Remote Control cable suddenly not working

[sdixon2380]

A while back I bought a very cheap remote control cable for my Canon 50D, it has worked well for about a year and suddenly stopped working. It appears to operate the focussing but won't fire the shutter. Is it because I have a cheap piece of equipment from ebay that has suddenly just packed up or is it mopre likely that I have a problem with the camera.
Any suggestions greatly received.
Steve.

[cosmicma]

there's more chance that the remote has packed in than the camera
i bought a cheap remote before buying the genuine canon one and the cheap 3rd party one didn't work straight out of the box so i managed to take it back and get a refund
then walked 50yds round the corner and bought a canon remote and the reason why i went for the 3rd party one in the first place is because i thought the canon one would be expensive
it turned out there wasn't that much difference in price so the fact the 3rd party one didn't work did me a favour

it could be one of two things thats stopping your remote from working
1 the cable has a broken wire or one wire has become unsoldered
2 in the remote trigger you hold in your hand should be 2 contacts or leaf switches there's a good chance one is not making proper contact any more if you can pull it to pieces and have a look inside you will see them
1 contact is for focus the other is for the shutter you could make sure the are making proper contact and have not coroded
if their allright then it's the cable

a genuine canon cable remote cost about £20 and the build qualtiy and feel of them is a world apart from the cheap 3rd party ones
worth every penny in my book

[chris-p]

Hmm, I bought a really cheap cable release for my camera and it worked for a week before packing up. Personally, as already suggested, I'd go and buy the Canon own one.

[sdixon2380]

Thanks for your input, have bought another cheap one just to check it out, this new cheap one is working at the moment so it looks like it was the remote control at fault. I guess a new Canon one will be on the cards next time.