Faulty Shutter Button + Fix

[syn79]

My wife and I are a photo team. We both have a primary camera and backup body with us during weddings.

The night before the wedding while prepping gear I noticed the shutter button on my backup 50D was no longer working without pressing the button down with extreme force...to the point of why even bother. I'm not one to be happy about gear that isn't up to spec so I opened it up with the intention of fixing it. This lead to the quote of the weekend:

Wife - "I'm really nervous about you trying to fix the camera at 12 am the night before the wedding?"
Me - "What could go wrong?"
Wife - "You have a thousand pieces sitting there, what do you mean what could go wrong?"

Needless to say my repair was a success and we grabbed some beautiful images.

It seems the contacts that lie under the shutter button became corroded. All it took was a little cleaning. Canon charges about $300 for this type of service and for an aging body it wasn't worth it to me. The shutter now feels like new.

If anyone is feeling adventurous and has a crippled shutter button give this video a look, it was my inspiration.
Canon EOS 30D 40D 50D Shutter Button Repair

Gear:

• 5D mk III
  7D
  50D x2
  135 2.0L
  16-35 2.8L
  70-200 2.8L
  24-70 2.8L

 

[Sporgon]

Yep, watched half the video, terrified me, hid behind the sofa. Definitely won't be trying that. If God had intended photographers to do that he wouldn't have invented Service Centres

 

[tolusina]

Yep, watched half the video, terrified me, hid behind the sofa. Definitely won't be trying that. If God had intended photographers to do that he wouldn't have invented Service Centres

Indeed!
Notice that the tech needs a shave by the end of the video, that's how long it took him.
Also, notice two missing keys from the computer keyboard in the background, makes one wonder.

 

[Mt Spokane Photography]

Users have been cleaning dirty shutter switch contacts and posting utube video's for years. If you have the tools and are fairly handy with them, its just a matter of taking your time and doing it right.

I find working on lenses to be tougher, depending on what I'm doing. I have several bags of parts from never to be reassembled again lenses. Its particularly nasty to get those aperture blades put back in place. I still do it, but I've lost feeling in my fingers, so it becomes extremely frustrating and difficult, it has to be done from some sort of memory for the correct motions with my fingers since there is almost no feeling.