Sunday, August 03, 2008
Because she asked for it
In a post only tangentially related to digital cameras, DW posted that I fixed our Casio EX-Z120 digital camera. The camera's problem was that the retractable lens got stuck in the out position. Turning the camera on would result in a low motor-moving noise, followed by the camera beeping once and/or shutting itself off without an error.
Where else would I turn for the solution other than Google? Eventually, I found this very helpful(!) page which carefully warns you not to try the final "fixes" unless everything else is completely hopeless (the camera's out of warranty and nothing else works).
My problem seemed similar enough to the "lens error" problem to which the solution applied, so, I tried all of the easy fixes, none of which worked. Eventually, I tried fix #7 - forcing the lens. (Your mileage may vary. All warnings and disclaimers apply.) It didn't work the first time, but, it did actually move the lens after a bit of pushing. Once I realized that I should be turning the lens, not pushing it, moving it became easier, and I was eventually able to get it back into the camera. Turning the camera on got the lens stuck again, sometimes giving the "lens error" message on the display. I repeated the process a few times until eventually the camera would turn on and off and be able to zoom the lens. It was risky, but it worked. Once again, the Internet solves an everyday problem, and results in a not very interesting blog post adding more text to the Internet.
Where else would I turn for the solution other than Google? Eventually, I found this very helpful(!) page which carefully warns you not to try the final "fixes" unless everything else is completely hopeless (the camera's out of warranty and nothing else works).
My problem seemed similar enough to the "lens error" problem to which the solution applied, so, I tried all of the easy fixes, none of which worked. Eventually, I tried fix #7 - forcing the lens. (Your mileage may vary. All warnings and disclaimers apply.) It didn't work the first time, but, it did actually move the lens after a bit of pushing. Once I realized that I should be turning the lens, not pushing it, moving it became easier, and I was eventually able to get it back into the camera. Turning the camera on got the lens stuck again, sometimes giving the "lens error" message on the display. I repeated the process a few times until eventually the camera would turn on and off and be able to zoom the lens. It was risky, but it worked. Once again, the Internet solves an everyday problem, and results in a not very interesting blog post adding more text to the Internet.
Labels: digital camera, repair
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Who, pray, is DW, may I ask? Does elf shading under her toadstool, deep in her dissertation, know about this ostensibly digital liaison?
There was an article in the NYT yesterday about the vast array of "How-to" information on the 'net these days.
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