Tag Archives: photography

Replacing the flash spring on a Canon EOS T1i

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On Christmas morning, I put my Canon EOS T1i DSLR camera on the tripod to take a family picture. But it didn’t work: “Err05”. The built-in flash didn’t open, so the camera refused to…camera. It had done that at Thanksgiving, too, so I’d used manual settings and some additional lighting to make it work. This time, changing the ISO from automatic was enough to convince the camera to take a picture, but I didn’t want to keep fighting it. Search results suggested that it could be dirt in the flash housing. Makes sense: I took the camera to the beach this summer and we all know that sand is coarse and rough and irritating, and it gets everywhere.

I found a great YouTube video that went through the process of removing the housing and cleaning the flash. Just from loosening the screw a bit, the flash popped up when it was supposed to. But I figured “since I’m here, I might as well keep going and make sure I have everything cleaned out.” That was my mistake.

When it came time to reassemble everything, I couldn’t figure out how the spring fit. The guy in the video just said to put it back and his fingers blocked my view. I couldn’t find anything else, except for a few forum posts that were impossible for me to decipher. I spent what felt like an hour trying different things and growing increasingly frustrated. But at one point I turned the camera just right and I figured it out.

Replacing the spring

Close up of the flash housing on a camera with a circle drawn around the slit at the base of it.
The circle shows the slit where the short end of the spring goes.

It turns out there’s a slit on the interior part of the housing where you can slide the short end of the spring. It will hold there firmly after you bend the long part back to install the screw.

Close up of a hand pulling on the long end of the camera flash spring.
Pulling back the long end of the spring to get the screw in place.
Close up of the reassembled spring with the flash closed
The screw and spring replaced

One the screw is back in (note that the head is smaller than the coil of the spring), you can hook the long end under the tab on the forward part of the housing.

I hope this helps anyone who stumbles across this post in a fit of desperation. The YouTube video is very helpful otherwise, so I won’t repeat the rest. I’ve only tried these instructions on one model of camera, because that’s the only one I have, but it should be the same for similar models.

Pictures! A plane being eaten alive

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Time for another post where I don’t say much, I just share pictures.  This post has the distinction of being more interesting and less random than the normal picture post, thanks to the recent destruction of a 737 that had been used as a training lab by the Department of Aviation Technology at Purdue University. If you’ve never seen a plane get eaten alive, I highly recommend you do so at your next opportunity.


Pointless filler, now with 23% more pictures.

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Today, I submitted my blog to the local newspaper for possible inclusion in the semi-regular article they do about local bloggers.  The piece always includes an excerpt from a recent piece.  How awesome would it be if this paragraph got printed?  The newspaper talking about my blog talking about my newspaper.  It’s almost enough to make one’s head swim, except that it really isn’t.

So what’s the point of this post?  Filler!  I’ve got a few posts working their way around my head, but nothing that’s ready for a Monday morning [self-imposed] deadline.  So let’s take a look at a few random pictures I have.

Bunny cake

A bunny cake that my wife made for Easter when we were in college.

My foot in the sand.

My foot in the sand.

Get your damn vessel out of the swim area.

Get your damn vessel out of the swim area.

Grammatical inconsistency at Meijer

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My friends and I are lame.  Not in the literal sense, but in the “omg, you’re so lame!” sense.  We find little things to glom on to and then glom away.  Possessive pronouns and recursive acronyms (e.g. ATM machine) are two of our favorites.  It is with great amusement, then, that I wander the clothing section of my local Meijer store.  Let’s take a look…

meijer_boys

This is the clothing section for boys. Note that because of the use of the plural form, you can find clothing for not one boy, but multiple.

Young ladies can find their wear here. As with the boys, there is clothing here for multiple children.

Young ladies can find their wear here. As with the boys, there is clothing here for multiple children.

Once again, we see the use of the plural form of the noun for infants and toddlers. So far, the store has been very consistent.

Once again, we see the use of the plural form of the noun for infants and toddlers. So far, the store has been very consistent.

Juniors is silly term, in my opinion. Regardless, it is a plural noun and all is right with the world.

Juniors is silly term, in my opinion. Regardless, it is a plural noun and all is right with the world.

Uh oh. Here's a change. Instead of using the plural, like in other sections, they opt for the plural possessive.

Uh oh. Here's a change. Instead of using the plural, like in other sections, they opt for the plural possessive.

Hmm, now we're back to plural. I'm a little confused by this, maybe the next sign will make everything clear?

Hmm, now we're back to plural. I'm a little confused by this, maybe the next sign will make everything clear?

Here we go. Oh wait. What's this? Singular and not possessive? It seems more like Meijer is yelling "WOMAN!" like some sexist jerk. For shame, Meijer, for shame.

Here we go. Oh wait. What's this? Singular and not possessive? It seems more like Meijer is yelling "WOMAN!" like some sexist jerk. For shame, Meijer, for shame.

A picture isn’t always worth a thousand words

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If a picture was always worth a thousand words, I’d have written the entire collection of the Library of Congress several times over.  I’m not a photography bus in the traditional sense: I don’t keep up on the latest cameras, I don’t spend hours in a digital darkroom enhancing my photos.  I just like to take pictures.  Posed pictures don’t interest me much, I’d much rather capture life as it is.

This life often includes still life.  I often combine my love of roads with my love of taking pictures, with the end result that I have a lot of pictures of signs.  Since my posts of late have been largely technical, I thought I’d take some time to have a bit of fun with some of the pictures I’ve taken.  I’ve got a large stash of photos, so this theme may be repeated in the future when I have nothing else to say.

The Dairy Queen has doors to that are hard to open.

This particular selection begins with a picture taken last week at the Dairy Queen near Meijer in Lafayette.  Brian and I were sent on an ice cream run by our wives.  We were nearly thwarted by the door, which is hard to open.  Instead of fixing the door, the management decided a nice-looking sign was just as well.

Excessive quotation marks amuse me.

The second photo comes courtesy of the Lafayette Menard’s home improvement store.  Apparently, the helpful staff could use some instruction in the proper use of the quotation mark. Improper quotation, possessive pronouns, and recursive acronyms (ATM machine anyone?) are three things that my friends and I tend to get excited about.

Illinois rest stops have no shame.

The third picture was taken at a rest stop somewhere on I-70 in western Illinois.  I understand that the idea is to get motorcycle riders to wear a helmet, but is that really the most appropriate wording?  Maybe so, since if it was worded differently, I wouldn’t be sharing this on the Internet with my ones of readers.  You win this time, Illinois.

Which road is just south of Bloomington? That Road!

The final picture today is one of my personal favorites.  If I ever move to the Bloomington area, I want to buy a house on That Road.  I imagine most conversations would go something like the legendary “Who’s on first?” sketch done by Abbott and Costello.  This picture means so much to me that it is on the digital picture frame in our living room.