When I want to take a photo, the monitor is blank, rather than showing what I am pointing the camera at. Last time I used it, it was ok... what has gone wrong? Thanks

Hi Dear!
According to your problem note said wouldn't review photo or bring up the menu. You have to check all taken picture if there is blank, black, or corrupted picture file(cause won't able to see the image) are come from mirror box sequence control unit failing. At the beginning of this problem can not be noticeable, later it causes more and more blank image come out. However, if you don't have any blank image, then a loosen screw piece running around and touch circuitry in side could be serious. These two symptom are common and manufacturer's engineer design defect, but they won't tell you. Other then that you have no problem on your camera like last statement "when turned off it says sensor cleaning" This is camera's default setting that whenever you turn off camera will clean off sensor by itself.
Hope You Luck! A Professional Camera Clinic Guy!

Sometime there is defective main picture control process! But Canon won't say about it! At least you can try to convince them. (I want you shoot continuous a lot and video shooting) If it happen, then your main process board defect!

Depending on the situation, it could be several issues.
- Battery may not be charged, or wasn't charged properly. - Battery is cold. - Camera may actually still be on, but it won't show on the monitor because you may have them turned off.

Try this: Press DISP until shooting data or photo information displays, it should show up at some point. If it doesn't then it has to be the battery.
If you don't think it is, try and provide extra information on when was the last time you used it or the last time you charged the battery and etc. Thanks!

I suspect you have a screen saver set up that blanks the computer screen after 30 minutes.
If you are running Window XP, right-click your mouse on the desktop, choose Properties, from the Display Properties dialog, click the Screen Saver tab, then in the Wait box, increase the amount of time before the screen saver activates. Click the OK button when you are through.
Good luck,
-- SalParadise

Please clarify your problem so someone can help you.


1. Does the camera power up? It has good batteries and the Status Indicator LED lights up showing that the camera has adequate battery power?

2. Is the screen blank when playing back previously taken photos also, just during recording, or all the time?

3. Can you see the camera menu's ok but not the live view of the subject.. or is everything blank?

4. Are you quite familiar with the menu's and most aspects of this camera model and you're sure all the settings are correct?

Please provide more detail.
In the meantime check the basics such as:

1. Press the display button on the back while the camera is on. This toggles the display setting between various settings such as Off/ On / Info. The screen may be switched off.

2, Check that the monitor brightness setting is set to medium at least in the menu's.

3. If the problem is only affecting recording then check that the main record settings are correct for the type of scene. For example don't use Beach, Snow, Candle or manual with a super high shutter speed while taking regular daylight shots.

2nd example .....If you set the shutter speed really high such as 1/1000 second while using indoor lighting the shots will be very dark.

4. If the LCD display has a hardware issue you could connect the camera to a TV using the video output jack and look at it that way. Then you'll know if the built-in LCD is ok or not.

5. Having a damaged or stuck video output jack WOULD cause this problem also,, since that circuitry is designed to automatically shut off the built-in LCD display when you connect a video cord to it. So leaving a cord plugged in to the video jack would shut off the display.

while using slr cameras u always see in the viewfinder bcuz slr is a single lence refleime u can see the picture after shoot by clicking on play back option this is a feature of an slr camera

Does it actually work? Does it take pictures? It may be that "liveview" is off-that is the screen you normally view on when taking your photos. Try using it and then playing your photos back and check if its woking. A mate of mine had that problem last week and thought her camera was broken!

Hello, I went and researched a few points in the manual and hope this helps to some extent. If this doesn't help, try resetting your camera by removing the batteries for 30 seconds, then reinstalling them and turning on the camera again.
Monitor is blank:
• Camera is off.
• Batteries are not correctly inserted or battery-chamber
cover is not properly latched.
• Batteries are exhausted.
• EH-62B AC adapter (available separately) is not properly
connected.
• Camera is in sleep mode. Press shutter-release button
halfway.
• Monitor is off.
• USB cable is connected.
• AV/Video cable is connected


No picture is taken when shutter release button is pressed:


• Camera is in playback mode.
• Batteries are exhausted.
• Red (!) lamp flickers: flash is charging.
• Green (AF) lamp flickers: camera unable to focus.
• Message "CARD IS NOT FORMATTED" appears in
monitor: memory card is not formatted for use in your
camera.
• Message "OUT OF MEMORY" appears in monitor:
insufficient memory to record picture at current Image
mode setting.

Hello, I went and researched a few points in the manual and hope this helps to some extent. If this doesn't help, try resetting your camera by removing the batteries for 30 seconds, then reinstalling them and turning on the camera again. 
Monitor is blank: 
• Camera is off.
• Batteries are not correctly inserted or battery-chamber
cover is not properly latched.
• Batteries are exhausted.
• EH-62B AC adapter (available separately) is not properly
connected.
• Camera is in sleep mode. Press shutter-release button
halfway.
• Monitor is off.
• USB cable is connected.
• AV/Video cable is connected


No picture is taken when shutter release button is pressed:

• Camera is in playback mode.
• Batteries are exhausted.
• Red (!) lamp flickers: flash is charging.
• Green (AF) lamp flickers: camera unable to focus.
• Message "CARD IS NOT FORMATTED" appears in
monitor: memory card is not formatted for use in your
camera.
• Message "OUT OF MEMORY" appears in monitor:
insufficient memory to record picture at current Image Mode selection.

Canon would have to fix this for you. The fault may be the screen itself, or the LCD viewfinder drive IC on the camera's circuit board. In this case they will replace the circuit board.

Jerry G.

Could be the mirror is sticking - can you hear it go up?