Two Cameras Saved and Lessons Learned
I thought my two favorite cameras, the Canon 5d Mark II (the big one) and the iPhone 4 (the connected one) were both broken and in need of repair. I was bummed - no more shots of our 17 month old (even on Halloween) or Instagrams until they were fixed, which I assumed would be costly.
Last night I was able to fix both. At risk of totally outing myself as a novice at life, here is how I did it:
The 5D MkII
Problem: Camera would focus, but viewfinder would not.
Solution: There is a tiny wheel on the viewfinder called the diopter adjustment that allows you to change the focus distance of the viewfinder (not the lens). I must have inadvertently spun this adjustment wheel. To fix it I auto-focused on an item and adjusted the wheel until it was sharp looking to my eye. Ta-da.
(solution thanks to my office neighbor Jud, a photographer at Reciprocity Studio)
The iPhone 4
Problem: iPhone photos were becoming increasingly blurry. I concluded that my lens cover must be scratched because A) it looked scratched, and B) there are many online reports of the little metal ring around the rear camera of on the iPhone 4 not adequately protecting the lens cover (and anti-reflective coating) from scratches.
Solution: Just as I had found a replacement glass backing (the entire back of the iPhone that included a new lens cover and metal ring), I realized that there was a tiny piece of plastic covering the lens. So, I peeled it off. Yup, that simple. Turns out that when I sent my phone in for repair recently (iResQ via Squaretrade), the protective coating was removed from the backing but not the lens cover.
Everything is back in working order and all is right in my world again.
