Canon SX50 HS half of a picture covered up by something?

[Joey1]

I have a Canon SX50 HS and I was taking a timelapse with CHDK. I came back to the camera and it looked the last of the pictures had something blocking them. More than half of the picture looked like a blade of grass was in the way. I took out the memory card and the part that was blocked was still there. 

Does anybody know what's happening? And how can I fix it?

[Waddizzle]

Was the camera rotated to portrait mode?  Have you tried to take additional photos?  There may not be anything wrong with the camera.  It appears to be something blocking the camera lens.  Something very close to the camera lens.

A failing shutter can cause photos to have blacked out areas in the image.  Except, a shutter normally causes horizontal lines, not vertical ones.  This is why I asked if the camera was rotated.  

Also, the image appears out of focus, and a failing shutter creates a sharp straight edge.  A failing shutter should not affect focus, because the camera normally focuses before you even activate the shutter to take the picture.  The black edge is not straight and out of focus.  This leads me to believe something was close to the lens, which failed to focus properly because something was way too close to the camera.

[Joey1]

No, the camera was not rotated.

I did notice that the sound of the shutter is muted.

Yes, I have taken additional photos and video and it's still there.

I can also see light refracting around the blackness when the exposure is all the way up.

I now believe that it might be the aperture is dislocated. When I adjust it the width of the blackness gets larger and smaller.

Is it even possible for the aperture to be dislocated?

[Waddizzle]

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@Joey1 wrote:

No, the camera was not rotated.

I did notice that the sound of the shutter is muted.

Yes, I have taken additional photos and video and it's still there.

I can also see light refracting around the blackness when the exposure is all the way up.

I now believe that it might be the aperture is dislocated. When I adjust it the width of the blackness gets larger and smaller.

Is it even possible for the aperture to be dislocated?

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Any moving mechanism can eventually fail.  Your problem is that the cost to repair it probably exceeds the cost to replace it.

[Grazie]

Our colleague here has openly told us the camera is working with the CHDK modification. I’d suggest removing it.

[Joey1]

CHDK is loaded from the camera's SD card. I used it mostly for timelapse. It's removed when the camera's SD card is removed, or when the camera is turned off and back on again.

[John_]

Yes you have to turn the camera on with the Play button to load CHDK into the camera. I tried CHDK a couple of times in my SX50HS but then freaked out when the camera started acting up with the lens zooming in and out by itself. I formatted the card and got rid of it. You could buy an inexpensive, safe, remote shutter switch with time-lapse capabilities. The risk vs reward, at least for me was not worth it although I know people use CHDK and swear by it.

As for your strange image, you could set up a long exposure and look inside the lens with a light maybe and see if you see something in there. I do not think CHDK caused your problem it looks to me more like an artifact in the lens.

[Joey1]

Yes, I did a 15-second exposure. This was a memory card without CHDK and this was the result.

[John_]

I know this is not a technical response but that looks awful! It does have the same general size as your first image. Can you look in the lens and see something in there during the exposures?

[Joey1]

I got it 'kinda' working! All I needed to do is zoom out all the way whack the lens. It disappeared but then when took another photo it appeared again. Then I whacked the lens again and it's not working perfectly!

And when the photos were first covered up I did try shaking the camera around and whacking lens and it didn't work

Still, I have no idea what's blocking it.