Hi, I have a Canon EOS Rebel (bought in '92) which has worked flawlessly until the last set of rolls. I just got 2 rolls developed and some frames on both rolls are blanks, as if they weren't exposed. The camera battery indicator on the LCD panel shows good battery and the film rolls loaded properly without any warnings. Also, while taking the snaps (some with flash and some without flash in bright sunlight) I didn't see any problems and got good exposure settings. However, when I got the film developed, the first film has a few blank frames towards the end, while the second film has only 6 exposed frames - in an apparently random order. Is this a problem with the film developing or with the camera? Could someone please give me some pointers as to what may be wrong with the camera?

Thanks a lot for your help. -Aditya

-- Aditya Kumar (riti_pritam@yahoo.com), December 27, 2001

Answers

Well,there may be many possibilities. 1)all the images are shot several stops under the correct exposure.This happens when the camera is set in the 'creative zone' 2)film ISO wrongly set,film underexposed 3)some problems with the film,may be expired 4)erratic operation of film developer. 5)the film may be exposed to X-ray accidentally. 6)(least possible)u gave the film to the lab.

-- legnum (legnum212@email.com), December 27, 2001.

Not likely an under exposure problem since some frames are fine and others are completely blank. That would need more than just a few stops under exposure. Certainly using the creative zones are not going to cause underexposure. Expired film, erratic developer and X- rays won't cause this either.

It might be a sticky shutter though. 8-10 year old EOS cameras sometimes develop a problem where the upper shutter bumper decomposes and leaks onto the upper left shutter blades. Take your film out, open the back and look at the shutter blades. Is there any anything that looks like dried grease on any parts of the shutter blades?

If so, Canon recommends replacing the shutter for probably more than your Rebel is worth. Or you can clean it yourself with lighter fluid as a last resort. Look through this forum for more info on how to do it.

-- Jim Strutz (j.strutz@gci.net), December 28, 2001.

Thanks for your prompt responses. Indeed when I opened up the camera back and checked the shutter, there is a greasy deposit on it - is there a safe way to clean it? I looked through the list of questions on this forum, but couldn't find an appropriate item. Is there an option to search through the vast list of items? Thanks a lot again for your help. -Aditya

-- Aditya Kumar (riti_pritam@yahoo.com), December 28, 2001.

You can do this yourself, but you do risk destroying your shutter if you're not careful. So just be careful. Don't press on the shutter blades. If you are too forceful and one of them pops out of it's track, you can bend it out and pop it back in though.

Use lighter fluid on the end of Q-Tips or other cotton swabbed sticks. Rub some on and fire the shutter a few times. Wipe it off with a dry Q-Tip. Repeat this process dozens of times, using a clean Q-tip each time.

Be sure to go in from the camera front as well. Remove the lens and raise the mirror with your finger. Then do the same thing you did for the back of the shutter. Alternate going from the front and back of the shutter, firing it several times every time you swab it. Keep ding this until all the black stuff is gone.

You can also use alcohol but the lighter fluid is faster.

Then let it dry for a couple of days, firing the shutter every few hours to make sure it doesn't freeze up on you.

This may happen to you again in a year or two, but then you will know how to fix it again. Good luck.

-- Jim Strutz (j.strutz@gci.net), December 29, 2001.