I recently aquired a used Canon 450D, which the previous owner said was broken. I'm new to photography and SLRs so please excuse some of the ignorance following.
After digging a bit around the last couple days, and trying to understand how the camera is working I found the following is missing:
- Focusing screen
- Focusing screen spring/holder
- Probably shims/washers for the focusing screen (I understand the thickness here has to be calibrated for MF).
Of course this leads to problems with using manual focus. I can still partially see through the viewfinder, but I have to use live view to manually focus. The camera also takes in too much light, so I assume the missing focusing screen affects the metering also. In live view the exposure seems good.
What puzzles me is that the autofocus is not working at all. It searches for focus, but seldom manages to lock (usually only in servo mode), and it is never in focus. Using live view it is able to AF, but very slow. From what I gather, the focusing screen should not affect the AF as the light for the AF sensor never passes this screen. I guess it can be affected by the metering, but the problem persists in very bright outdoor to indoor conditions.
Could something be broken with the AF sensor, or the mirror reflecting the light down to the AF sensor? I have not tried other lenses, but I can borrow from a friend if that makes sense.
Any tips on what might be broken, and how to check and fix it is much appreciated! I was hoping to troubleshoot this on my own, due to my student economy and lack of service centers nearby.
Cheers!
Edit: It appears the submirror is completely missing! No wonder the AF did not work...
Rephrased question: is this something that can be fixed ?