Hello forum

I hope I'm posting on the right board - I'm having problems while in a beautiful location for only a few more days and I am fervently hoping some of you fine folk can help.

I use a Canon 7d with a Yongnuo MC-36b and haven't had any problems so far, other than the fact that no changes are possible 3 secs before end of interval, but never mind. This morning I went to a stunning sunrise spot I scouted yesterday and when I connected the yongnuo to the camera, it just didn't work.

What happens is as follows:
- when I plug the intervalometer into the camera, the shutter is released. Only once.
- however, the timer doesn't start. If I start it myself, it goes fine but the camera does nothing at all.
- in the sense that any command I touch on the camera while the yongnuo is in, will not work. I.e. No playback, no nothing at all, as if the camera were dead.
- the 'hold' shutter release on the yongnuo does not work at all either when connected to the camera.
- if I take it out, the camera works fine.

Rather than missing out entirely on a spectacular dawn, I manually released the shutter about 800 times, given that the intervalometer does work, just not when connected to the camera. This migt have caused camera shake but I thought I'd give it a go anyway. I am now in a bar with wi-fi in order to find out whether anyone on the world wide web has had an issue like this and can help.

I last used the intervalometer a couple of days ago and it was totally fine. I thought it might have got a bit damp as we are bu the sea, but it seem to be perfetcly ok on its own, just not when connected to my7d. It looks like a communication problem - I have gone through all possible menu settings on the 7d to work out what could have caused the communication problems but I am just getting a headache.

Help please if you can - anyone had a similar problem?

Thanks in advance!

This post was last modified: 2014-08-14, 12:09 by rcmagraw.

You may want to check the release mode and make sure it’s set to single frame mode. Sometimes if it’s set to self-timer or continuous the intervolmeter will not work correctly. If that doesn’t work you could always try resetting the camera to factory default. This can be done by going to the menu and selecting the menu icon with the wrench and 3 stars and scroll down to “clear all camera settings”

Hope this helps!

Yes, thanks for the tip, I had in fact already reset all camera settings AND made sure it was on single frame mode – but still no joy.

However, yesterday afternoon – the miracle: it's working again! As I suspected and hoped, it just hadn't liked the kayak trip I'd taken with it, despite having been in a sealed waterproof bag. Lesson learnt: NO moisture for the intervalometer. Or two intervalometers, if a little bit of moisture is inevitable and it needs time to dry.

Thanks for the prompt help!