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This is a repeating problem for me that some of you may remember, so I'll just give you the basics ...
* I'm shooting a well-used Canon XS
* In all situations discussed, am using the same lens - Tamron 2.8 28-75mm
* Today I was using an external flash ... not sure about the previous time.

Last January, I was shooting (many, many)photos at my granddaughter's birthday party when, suddenly, I couldn't get the camera to focus. The lens would whirl but not "catch". Tried turning it to auto - same problem. With Canon's, the focus is in the camera so I worried that my camera was on it's way out. Realized that I could take photos if the lens was on manual focus rather than auto focus.

Worried, priced new cameras, wore out my point-and-shoot, took the dslr to the camera store and had it cleaned.It worked great after that ... until today. I was taking (many,many) photos at my friend's daughter's baby shower and after shooting about 150 shots, I couldn't get the auto focus to catch. Tried several different settings - maybe one shot would take but not more than that. Thanks to Kimber "shooting in manual focus" tips from before, I could finish taking photos (and am hoping they are okay).

Come home, try to isolate the problem/fix. After several things tried, I put in a new battery ................. and the auto focus worked like a charm. Could that be my problem ... a drained battery? Has anyone else come across this?

Thanks in advance for your help!!
Roberta

Not sure, but I wonder if perhaps just taking out the battery and re-inserting it would get your camera to focus again? If it happens again, you might try that and see what happens? When my battery gets drained my camera does not malfunction but simply quits on me. (NikonD3s)

mariah wrote:
When my battery gets drained my camera does not malfunction but simply quits on me. (NikonD3s)

That's what I thought and why I never considered the battery as a possible problem. I'll just have to keep my eye on it in the future.

Thanks for your idea!!!
Roberta

Do you have any other lenses? I've had this happen and Canon had me send in both the camera and the problematic lens (it was a Canon lens though). It was the lens, turns out. They recalibrated it. But it could be either one. It's worth cleaning your contacts where your lens connects to the camera to see if that helps. I just use a lens cloth.

Kendra's suggestion to clean the contacts is what I would suggest, too.

Also, as a clarification, Canon's focusing is in the lens, rather than in the camera body. So you could try contacting Tamron, or see if they have a troubleshooting section of their site.

I will definitely clean the lens contacts and see if that helps. Great idea!!! And thanks, for everyone's help. I've gotta try to recreate the problem/wait for it to happen again.

Thanks!!!

I had this problem with my 50D when I was using the double battery pack when it became loose. I would look at the battery contacts in the camera to see if they are a bit crushed.