Canon EF Slow shutter speeds not working:

Hi, This is an open question to all, is there anybody familiar with

the Canon EF Camera. The Serial #110847. If this helps!

 

The camera is in great shape almost mint, this is my second camera

that the company has sent me, but all seem to suffer with similar

problems.

 

What is not working properly are the slow shutter speeds they seem

to work erratically.

Anybody have any thoughts on what's wrong.

 

Thank you. Mike.

The slow shutter speeds on the EF are electronically governed, but you probably knew that, correct?

 

Are your batteries fresh? Alternatively I'd suspect something wrong in the electronics.

A fresh battery of about the right voltage is the first thing to check. If you're using 1.5 V batteries, try Weincell Zinc-Air cells, just to make sure the camera is working.

 

The 1.5 V cells can work, because the EF has a voltage regulator, but once I found that very fresh batteries might be enough over voltage not to work in the EF. Leave them in a drawer for 6 months and try them again, if that's the case. That worked for me, when I had an EF.

 

If not, it just may be time for a CLA.

Mike,

Perhaps this story might help (or not):

 

Couple months ago, I bought an EF at my local camera store's tent sale for $25. Obviously at that price, it had some problems, specifically being the metering and the slow shutter speeds didn't work, even with fresh batteries. Though the camera had signs of being moderately used, it still was in decent shape and I decided to try and fix it myself.

 

Considering I found a slight amount of corrosion in the battery compartments, I figured maybe some of the corrosion made it to the electronics. After downloading parts of the EF service manual I found online, I popped the cover off the bottom and did a little investigating.

 

While none of the corrosion appeared to make it out of the battery compartments, I did find some on the battery check switch contacts and on the one printed circuit board closest to it. In fact, one of the wires connecting to it had completely corroded through! Ah ha, I thought.

 

So, I cleaned off as much of the corrosion as I could, striped some of the insulation off the broken wire and soldered in back in place (not that easy, since the other attached wires didn't leave much slack to work with and the PC board is rather thin and I could imagine the copper traces easily coming off under the soldering iron's heat, though none did).

 

After reassembling everything back together, I popped the batteries back into it and volia, I had metering and the slow shutter speeds worked again! Though, the battery check function still doesn't appear to work, but considering everything else does, I'm not willing to mess with it anymore. :-)

 

So, maybe one thing you might want to check for is corrosion on some of the electronics. Just popping off the bottom cover and having a look is actually fairly easy - if memory serves, there are just two screws you need to remove. Course, there's more electronics underneath the top cover, but might as well check the most accessable place first! Just keep track of the red battery check button while you remove the bottom cover, as it will come out, but it's easy to put back just before you replace the cover.

To all that answered my question in regards to my Canon EF Camera. I will explore all possibilities. Thank you. Mike.