I am new to film photography and I am finding that the photos are coming out sometimes with nothing on, or are being cut off halfway. The camera is a Canon 1000 EOS.

These cameras are pretty rare so your chances of finding a spare back are slim, I did a search and found nothing, only 2 new cameras on ebay for more than $1000. A new camera might be your next option. They are made by Fujifilm so thats where I would look next.

Since no repair parts or info is available to the public all you can do is have the factory exchange it or replace it.

The damage is to the bottom right of the camera that is allowing light into the film plane and burning out the corner of the film
Home repair is extremely difficult even if you can source the parts

It's scratch along the film and will have been caused by either faulty film (very unlikely but not impossible), or it has been scratched when running through the camera or processing machinery (sadly both very common).

Open the back of your camera and lay a section of scratched negative over the back, emulsion side down, just as it would have been when taking photos. Use the scratch to guide you to find any rough/sharp points especially across the masking frame (the 36mm x 24mm rectangular hole in the camera which determines the size of the image). If you find none, then take your negative along and ask ask at the photo lab you use whether they have had any problems. They'll almost certainly say "no" but will then quietly check and rectify their machinery if they find dirt or debris stuck in there. Frequently the fault is in their sleeving machine which cuts up the negatives into shorter lengths.

Unfortunately, it's a problem which is far more common these days. Most 35mm film cameras are old and poorly maintained, or are just overpriced and badly made plastic toy cameras like the entire Lomo range. In addition, many people get their films processed at local minilabs and as they're used less frequently now the standards of operation and maintenance have generally fallen. I find that if I use a postal processing service the large commercial labs have better maintained machinery. The downside is that the local minilab will often give a more personal service with respect to getting an accurately exposed print and the large commercial lab will not unless you pay for a premium service.

It's been out of production now for about two years. Any you do find will be past the expiry date, so you'll likely either find that the battery pack has insufficient power to last an entire film pack or that the film itself is "off" and has poor colours and that the emulsion does not get squeezed by the film rollers into the photo corners.

Any film packs you do find are likely to be expensive AND a total gamble. A company was recently reported to have announced plans to put the film packs back into production next year, but prices are likely to be at least £30 for just one (ten photo) film pack and I've heard nothing more since then.

What I did with my old Polaroid camera was to fit an external 6v battery pack of my own design to the camera. I then kept an eye out for old stock film packs which have been kept refrigerated; this meant that the batteries in the film packs were always flat but the photo chemistry itself remained fresh and fully usable. I'd post links showing you how I modified the camera, but lost interest a few months ago and sold the camera and photo packs to an enthusiastic photography student. It is a straightforward job though which simply involves opening the camera, soldering one wire to each of the two battery terminals and then running the wires out through the base of the camera to any suitable 6v battery pack. I used a slim LiPo battery left over from a dead digital camera.

have you set it to macro mode? (little flower icon on the right cursor) this function will allow you to get within about 2cm of the subject, however do not use the zoom as the lens cannot focus close enough. To get results any closer you will be looking at an slr and a budget on a few thousand! If enabling macro and not using zoom to allow the lens to focus doesn't get you close enough in you can always enlarge and crop images. have a look on www.picture-skew.blogspot.com i've taken some macros of flowers and bugs, this camera can capture the hairs on an ants back or the individual lenses of a flys compound lens eye.

persevere with this camera, for a very small budget you will get amazing results, ISO refers to the speed of 'film', it comes from the dark old ages of 35mm film cameras. Basically a low ISO is the lowest sensitivity to light and gives the best image quality, however as the ccd is less responsive to the light the camera holds the shutter open for longer. The higher the ISO the more sensitive the ccd but the greater the noise and lower the quality of picture.

Books, try looking for more photography orientated books and less digital camera based books. An upto date photography book will tell you all the technical information about how to take a good picture for any given senario.

if you would like any further advice email me (address on the blogspot)

The best film is the one YOU like the best.

Flash can be used to fill in the shadows in outdoor portraits, as you say. Do it by all means, if that's the effect you want. Sometimes you may not want it. Do it both ways and see how they come out.

Photography is all about YOUR creativity.

If you don't need a zoom, the best film P & S that you can get for what you described is an Olympus! It is the Olympus Stylus Epic which has a very sharp 35 mm f2.8 lens. The f2.8 lens with an ISO 800 or the new ISO 1600 film should fit your bill for low light, fast shutter speed photography. B & H has it for $80. Popular Photography magazine once called it the biggest bargain of all times for no-flash photography.