When I turn the camera on and open the LCD screen, both the screen and viewfinder are black. When I close the screen, the viewfinder is activated. The LCD screen works fine in playback mode.

Does this mean the LCD screen is malfunctioning, or is there just some button or menu setting that I have set incorrectly?

Thanks,
Tony

Sounds like a malfunction to me - I've seen a similar intermittent fault on an HV30. It might be worthwhile rotating the LCD panel about a bit when it goes dark - that works with the faulty HV30.

Are you absolutely sure that the LCD <always> works on playback, and <never> on record? When the ribbon connector starts to fail it's often intermittent, at least at first.

The viewfinder is designed to be disabled when the LCD is opened, and there is no override in the menus as there is in the larger Canons.

Thanks for your reply, Colin.

I pushed the Focus Assist button at the bottom of the LCD screen, and that activated it.

Tony

Glad you got it to work, though I must admit to having no idea why pushing the Focus Assist button would fix it!