7D av mode problem

[MrT]

Need advice on a problem that came up last night while I was shooting a basketball game in AV mode. I couldn't get a good shutter speed, meaning it would default to like 30 instead of something around 500-1000 shutter speed I have seen in the past based on the 1.8 aperture setting I had with my 85mm lens. I initially got a message that said the lens and camera conection was bad and to clean the contacts? The gold contacts look clean to me. Tried two other lenses( 50mm and 70-200) and no luck. Went back to the 85mm lens and shot some in shutter mode.


Switced lenses to the 70-200 at half time and shoot in shutter mode. Then I tried AV mode one more time with this lens and it worked fine? But I had this same lens in the camera when the problem first came up to rule out the 85mm lens being the problem.


Any thoughts?


MrT

[Sean Setters]

You didn't happen to have a flash in the camera's hotshoe, did you?

[MrT]

No flash on the hotshoe.


The last thing I shot previously was a picture of an eagle in a tree (a subject for another post) and then downloaded some photos onto my computer.


MrT

[piiooo]

Did you try to increase your ISO, and if so to what value?

[MrT]

I did change the iso from the eagle shots. Went to 1600 with the 85mm 1.8 and 3200 with the 70-200 2.8, these are comparable to past basketball game settings. These gave me shutter speeds up to 1,000.

[Sinh Nhut Nguyen]

When I got my 40D two something years ago, random stuffs like that happened too. After a firmware update, no more problems like that again (except mechanical problem like broken shutter and worn-out shutter release button). What you need is do isto pay attention to see if the problems persist. I would first try to clean those contacts, both on the camera and the lenses. If you're in the States you can get electrical contact cleaner from Radio Shack.

[Sean Setters]

I think Sinh's got a good idea. Clean the contacts and update the firmware (if possible). If the problem still persists, then it'll likely need to go to the Canon Service & Repair (I'm sure the 7D is still under warranty).

[MrT]

Thanks everyone I will try your sugggestions this weekend and see how things come out.


MrT