Is my camera broken?

L.Culley

L.Culley

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Leon
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Hi, sorry if this is a really simple question, Noob here so not really sure what im doing.

I have just bought myself a Canon EOS 40D, its used but in very good condition, problem is I cant seem to get the lcd screed to work properly. i can get the settings etc up so i know the thing is opperational however i cant get the thing to show what the camera is pointing at (like the point and click) cameras do. I know I should be looking through the view finder but sometimes its just easier to see hat your camera is seeing...

If its broken I need to send it back asap, if its not id really appreciate someone telling me how to work it :bonk:

Cheers

Culley
 
On SLR's its called 'Live view' fella, the 40D isnt equipped with it unfortunately. AFAIK 550D and 60D are the only cropped sensor canon cameras that are equipped with it.

EDIT: Scratch that the 40D has got live view, gimme 5 and ill get back to you :)

EDIT 2: Right here goes, check out page 108 of the manual (on the link that moonrakerz kindly posted above), it may be because you have the camera in one of the preset options (portrait, sunset etc etc), switch it to manual and it should work from there. Oh, and welcome to TP :)

Si
 
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Unless it has live view (have no idea about canons) then thats the way its designed, its not faulty
 
lmgculley said:
Hi, sorry if this is a really simple question, Noob here so not really sure what im doing.

I have just bought myself a Canon EOS 40D, its used but in very good condition, problem is I cant seem to get the lcd screed to work properly. i can get the settings etc up so i know the thing is opperational however i cant get the thing to show what the camera is pointing at (like the point and click) cameras do. I know I should be looking through the view finder but sometimes its just easier to see hat your camera is seeing...

If its broken I need to send it back asap, if its not id really appreciate someone telling me how to work it :bonk:

Cheers

Culley
Click to expand...

Hello Culley and welcome to the forum.
I don't have a canon camera, I have nikon which has a setting called liveview where I can see the image on the screen. This isn't an automatic setting and must be selected using a command dial. As I said I am unfamiliar with Canon's and not sure whether your model has it. It doesn't sound broken to me, it is just how DSLR cameras work. Hopefully someone will be along shortly who can answer your question more succinctly than I can. Iain
 
I'm a Nikon Man myself but it sounds as if you expect your DSLR to act like a point and shoot and show an 'active' image on the lcd......which it will only do in 'live view' if you have that facility on the 40D.
Take a picture and it should show up on your lcd so that you can preview it......if it is showing the Menu options then I think it is working fine.
Dave
 
ah cheers guys. very much appreciated. I just got it going :D first DSLR and am a little bit overwhelmed with all the settings, buttons and turny bits on it.. lol
 
Menu button

Choose second yellow spanner icon along the top

Go to live view function settings

Enable liveveiw

Come out of menu

press the set button

To AF press the AF On button

Happy days :D bit late but hey thats me all over
 
Be aware that when in Liveview mode, and viewing what your camera is seeing on the rear LCD screen, the focussing of your camera will be severely compromised. The autofocus is designed to work best in normal mode i.e. looking through the viewfinder.
 
Scarecrow said:
Be aware that when in Liveview mode, and viewing what your camera is seeing on the rear LCD screen, the focussing of your camera will be severely compromised. The autofocus is designed to work best in normal mode i.e. looking through the viewfinder.
Click to expand...

Indeed, autofocus is compromised. It doesn't work. The 40D has no contrast detect AF in live-view, so it's manual focus only.

Fine by me, the only reason I use live-view is for precision manual focussing.
 
chocky said:
On SLR's its called 'Live view' fella, the 40D isnt equipped with it unfortunately. AFAIK 550D and 60D are the only cropped sensor canon cameras that are equipped with it.

EDIT: Scratch that the 40D has got live view, gimme 5 and ill get back to you :)


Si
Click to expand...

Edit that again, the 500D has live view as does the 450D as well.
 
For those that are interested.

If you enable live view in your camera ( second yellow spanner )

Then go to Custom functions option 3 ( orange camera in menu ) C.FnIII

Select option 6 AF during Live view shooting and enable that

The 40D will then Auto focus in live view using the AF-ON button on the back of the camera. ( wait until the camera beeps and it's focused )

If you want to get a better idea then do a search on youtube for Canon 40D from Cameralabs. At about 4 mins it walks you through live view, it doesn't however tell you how to turn on the live view AF. The above sequence does.


:D
 
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