20D Gotten Weird on Me

<p>I was doing some long exposures downtown last night. 30 second kind of stuff. Self-timer, mirror lockup selected. <br>

Today I want to take some snapshots of the grandkids. But the darn camera seems to be stuck in some weird mode. No matter how I set the programming mode (Green Box, P, Av, Tv, M) or however I set the shutter speed or aperture, it wants to take a 30-second exposure after which it does not display an image and none has been saved to the card. </p>

<p>For example: M mode, 1/30th sec, f2.8, single-shot drive mode. Press shutter button, shutter opens and stays open for 30 seconds, closes, no image shown on screen or recorded to card. </p>

<p>I've removed and reinstalled the battery and am running out of ideas how to get this thing to act normally.</p>

<p>Check to see if you turned off the mirror lockup.</p>

<p>Take care,</p>

<p>Dennis</p>

<p>Did you leave the long-exposure noise reduction feature on? That could be gumming up the works.</p>

<p>Thanks, that was it. But I am puzzled as to why, with mirror lockup enabled, the camera only does 30 second exposures this morning despite my shutter speed setting (M mode). </p>

<p>Mike, I believe the camera didn't make an exposure at all ... it was waiting for the shutterbutton to be pressed <strong>a second time</strong> (and thereby take the shot) for 30 seconds ... but this didn't happen. (Since you haven't been aware that you MLU is activated).</p>

<p>Ah. Operator error.</p>

<p>I'll need to tinker with how the camera operates with MLU enabled. I was using the self-timer the other night. It probably "presses the shutter" twice, as you suggest: once to lift the mirror, then again 2 seconds later to fire the shutter. </p>

<p>Thanks, everyone. </p>

<p>Similar thing happened to me before, except that I was taking 30+ second exposures with a remote release. I was wondering why the exposure was only about 30 sec no matter how long i lock down the remote switch. Also no memory card recording. Then I realized I had mirror lockup on and needed to press shutter twice. It never even took the picture. Just waited about 30s for the shutter button to be pressed a second time to open the shutter.</p>