Hello Everyone! First post here~ I got into photography last year for my small business and quickly fell in love with DSLRs. I just upgraded to a SL3 from a Rebel T3 (and have been loving it!). Unfortunately my cat knocked my tripod off the table it took a hard hit. From a functional standpoint, the camera seems undamaged as far as I can tell. However, part of the camera body frame near the capture button is protruding from normal resting place. Is there a way to easily fix this? Thanks! Jared
Welcome Jared, if the camera still works, then you are in luck option two in an Australian description "|it's buggered " You will need to balance the cost of a replacement compared to the option of and if it can be repaired. Your next task is to then sit the cat down and tell him what a useless great twit it is and and a ingrate considering you feed it and probably do not boot it out of your favorite chair when you come home wanting to sit down. When you are up and running again with your camera, here is a small tip, hang a small bag with sand from the tripod, this will help lower the centre of gravity of the tripod, helping to prevent it toppling over next time there is a cat attack on it.
If you can't give it a firm tap and get it to settle back into the groove it was in, I would probably add a small strip of electrical tape to the gap to keep dust and moisture out. If you try to force it you probably will break it, you probably will have to live with this. and a ++ for using sandbags to weight down a tripod.
try youtube search for any repair, strip down videos so you know where all the screws are or take a look around the body, you may find its just a matter of loosening a panel and allowing it to relocate into its slot
Thank you Craig! The camera & lens thankfully seem fully functional in all modes & with autofocus. I figured such "buggered" would be the case~ I am just grateful it is still working and would like to keep it so! Thank you so much for the sandbag suggestion~ I will absolutely need to get some! The cat wants as much attention as the dog and loves to follow~ the bags will be perfect
I tried some firm pushes and light attempts with dental tool to re-seat the body, but didn't want to exacerbate the problem. The electrical tape is an awesome suggestion as the dust/water messing with internals was my concern. I ordered a silicone body to add some shock buffer/hopefully keep a bit clean and hidden. Will absolutely be getting some sandbags too! Thanks Johnsey!
Will see if I can find some good full disassembly videos and see if that can be easily reseated. Thank you!
tie the sand bags to the cat not the tripod................. usually one of those body sections is the first or second to one off so i doubt you will need to go too far into a strip down. electrical tape can leave a sticky mess behind esp if its hot where you use the camera etc, i'd go with gaffer tape, not electrical or duct tape
As Caladina stated electrical tape will come off and leave a sticky mess, may I suggest that you invest in a tube of Silicon, the type that is used to seal windows and bathrooms, advantage is it does not leave a sticky mess and seals nicely, to remove it just peal it off.
i avoided mentioning silicone until you tried the lessening of the screws thing first, if any drips into the camera it may be a problem, also silicon is easy to come off of plastic when its dry esp if its in a heavy traffic area like the hand grip.
Jared, I should also have suggested to try a small area first to test the results. Just use a small smear as a thicker amount will peal off. As Caladina said to loosen the screws a bit, you might need someone to press the separated parts together then screw it together. all the best with it.