Any camera experts out there?

[wendymac]

My camera is giving me a "lens error--restart" message every time I turn it on. It was working fine when I took pictures the other day, then started it when I tried shooting the horses (same day). Used it again to take Polish baby pictures after that and then today we're back to the error message. Anyone have any ideas?? It's a Canon PowerShot Pro series, if that helps any. :-(

 

[Watermelons]

Something might have gotten in there, a tiny little bit of dirt or sand. If the lense feels any little bit of resistance you will get that message.
Mine did that after I took it to the beach, but didn't start for a few weeks after. Sent it into canon as it was still under warranty and they said, sand in motor, not covered, too bad. But when I got it back, it worked just fine. So them opening it up and looking at it was enough to fix the problem.
However now its long past its lifespan and is back to its old issues and would do that randomly and I would have to pull the battery a few times to get it to restart and have the lense work properly.

 

[wendymac]

Bummer...it probably has dirt in it (I use it in the barn/dusty horse shows/etc). I tried blowing it with compressed air, and that didn't work. Wonder how hard they are to take apart?

 

[Watermelons]

I think its just a few little screws but have never done so myself. Is yours still under warranty?
I dont think its the taking apart thats hard, its the putting it back together.
Mine has had the little black shutters fall off the lense and those are a pain in the butt to get back on, so my closed shutter involves a piece of paper taped over the stuck out lense. No idea what the inside of the camera would be like. But I imagine if you can figure it out or if you know anyone who is comfortable taking them apart, that would be all you would need to give it a little clean out inside.

 

[wendymac]

Not even close to being still under warranty, unfortunately. I'm going to try new batteries and a new internal battery....if that doesn't work, then I have nothing to lose by taking it apart. I just don't have $800 sitting around for a new one, but feel as if I have an arm cut off. I use that thing every day. *cries*

 

[hannah_biota]

If it's an expensive camera, I'd take it to a repair shop before opening it myself. I had to have a lens repaired last year, it was a lot cheaper than buying a new one.

 

[Watermelons]

Do you have a Canon shop near you?
Might be easier to have somebody there take a look at it.
Again like mine, they pulled mine apart said it wasn't fixable because it was sand, and i get it back working because they pulled it apart to find out what was wrong, therefore cleaning out what caused the problem.

 

[MikeScone]

If you're looking for camera experts, our "Camera Corner" forum is for exactly that. If you'd like, I can move this thread there.

Apparently, lens errors are very common on point-and-shoot cameras (my digital cameras have mostly been DSLRs, so I don't have any firsthand experience with point-and-shoots). The error mostly means that the lens extension/retraction mechanism is encountering resistance, as watermelons said.

I found an article on how to deal with "lens errors" which might help - I'd try the suggestions in the article. They couldn't hurt, anyway. The article is Fixing a Lens Error on a Digital Camera on the CameraRepair blog. Here's another article, specific to the Canon Powershot line. Also, if your camera is a PowerShot S100, check this page - Canon will fix those for free.

If that doesn't help, I suspect a new camera would be cheaper than fixing the old one. I wouldn't get the cheapest thing on the market, but you can get a halfway decent point-and-shoot for less than $200 these days. If you were thinking of spending as much as $450 you could get a DSLR. For that matter, Amazon lists lots of PowerShot Pro cameras used for $125 or less.

 

[wendymac]

Thanks, Mike. I had found that and tried most of them (leery about banging it very hard, for obvious reasons). Fortunately I found a camera repair shop that gave me an estimate of $120 to fix it. It's Precision Camera, if you've ever heard of it? I also was hesitant about just buying a used one because I wouldn't have any idea if the thing even worked. I just hope Precision Camera isn't a scam center!

 

[missyscove]

I have had great experiences purchasing refurbished items from Canon. They inspect and repair them themselves which is more than you can say for a lot of new products.

 

[MikeScone]

I found a camera repair shop that gave me an estimate of $120 to fix it. It's Precision Camera, if you've ever heard of it?

I don't know them personally. There's an article in Wikipedia about "Precision Camera and Video Repair", which says they're the largest camera repair company in the world. On the other hand, the article reads like it was a press release from Precision Camera. They're probably worth a try.

 

[wendymac]

Christina, but on Amazon they aren't listed from Canon, or anyone associated with them. It's just individual users that post them, which is why I was a bit hesitant.

Mike, the article reads much like their home page. I wasn't sure about them, because the estimate was given without ANY information about what was wrong with the camera. I just entered the make/model and it popped up. I e-mailed them, and they said that was the "base", and that if it would cost more than the estimate that they'd give me an updated estimate before actually doing the repairs. Their site said you had to give them your credit card information (supposedly for verification purposes) but nothing was mentioned about that in the e-mail. So I'm going to follow the e-mail instructions (including sending along a copy of the e-mail I received) and see how it goes. I think it's just a case of the lens coming off of the little pin thingies inside. I hope!

 

[missyscove]

Right, but you can buy refurbished items direct from Canon.
http://shop.usa.canon.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/subCategory_10051_10051_-1_12078
Refurbished isn't always cheaper, (I just purchased the new 40mm f/2.8 STM pancake lens new for cheaper than I could find it refurbished) but is often a good option.