i have a Canon rebel EOS i took maternity pictures with it on new years day and it worked fine as i

[tdc0528]

I took pictures with my camera on new years day and it worked fine. went to use it that friday and it wouldn't focus!. i took it to my step dad he cleaned the lense on the inside and is no longer blury on the inside i am able to take pictures far away but if i zoom in with the lense it will not auto focus and the picture comes out blurry! can anyone please tell me how i can fix this i love my camera and do not want to replace it especially since i have paid so much for it

[ebiggs1]

From your response, I am going to assume you guys are novices.

First of all stop "cleaning" the back side of the lens.

Second reset the camera, in the menu, to factory defaults. This is very important.

Now make sure the dial on the top of the camera is not set to "M".  Set it to "P" or the green square.

Do you know the EXACT Rebel model? There is no 55mm kit lens. There is a 55-200mm zoom lens?

[TCampbell]

I'm wondering if this is one of the EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 lenses (there are a few versions of this.)

It is possible that the focus motor inside the lens is not working.  But it's also possible that the camera is trying to lock focus, but cannot either because there isn't enough available light or because the subject lacks contrast.

I usually suggest testing the camera in a situation where there is a LOT of available light (such as mid-day sun outdoors).  

The good news is tha thte camera itself does not have a focus motor.  If the focus motor on the lens is malfcuntioning it can either be serviced or you could replace it with a different lens.

Do you own more than one lens?

Also... as ebiggs says... no disassembling stuff to clean it.  You'd be astonished at how dirty a lens can be and yet still provide very good performance.  

Lest you not believe me... I give you this:  http://www.lensrentals.com/blog/2008/10/front-element-scratches

Ok, so that lens is an extreme example and yes... technically the results are not great.  BUT... when you see how damaged the lens is, it's astonishing that they were able to get any kind of image at all.

[ebiggs1]

Tim, Roger Cicala is the man!

BTW, I got to watch the Space Lab orbit over on a couple very clear cold evenings ago. Pretty amazing.

[NX]

All Cannon EOS cameras have distinguishing marking on one corner of the camera's body. It will read "Eos" and model or "  EOS Rebel" and model. This will help us help you even more. Same with the lens  The  "Ф xx MM" ( for example Ф58 MM) what tends to be the "bottom" of the lens it self carries different meaning. It just means the size of the flange on the front of the lens for attachments to the lens like a lens hood, and doesn't mean what's the focusing of the lens.

I know the picture looks some what crude but does the trick.  The numbering XX-YY mm like one in the pic 18-55mm is what tells you what's the focusing range of the lens is.  Also the rest of the numbers " F/3.5-5.6  tells you the F stop (refers to its aperture setting of the lens) the IS means the lens has a Image Stabilizer

As i mentioned the more information you can give us the better

Hint : camera lenses are easily scratchable dont go cleaning them with what ever rag you can get your hands on.  Never touch the camera's mirror or imaging sensor for any reason unless you know what you doing.

Canon EOS RebelT3
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