When I look through my viewfinder I do not see an image of my subject.

[piazink]

I am new at photography and think I must be missing something simple.  When I turn on my Power Shot in shooting mode I see only a bright square on a dark field.  Pressing "disp" adds or removes symbols around the edge of the field, but no image of my subject.

[Tara_N]

Hi, piazink!

So that the Community can help you better, we will need to know exactly what Canon PowerShot you are using.

Any other details you'd like to give will only help the Community better understand your issue!

If this is a time-sensitive matter, our US-based technical support team is standing by, ready to help 24/7 via Email at http://bit.ly/EmailCanon or by phone at 1-800-OK-CANON (1-800-652-2666) weekdays between 10 AM and 10 PM ET (7 AM to 7 PM PT).

Thanks and have a great day!

[piazink]

Thanks for getting back to me, Tara.  I am trying to figure out my husband's old Power Shot S2 IS.  When I turn it on I see an orange light above the on/off wheel and the lens zooms out.  If I understand the manual correctly it should now be ready to shoot, but all I see on the LED screen and through the viewfinder is a bright square on a dark field.  I would like to try resetting it to factory default, but when I go to Menu/Tools, I don't see a reset option.  (No...I didn't forget to take off the lens cover!)

[piazink]

I stopped by a camera store today and the proprieter told me that ours is so old that Canon no longer repairs the model.  (My husband bought it during his tour of duty in Vietman 45 years ago.) He said that there is a wire inside the camera that allows you to switch views in the viewfinder.  Sounds simple, but he said that no one repairs it anymore.  He impressed me as someone who knows his way around a camera...but might there be options of which he is unaware?  It has been a great camera.

[John_]

Here is one fix that might help you you might have to repeat it a few times also if you really really like tht model and cannot fix it they are available on auction sites for cheap money. I still hve a working S5. The author of that fix said the problem is due to the oil on the shutter getting old and dried up and stiff. Its was called the black screen of death,

http://www.fixya.com/support/t295396-canon_s2_black_screen

Set the camera in Tv mode, (delayed shutter mode) set the shutter at 15 sec, click to take a picture and during that 15 secs (like, after 7 seconds) open the battery, compartment which cuts contact with the battery circuit.Close the battery cover. At this point the camera works fine for me but only temporarily as noted above.Sometimes however, this procedure had to be performed more than once. Here is the key to the permanent fix.While the camera is working via the temporary fix, take many, many pictures. Hundreds! I probably snapped 400-600 pics. The idea is to wear down the little patches of hardened oil on the shutter blades. For the next three of days I took hundreds of pics each day. Basically, I just aimed the camera at the wall or whatever and snapped off several hundred pics.

Now that I seem to have my camera working permanently, my plan is to NOT leave my camera in a high temperature environment, and to try to use it regularly. Maybe, not unlike many other things, if it gets no regular use, it may start to deteriorate.

No guarantees but I do hope this helps

[piazink]

That is certainly worth a try.  Thank you for your rely.   Will definitely give you feedback.

[John_]

Ok thank you and good luck!

[piazink]

It worked!  Thank you!  So happy I did not take the advice of the "expert" to just pitch it.

The camera is not as old as my husband believes.  Our daughter (whose memory is better than his) insists that the camera he thinks he bought in Saigon in 1969 is long gone.  She's right.  The PowerShot S2 IS didn't come out until 2005, but it's still "elderly".

Thanks again for your help.  I may actually try to learn to use it!

[John_ · Accepted solution]

lol your welcome if you can select "probelm solved" that will end this thread...glad it worked and it may have to be repeated till the shutter loosens up