The button that you press to make a photo came off the camera, and it won't depress to make a photo now. Is there a spring or something missing? If so, would a local camera shop be able to repair/replace it, or will I need to send it back to Sony? Thank you!

I would think that you are not focusing your camera before fully depressing the shutter button Start by depressing your shutter button very lightly until you see the outline of a small square in the middle of the view finder . At that point you are in focus . Now fully depress the shutter button and take your picture . You must do this prior to taking each photo . Remember to just depress the shutter button about half way to focus your picture image , before pressing it fully . I hope this is of some help to you.

There should be a stability setting on the camera - an automatic one.

There is a small flat leaf spring under the hot shoe rail where an eternal flash slides in. If an external flash is mounted the leaf spring is pressed against a small button telling the camera that there is an external flash mounted. Take a toothpick and rub under the hot shoe rail gently to more the leaf spring or unjam the leaf spring. You may even see the button depressed, poke at it a time or two with a toothpick, even a drop of rubbing alcohol may unstick this button if a sticky beverage sprayed on it.

Try resetting the Canon by removing the battery for 10 mins then insert the battery and set the Date and Time.

Could be your lens is not communication with the body. If the lens is not telling the camera that the AF has locked on an object then it won't allow the camera to fire. Make sure that the camera is indeed locking the AF on the object. If there isn't enough contrast (for example a plain wall) then it wont be able to lock onto it. This would usually explain why it works on manual but not on auto (I assume you mean the focus setting and not the camera's modes). If you're still having issues I recommend you contact a nearby Nikon authorized service center for assistance and possible repairs. Hope this helps!

Hiram
Photo Tech Repair Service
110 East 13th Street
New York, NY 10003
212-673-8400

Try resetting your camera back to factory defaults. Press the MENU button, select the middle tools tab and scroll down to RESET ALL. Press SET, select OK and press SET. Hope this helps.

Actually it's extremely simple to repair. You just reinsert a new shutter button into the hole with its spring. It just snaps in place. Unfortunately, that little part is not inexpensive. There's a fellow who sells them on eBay if you want to pay the price.

Lets check the SD card first.

Take out the SD card and put it in external card reader connected to computer.

Copy/transfer all the photos from the SD card to computer.

goto My Computer and right-click the 'Removable Disk' (the SD card drive) and click Properties.
click Tools and click Error checking - Check now button
select the option 'automatically fix file-system errors' and click Start button.
if any errors was found and fixed, you can also Format the SD card. And your SD card should not drop photos again.

Now put SD card back in the camera.

Now take 20 test photos and check if something is missing.
if not take 20 more test photos and check if something is missing.
if all is ok then you can delete all test photos and start taking normal photos.

1. Ensure memory card is inside camera.

1. Turn on camera.

2. Press Review button on back of camera

3. Then Press Menu Button on back of camera

4. Select "Image Storage" option (by depressing the joystick on RHS of back of camera).

5. Select "Internal Memory" option (by depressing the joystick on RHS).

6. Select "Continue"

7. Press Menu button.

8. Press "Review" button

9. Press "Review" button again.

10. Press "Menu" button.

11. Scroll down to "Copy" and select this option by depressing the joystick.

12. Scroll down to "All", then select by depressing the joystick.

13. Contents should now copy over from internal memory to SD card.

14. Don't forget to reselect Auto detection of SD card afterward. This is done by turning camera off then back on again. Press "Review". Press "Menu". Select "Image Storage". Select "Auto". Select "Continue".

Press mode button until you get the icon of photos with a line thru it.Then depress and hold button used to take photos for 3 secs. There will be a series of beeps and the photo counter will show "0".