My Canon EOS 300D had an attack of “Epic Fail” today.

Was taking pics as per normal, got a pic like this:

Next one was like this:

Not happy Jan.

Once I got home and did a closer inspection of the body, I see that the sub mirror (for auto focus) is not lifting when taking a photo. I had a fairly close look and found a spring that was loose and floating near the mirror assembly. I managed to extract it and was fairly hopeful that it was just something that popped out.

However there are a number of posts online that refer to this issue and in all cases it looks like a plastic pin, that the assembly swivels on, just snaps. Apparently a design flaw, and it appears that when repairing this issue Canon have been using a metal replacement part.

Link1 – Link2

I might have bit of a poke around and see what I can see, maybe it is just a spring popped out, however I’m probably going to have to do some ringing around during the week and see if I can get it repaired for a decent price.

In one post someone mentions they were quoted 200Euro in another 200USD, so maybe it’s a standard 200 of whatever your local currency is.

At present my options are:

1. Get it fixed for a decent price.
2. Glue the sub mirror to the main mirror and lose auto focus capability.
3. Take all my pics with the body upside down.

After 4 years and approx 25,000 shots I might even have to say goodbye. Sniff 🙁