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EOS 500 n - Battery-Error During Exposure.?

Oneirophile
Contributor

Hello! I'm experiencing an annoying problem with my Canon EOS 500 n:

 

Sometimes when taking a picture (self-timer or manual), I hear the shutter open, and there is a single second click after about 5 seconds (it always takes the same couple of seconds, whether I'm taking a 30 second exposure pic or a quick one) and then nothing happens, the viewfinder remains dark, and the little display tells me the battery is empty. When I switch the camera off, the view is clear again and the picture simply hasn't been taken, no film was exposed.

 

I've tried different brands of batteries, and I figured the camera was simply defective, so I bought another one (used, for 10 bucks, they're pretty cheap these days) - and, amazingly, the error happens on that one too!

 

What on earth is causing this? Is it my lens? I mostly use a Tamron 70-300 mm, recently combined with a teleconverter. But the error doesn't happen every time, and why this battery message? It seems pretty much random to me.

 

So what's going on here? Smiley Frustrated

9 REPLIES 9

Waddizzle
Legend
Legend

That sounds like "shutter lockup".  If it is, then it can be disabled in the camera menus.

--------------------------------------------------------
"The right mouse button is your friend."

I've read the manual and haven't found anything - except that a flashing battery icon doesn't necessarily mean the battery is empty.

 

What is shutter lockup supposed to do when used correctly? And why would something like this happen only once in a while, seemingly at random?


@Oneirophile wrote:

I've read the manual and haven't found anything - except that a flashing battery icon doesn't necessarily mean the battery is empty.

 

What is shutter lockup supposed to do when used correctly? And why would something like this happen only once in a while, seemingly at random?


I'm sorry, but I misspoke.  It is called "mirror lockup", not shutter lockup.  It is found at Custom Function 9, in the menus.  Check to make that setting is disabled.  Oherwise, try resetting the camera.

--------------------------------------------------------
"The right mouse button is your friend."

After reading the entire manual again, I realize you are talking about the EOS 500D - I am however talking about the old analogue camera, the EOS 500 n! Smiley LOL

 

There are only four different custom functions on this camera - red eye, beep, multi-exposure and bracket. Now, I figure this MIGHT indeed be related to the multi-exposure function on a technical level (perhaps the camera "thinks" it's waiting for a the next picture to be taken, that might explain why no film is advanced at all and why everything goes back to normal once it's switched off) - but it doesn't explain why it happens at all, without being selected...

... I spoke to a handful of people at Canon Support on the phone, and pretty much everyone is baffled as to this problem showing up on two separate cameras. They don't repair these old models anymore, and posting it to a smaller firm costs more than a new camera, so I guess, I'll just have to get another model. This might be a common malfunction on the 500n... unless anyone tells me otherwise?

 

Edit: I'm just thinking ... COULD IT BE weary battery contacts that will work for low-energy-consuming tasks such as lighting meter, display and such, and fail to drain the amount needed for mechanical tasks? I'll try cleaning them and report back.

 

Edit 2: This is incredibly annoying: I wanted to try it on the older of the two cameras, from which I removed an unfinished film as it couldn't take a single shot anymore, but before the cleaning, I tried to see if the error was occuring without film inside - it's not. It works perfectly fine, pretends to take picture after picture, even with the lens I suspected to be causing trouble ... yeah I love things like that. I'm sure, the moment I insert a film, it's going to stop working on me again. I'm starting to get furious with this ...

Pretty sure at this point that it's the communication between the old cameras and the newer lenses that causes the trouble.

 

It's pure luck and not workable on a reliable level. It appears there is no fix. 

 

Bye!

 

Hi,

 

I have just found this thread and wanted to report that I have the same issue with the same camera.

I initially thought it was a battery issue too, and kept changing the battery but it still happens, exactly as you described.

 

Have you had any further developments? Can you shed any further light on this issue?

 

I have had this problem for a few years, became frustrated with the camera and put it away. I recently bought it out again and put new batteries in it and it worked for one and a half films (24 exp). It has now started playing up again.

 

Any help on getting my old girl working again would be greatly appreciated.

I bought one of these about 10 days ago and I have exactly the same problem. The shutter appears to lock wide open and there's a whirring noise as though the lens is trying to focus (but I'm using manual focus so it isn't that) and when you turn it off and on again the whirring contnues. 

 

I'm quite attached to the camera even though I've only shot about 3 rolls so don't want it to just die on me. It is an intermittent problem but I can't figure the exact steps to reset the thing but eventually it does start working again. 

 

I may take it to a repair shop but as it cost next to nothing am not too keen on spending more than I paid to have it repaired (which I was happy to do for the A1 I picked up cheaply!)

 

If I get any real info I'll post it here.

Sorry I didn't reply back to this sooner!

 

In my case, the problem was definitely due to the lens and NOT the camera.

I had similar problems with the lens on a digital EOS camera.

 

The problem I've had with this lens on an EOS 600D was that I could only use it on the lowest aperture setting. When I tried anything else, it would give me an error. So this "empty battery" freeze was the analogue EOS' way of letting me know about the same thing.

 

I've had this lens repaired before and it worked again, for a while (on the digital EOS - I didn't try it on the analogue one during this time) - now it's broken again.

 

So yeah, it MIGHT be the teleconverter that I used that damaged the lens somehow, or the Magic Lantern hack on the digital one, or a simple mechanical issue that has nothing to do with these things. Anyhow, the problem was the lens and not the camera in both cases.

 

Hope that helps you!

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