Canon A-1 Shutter button won't fire at all. It is not in the "L" setting and I have tried without the lens on, with the lens, in the AV and TV settings. Also, I can not get a LED meter reading despite using a brand new battery. Please help! Hue

1) CF card in camera? Won't shoot without one

2) Does mirror go up?

3) Canon had a run of bad motors for this model - if mirror does not go up, then it is the mirror motor. If mirror goes up, shutter will not fire, press release again then the mirror goes down, the shutter motor is bad (same model motor). If mirror goes up, shutter fires, both blades travel together/no exposure, probably the shutter is bad.

Have you got the camera set for mirror lock up. Check and disable if appropriate. When mirror lock is selected the first press of the shutter button moves the mirror up the second press fires the shutter

I could be that your lens isn't focusing. If the Auto focus can't find something to focus on the shutter won't fire. If you are shooting in low light sometimes it has trouble try shooting something that is well lit. also your auto focus point may be somewhere other than the center. there is a button on the top of your camera that looks like this [ ][ ] [ ] [ ]
More or less that will switch where your focus point is. If you look in the view finder and see a red dot when you push on the shutter button that is your focus point. push the above button until the red dot is in the centre. that may fix your problem.

Please attache lens to your camera and set your camera to AV mode and set max. appeture 22 or more and front right side of camera there bottom edge of lens mount ring there is small black button.
press that button with shutter button and put your camera under light and press both button and check lens shutter is opening and closing properly if not and you getting err99
then lens diaphrm unit is faulty you need to replace it.

All you need to do is set the camera to shutter priority other non-automatic mode, hold the flash shut and hold the flash button next to the lens opening. You'll hear a motor and a click and it should latch shut.

OK, Tony, that sounds really strange, LOL.

There should be no orange plastic in there. I considered the AV-1 myself years ago, but was already invested in Minolta gear.

Without pictures, it's really hard to say. I kinda feel like something that should never be there, got put into the mirror box/ shutter area. It got broken off when the camera fell down. It would cost too much to repair, so it was sold for parts.

Look it over to see if the shutter was damaged. I 'd think so, but check it. Can you remove the plastic without damaging the camera further?

The A-1, AE-1, AV-1 were very similar and very successful models for Canon and another "Spares" of that series should be easy to find. You most likely will need to get the shutter from another junker and have a shop cobble together one that works. You might ask the repair guy if he wants to keep the extra parts. You may get a discount on repair. Otherwise hang on to those spares yourself.

Err 99 usually means your lens contacts are dirty either on the lens itself or on the camera.

To isolate the cause of the issue, do the following: -
1. Turn off the camera.
2. Remove the lens, battery, and CF card.
3. Allow the camera to sit without power for approximately 20 minutes.
4. Insert only a fully charged battery, and turn on the camera.
5. Depress the shutter button as you would to take a picture.

Does the “ERR 99" message appear? If so, the camera may be faulty and requires a service. If it does not, then: -
1. Turn off the camera.
2. Insert the CF card.
3. Turn on the camera.
4. Format the CF card in the camera.
5. Depress the shutter button as you would to take a picture.

Does the “ERR 99" message appear? If so, then the CF card is faulty. Try a different card. If the message does not appear: -
1. Turn off the camera.
2. Clean the gold contacts on the lens by GENTLY rubbing them with a pencil eraser or soft cloth. Keeping the camera face pointing down, also clean the gold contacts on the camera, being careful that you do not let any debris fall into the camera body.
3. Reattach your lens.
4. Turn on the camera.
5. Depress the shutter button as you would to take a picture.

If the “ERR 99" message only appears when one particular lens is attached, then that lens should be examined by a service technician.
If you see the “ERR 99" with a different Canon lens attached, then the camera is faulty and should be serviced.

There is nothing wrong here - the camera computes the exposure as the flash is not firing. The flash will fire and it will adapt the power to the received light. You must go into M ot AV, fix your parameters and shoot. The flash will adapt to your whishes - only take care to not choose a shooting time to small (1/200 or 1/60 - you have settings for it).

This is not a bug, but a feature.

Try going into the menu and turning off the lock for shooting without a lens. Then try firing it without a lens to see if it works. Very often a lens problem can cause the Err 99 message.

Also, check to make sure the pop-up flash is not stuck down. That could also cause it.

Unless you have used your camera a LOT, it shouldn't be a bad shutter. They usually only quit after many years of use. I think Canon quotes 125,000 shots as the normal life of a shutter in a digital SLR.

CameraRepairs

It does different things depending on the camera settings and only works in the creative zone settings not the automatic settings.

In AV mode it changes the aperture
In Tv Mode it changes the shutter speed
In M mode it changes the shutter speed unless the AV button is pressed when it then changes the aperture