January 12, 2005

• I have no advice, but thanks for the links. I got a Powershot A75 for Christmas, with which I have already taken several hundred pictures of my cat. I'll be interested in the responses, as I expect to drop my camera at some point. *clunk* dang.
• Used to be that consumer products could be repaired by dedicated hobbysts. But, apart from computers and such, most modern gadgets are more of the 'throwaway' variety: if it can be repaired, it's often prohibitively expensive. Plus, the electro-mechanical innards of cameras can be a real puzzle. I can wedge my way inside a computer and add RAM modules, PCI cards and internal drives without much sweat, but even a simple analog camera is better left for those with the proper equipment and training. About a year ago I sent for repair two video cameras; a digital one (tape transport mechanism didn't work) and an old Video8 (viewfinder's monitor was dead). It was expensive but still worth it. There, in the shop, saw several persons bringing PDAs, laptops and digital snapshot cameras for repair; often, they were handed back to them. "Repair would be more expensive than a new one" was told to many of them, due to some vital component that just can't be exchanged without dissasembling the entire unit. Still, you could ask for an estimate. Maybe split it between the two culprits :) Btw, I've had my own Cybershot P100 crash on the floor a couple times already, and while it sports now a little bulge and some scratches, no problems so far. That the fragile-looking retractable lens was inside the camera helped, I'm sure.
• I've got a Canon PowerShot S100 Elph which was dropped several times over its lifetime and finally died. One of these days I'll break out the tiny tools and see if I can repair it, but I have no expectations whatsoever about that. I'll be happy if I can even get it all back together again.
• that's too bad. sorry to hear about the mishap... i have a powershot S1 and i love it, given the sticker price i'd be really unhappy if i dropped it. i too have thousands of cat photos. when it costs nothing, it's easier to snap them. i planned on taking at least one picture per day this year but i'm pretty sure i forgot yesterday... new years resolution lasted until jan 10 i guess. :)
• Just buy a new one. Write it off as a mishap & wear the cost.
• My A70 fell a lot. It became erratic (purple lines running through the pictures, sometimes) and then finally it wouldn't connect to the computer anymore. Figuring it was pretty much toast, I decided to open it up, just in case opening it up and closing it might, you know, do magic. Which sometimes works. It didn't work, and it was so unlikely that I would find some way of repairing the camera that... well, don't bother, is what I'm saying.
• Also when I went into the camera store to look at replacing it, they pointed out that digital cameras don't often last more than a year or two without going haywire anyways. They're that fragile.
• I can't help much beyond an anectdote. I had a powershot for a week, my friend fell on the ice, and it broke. The repair cost half the price of a new one. Same camera, a year later, a (different) friend got sand in the lens area, camera ground to a halt. The repair by then was 2/3 of the price of a nicer, newer camera. I figured I couldn't lose much by trying to clean out the sand, so I read up as much as I could and tried disassembling it. Broke it completely. (I'm not all thumbs -- I've fixed computers and my cell phone.) I'd say if you can live with having to buy a new camera, attempt a fix, otherwise, don't.
• I've got a Canon Powershot A85. Nifty little camera. I'm using that as my primary until I decide between my main digital camera, which will either be a Nikon D70 or a Canon EOS 20D. Both cameras have great features, but I probably will go with the less expensive Nikon. I've been researching both cameras for something like a month now and while the Canon has a few more really advanced features, the Nikon has ease of use going for it. Oh, sorry to hear about your bad fall with the Canon. When I carry my camera around I treat it like Baccarat crystal that could slip from my hands at any moment... And yes, I take more than a few cat photos with my A85 (^_^)
• Woah, my A75 just came today. A digital camera, especially the shutter area, is way too complicated to try and fix yourself, IMO, especially if it's still basically working. I might try a blast of compressed air, but maybe that'll screw something up, too. Barring that, there's always the tried and true "whack it" method.
• I've got a G3 and it's been reassuringly sturdy, but I'm also rather paranoid about looking after it. I wouldn't be terribly optimistic about fixing it. A lens assembly reminds me of CD-Rom drives, which (aside from cost) generally are unrepairable because they're assembled by robots and it's impossible to re-align the pieces properly by hand after you take most apart. Generally the cheaper the camera, the less likely it's repairable. Fixability is something pros expect after they drop serious cash on a lens system, and it's something sacrificed to reduce size and cost of consumer models. I have no idea where the A80 would fit in that scale, since it's really consumer line, but at the high end. Given how casual people generally are about cameras, they're really amazingly fragile. I remember my surprise a couple years ago when an archaeologist friend told me how cameras regularly seize up in desert environments due to the dust. And those were sturdy mechanical cameras - I shudder to think what that much dust buildup would do to a whack of digital circuitry.
• I had an canon S200. Took a roll down a sand dune with it in my pocket (yes, I'm that dumb). The lens wouldn't come out at first, or the camera would refuse to recognize that it did when it did, but turning it on and off over and over again eventually broke it free. No real problems now, except that the image quality seems to have decreased. There are dark spots on the picutre, esp. in bright photos. The lens looks like it has crap on the inside, but I'm stumped. Works ok though. My advice for everyone is: get a snug padded sand-proof pouch and use it.
• Or ... maybe don't take a tumble down a sand dune with your camera in tow? I kid, I kid! I just took mine to the beach to take a few snapshots, and I'm still wiping salty brine off the camera. waterproof pouch is highly recommended.
• i'm tend to be pretty careful about passing my camera (or so I would like to think). i put the strap around my wrist when holding the camera and place it in another person's hand before letting the strap off my wrist. or at least that is how i do it in my head. some private eye tailing me can probably find evidence of me breaking that rule. good luck finding a solution.
• Although I'm a day late, I'm not a dollar short. My story of stupidity takes the cake. I have (er.. had) the Canon EOS digital rebel. Sweetest camera for its price range (well, Nikon has a comparable one now, but... that's now, not when I got mine). I took that camera everywhere I went, and in the 8 months it was working, I took somewhere over 2000 pictures, many of them quite good. When I say everywhere, that's exactly what I mean. Generally I'm pretty careful about it, especially when taking it out kayaking in the Puget Sound. Except one time. Well.. I had taken all the precautions, and the only thing I forgot to account for was the tide. My gf and I pulled up on a beach, and were there for no more than 10 minutes. I took my camera out of the dry compartment in my kayak, took it out of its dry bag, and took that 'perfect shot' I had seen. I was waiting for her (my gf) to get back, so I could get someone to take our picture, and stopped paying attn to the boats. During the literally 2 minutes I looked away, I was waiting for her to get back, the tide rose something like 1 1/2- 2'. Waves were coming in, bigger and bigger, and the next thing I knew, our boats were being pulled back out into the water, camera-splashing all the way. Long story short, I had someone look at it, who said, "ooh, you need to send that one to Canon". Whom I called, and was told that, "no matter what, you will get your camera refurbished, and won't need to get a whole new one." BS. I got it back in the mail 2 weeks later with a fancy little letter saying that basically I was a complete dumbass, and needed to go get myself a new damn camera. I called Canon to complain (not that I had MUCH right, but... it was worth a shot, right?), and told them that I was assured by customer service when I first called that no matter what, I would get something back, whether it cost almost as much as a new camera or not, "no matter what, you will get your camera refurbished, and won't need to get a whole new one". But, that is EXACTLY WHAT THE LETTER SAID, "go get a new camera". After lots of pleading, no dice. I think I'll go buy the Nikon, and a nice waterproof case for it. Makes you all feel a bit better now, huh?
• Sorry this is a bit late, although this post has already been lost to the archives, I'm guessing. Classes have started and I had to take care of many things. Thanks to all for your replies, and also for the stories, which were good. What's actually broken is not the shutter in the lens, but the shutter button, which still mostly works. I probably should've made that clearer, but even still, I don't think it'll be much easier to fix without ordering a new part. It works well enough for now, and I really don't have the income to justify buying a new one. About being careful- The whole reason I bought a digital was so that I could take pictures with impunity, have a camera that I could take everywhere and do anything with. I chose the A80 because it had aperture and shutter speed settings, which I thought was pretty nice. However, it's a bit to heavy and a bit too big to be convenient. Anyway, it did travel sans wrist-strap for a little while, but towards the beginning of the trip my sister said I should put it on, as she was always worried about dropping hers. The wrist strap ended up being why it was dropped. When she passed the camera to me, I got a hold of it, but the wrist strap was still attached to her, and when I tried to get the camera, it pulled the strap, which caught on her hand, causing me to lose my grip, and also causing the strap to come free. So if any of you ever have to pass a camera, do so with the utmost caution, but from what it sounds like, most of you treat cameras pretty carefully already.