes the shot, but the back-button focuses the shot.  (This is Custom Function 7 -- see page 221 of your full instruction manual.)   To return this to factory default, switch C.Fn. 7 to choice "0".

[TTMartin]

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@NonniRazzi wrote:

I own a T3 and love it. I have only used the 'auto-focus' option (green square) until about 3 weeks ago. I started attending a 6-week camera class and learned what all the other options were! It was then that we found out that my M option will not focus, (and the others too)  EXCEPT, like I said, the 'auto'; green square.  I cannot find my instruction manual, and I have looked on YouTube, Google, everything I can think of. Teacher of class is stumped too. We tried different lenses, so, not the lense- has to be the camera itself, right? She suggested a camera place that is about 50 miles away, and their hours of operation do not work with mine. Any ideas? I'm thinking it may have never worked? CAN it he fixed or am I out of luck? HELP?! ~Nonni

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When you are in Green Square mode the camera temporarily resets all of the changes you made to the camera in the menus.

Most likely you accidentally moved the focus control off the shutter button in the menu. While you are in Green Square this change is temporarily cancelled. 

What you want to do is reset this change manually in the menus.

There are two places you need to do this, one is a menu choice that says Reset Camera Settings, the other is a Menu choice that says Reset Custom Functions. Once you reset the camera settings and the custom functions the cameras AF should work in P,Tv, Av and M modes as like it does in Green Square.