:mattLandia:

After 945 days of uninterrupted mechanical joy, my Canon Rebel is showing signs of age. This past week, with little fanfare or cause, the automatic focus just stopped working. I've tried a few different lenses and such, but to no avail. I've cleaned off the contacts, gently cleaned the interior of any dust or hair, etc. and I still can't get it to focus properly.

Not the end of the world, since manual focus still works ok, but I shoot a lot from the hip, over crowds, in dark clubs, etc., which I'm only able to do in auto focus. I tried shooting a few bands in manual mode last night, at the Drunken Unicorn. Ug. As if trying to focus in the dark isn't hard enough, my eyes aren't totally perfect either, so I don't really trust anything I'm shooting. Looking at the photos from last night today just made me groan....

Anyway, I still recommend the Rebel. I'll need to send it off to Canon to see if it can get fixed cheaply. Fingers crossed.