Weird "artifact" in 70D photos.

[ckjohnson72]

Hello everyone,

Let me start by saying I'm new to the group. I'm not a pro photographer by any means, but I don't shoot in auto mode. I originally bought my 70D for astrophotography, but have used it for everything and love this camera.

I was shooting photos of my stepson's graduation yesterday, and noticed a weird light artifact across a few photos. When I got home, I noticed it was in a number of the photos. Not all, but in about 50% - 75% of the photos. I focused the camera on the wall, and shot a photo of just the plain brown wall and there is clearly a trapezoid shape of light in my photos. I switched out lenses, and the shape is still there. I changed out batteries, and it is still there. I even thought that maybe I had accidentally switched a setting somewhere, so I reset the camera to factory defaults and it is still there. 

I'm concerned that something is wrong with my sensor.

Any suggestions?

I will post the photos here in a few hours, I left the card at home. 

[ckjohnson72]

Thanks guys. I'll look at getting the shutter replaced. It definitely won't be as expensive as replacing the camera.

[ckjohnson72]

So, to test the theory, I decided to try something. This probably isn't any breakthrough for you guys, but I found it rather clever on my part (not knowing enough about the inner workings of the DSLR). I turned the mirror lock up to on, hit the shutter button to lock the mirror up, then gently held the mirror up while firing the shutter. I filmed it with my Samsung Note 4 doing slow motion. You can clearly see the shutter problem. 

I'm assuming this is the failing shutter, but I'll take any expert opinions here:

[ckjohnson72]

The sad thing is I only have 67,862 actuations on my shutter. 

[TTMartin]

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@ckjohnson72 wrote:

So, to test the theory, I decided to try something. This probably isn't any breakthrough for you guys, but I found it rather clever on my part (not knowing enough about the inner workings of the DSLR). I turned the mirror lock up to on, hit the shutter button to lock the mirror up, then gently held the mirror up while firing the shutter. I filmed it with my Samsung Note 4 doing slow motion. You can clearly see the shutter problem. 

I'm assuming this is the failing shutter, but I'll take any expert opinions here:

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Yep, shutter failure.

[RobertTheFat]

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@ckjohnson72 wrote:

So, to test the theory, I decided to try something. This probably isn't any breakthrough for you guys, but I found it rather clever on my part (not knowing enough about the inner workings of the DSLR). I turned the mirror lock up to on, hit the shutter button to lock the mirror up, then gently held the mirror up while firing the shutter. I filmed it with my Samsung Note 4 doing slow motion. You can clearly see the shutter problem. 

I'm assuming this is the failing shutter, but I'll take any expert opinions here:

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I think that machination falls in the "Don't try this at home" category. I can understand why you wanted to test the "theory", but every time you stick your fingers into the lens opening, you risk breaking something or, at a minimum, getting it dirty. Any broken shutter is a loose cannon (unintended pun!). and when you manipulate it, you risk scratching the sensor. You probably got away with it this time, and Canon will clean it up for you as part of the repair. (The Jamesburg shop, just to name one with which I'm familiar, does an amazing job.) But I wouldn't try something like that again.

[TTMartin]

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@RobertTheFat wrote:

I think that machination falls in the "Don't try this at home" category. I can understand why you wanted to test the "theory", but every time you stick your fingers into the lens opening, you risk breaking something or, at a minimum, getting it dirty. Any broken shutter is a loose cannon (unintended pun!). and when you manipulate it, you risk scratching the sensor. You probably got away with it this time, and Canon will clean it up for you as part of the repair. (The Jamesburg shop, just to name one with which I'm familiar, does an amazing job.) But I wouldn't try something like that again.

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I agree this is the second user that posted that they physically held up the mirror in their camera. This is a bad idea, that is more likely to cause more harm than good.

[kvbarkley]

Especially since mirror lock up will do exactly what they want.

(Though I am not about to see if it works with the lens off...)