A few years ago I was given a wired remote timer for my camera. Great tool for releasing the shutter without touching the camera. Also comes in handy for prolonged exposures (think astronomy photography), photo series (set it to a number of pictures and walk away while it snaps the pics), and more.
While this isn't an accessory I'd use everyday, there are many instances where I've wanted to use it. It worked great out of the box. And maybe a few times after that. Fast forward some time after and I found that the unit would snap a photo, but not display any settings on the LCD screen. Being somewhat technically proficient, I determined that if it can release the shutter with a single button press, as it should - the battery must be running low/dead.
I bought a replacement battery and tried it out (specialty battery only found in certain stores). No go. Even the brand new battery was not producing a result on the screen.
At this point I deemed the LCD broken. While I could use the remote for snapping a photo, I couldn't set it to shoot a number of photos unattended. I put it in a box and thought I'd eventually buy a new one.
Glad that I didn't. While revisiting the issues numerous times, today I actually had a purpose.
Tonight in Brooklyn brought a great thunder & lightning storm. The kind without rain (at least for the first part of it). I decided to try to make a photo I've been meaning to for some time - lightning in the sky.
Grabbed my tripod & camera - set them up at the window aiming up with just a portion of the horizon w/ buildings visible. Set my f-stop to 22, shutter to 2 seconds, ISO to 50. Enabled mirror lockup & 2-second timer. I was ready to rock.
After about the 10th shot, I got very disgruntled having left the dinner table to just continually hit the shutter release on the camera in hopes that I might catch a bolt. So I rushed to the box hidden deep within the closet and found my probably-broken remote.
A few futile minutes later I decided to do what I figured I'd probably done a few times already. Google my issue.
"canon remote black lcd"
First result seemed promising. Exact description of my problem - snaps pics, but cannot be configured for any of the fancy features. I kept reading to see a number of people in agreement with me - LCD screen is probably shot.
For whatever reason, I kept on reading. Through the post that said "my screen always stays on." and another that explained "the LCD never shuts off, but battery life so far is over 14 months for me!".
And then at the end. There it was. The last post, a follow-up from the original poster. The one that made me look around to see if my wife was watching my embarrassed face.
"Thanks for all your input - it isn't defective at all, it's owner is just blonde! I had the darn battery in upside down, it doesn't go in face up..." -Jill
At this point I reversed engineered my actions. Realizing that I probably saw the screen on 24/7, I sought a solution to prolong battery life. Flipping. The. Effing. Battery. Never checking to see if the shutter still clicked, I must have assumed my solution worked - screen was off! And later when the shutter did click? "Why isn't my LCD on???"
Lesson learned. I don't try the simple solutions. And leave notes for myself.
EVERYWHERE.
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