Please help!!

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Ross
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Hi all, thanks in advance for any help that you can give me.

My daughter (and I) have a Canon eos550d and she is taking photography at college. The problem is that after a friend borrowed the camera she now has a white box in the LCD monitor that slows down the focus and we can't get rid of it? We have tried re-setting, running the batteries out and reading the manual to find a way, all to no avail. :bonk:

Help please...
 
Hi all, thanks in advance for any help that you can give me.

My daughter (and I) have a Canon eos550d and she is taking photography at college. The problem is that after a friend borrowed the camera she now has a white box in the LCD monitor that slows down the focus and we can't get rid of it? We have tried re-setting, running the batteries out and reading the manual to find a way, all to no avail. :bonk:

Help please...

have a read of this review.....it looks like your live view is on.......

http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/canoneos550d/8

then you should be able to find the button/menu to switch live view off.
 
If you can't get rid of liveview for some reason you could reset it back to factory settings - vid here, of course you'll need to set anything back up that you might have changed.
 
Never ever ever loan your kit to anyone, not even good friends
 
I wouldn't agree with that, just make sure they have a clue what they're doing.
 
Well you could always try leaving it without the battery in for a couple of hours that should clear anything, but I take it that you seeing a white box in the middle of the screen when in live view, this is standard I believe...it maybe down to which metering is being used but I doubt it :thinking:
 
I've tried removing the battery for a few hours and let it go flat and the white box was still there. I'm at a loss. I.m sure it's something to do with the live view but when I turn it off I can't use the LCD display.
 
I've tried removing the battery for a few hours and let it go flat and the white box was still there. I'm at a loss. I.m sure it's something to do with the live view but when I turn it off I can't use the LCD display.

that is right, you have to look through the viewfinder (the old fashioned way...lol)

Live view is only for the LCD screen and not for the view finder.

you need to go through the menu and switch live view off. I am sure there is a dedicated button on the back of the camera but it probably doesn't say live view.
 
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Must be something changed in the settings somewhere, does the camera have a face detect mode ?
 
the live view button is the little camera icon to the right of the viewfinder, try depressing that while the LCD screen is showing live view.


Live View / Movie record

In shooting mode a press of this button takes you in and out of Live View. The 'Live View function setting' option on the setup menu controls if Live View is available, whether a grid overlay is shown, how long the metered value is displayed and the type of Auto Focus used in Live View mode; Quick mode (Passive; mirror-flip), Live mode (Contrast detect; like a compact camera) or Face Detect.
 
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edit....watch the video below.

Don't worry about asking questions.
 
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watch this

[YOUTUBE]8DGoeiSQMQE[/YOUTUBE]
 
Many thanks everyone- I still have the problem but understand the use of the "white square" now. I just want to have it back to how it was before. My lovely daughter has my camera and I hers.. with the square..
 
Do you normally use live view or the viewfinder?
 
I normally use the LCD screen but now I use the viewfinder as it takes to long to focus on the LCD screen.
 
Sound like they have changed the liveview autofocus mode.
 
Make sure the lens has not been switched to manual focus too
 
Have you asked the friend what they did? They may know how to undo it.
 
My guess is that the liveview focus mode has been switched from 'Quick' to one of the other modes. Look in the manual for his to change it back, I don't know where that setting is on a 550d.
 
Tried all of the above *sigh*

Take it to the local camera shop and let them have a play with it...I suspect it is only user error that is preventing you from switching to the settings you had previously.

One last effort from me..........make sure you have DISABLED the video in the menu and it only lets you shoot stills.
 
Take it to the local camera shop and let them have a play with it...I suspect it is only user error that is preventing you from switching to the settings you had previously.

I think so too.

Apart from going to a shop... maybe someone with a similar camera would be willing to do a Skype chat... it should be reasonably easy to sort out once looking at the controls / menu settings.
 
If you're talking about it being slow to focus in live view mode then;

Go to the second setup menu (second yellow icon) > Live view function settings

then change the AF mode to quick mode. This will change it to use phase detect to focus which is much quicker.

Sorry if the instructions are a bit vague as I don't have a XX0D series camera.
 
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