There’s lots I want to say, but most of it would be better illustrated and my beloved new (well newish, it’s not in warranty obviously) fuji finepix camera has decided to have a nervous breakdown. On Thursday I dashed out to take photos of the frost and managed to switch it on as I was pulling it out of my pocket. Whether it was this, or the general hard life that any delicate and expensive piece of electronic equipment that has the misfortune to be owned by me has to endure,* the lens has zoomed all the way out and now is stuck like that. Whatever I do, I get a ‘Zoom Error’ when it’s on, and then when I turn it off it doesn’t neatly tuck its lens away and close up as it’s supposed too, it just sits there looking vaguely priapic and entirely useless.
A quick google has revealed several suggestions, from switch it off and switch it on again, to hoovering around the lens (presumably to get rid of any blocking grit in the mechanism), to attempting to turn the lens manually until you hear a click. So far, I’ve had no luck with any of these. The camera is stuck, I’m stuck, and I’m annoyed. Annoyed with myself for not taking better care of it (the last one died of a similar problem having been dropped once too often), and annoyed with the world because there’s no obvious way of getting it repaired. I feel certain that any camera or electronics shops will be full of pimply youths who will tell me it’s uneconomic to repair and there’s one out which is already newer, faster, cheaper and whizzier and which will only destroy a small slice of the world’s resources. And at the same time, somewhere out there there’s probably an old boy with steady hands and a set of strange triangular-shaped screwdrivers who could probably actually fix it (I mean, it was put together by humans, wasn’t it? It might have been the ultimate in technological wizardry, but it’s not ACTUAL wizardry, is it? So surely it could be repaired, no?) but who found it was uneconomic to set up a repair shop because nobody gets things mended any more. But mostly I’m just generally annoyed because taking a photograph for my blog now requires using the other half’s camera which is a) too complicated and b) too expensive to be reasonably placed in my hands without supervision. When I’m attempting arty shots of frosty woodlands, it’s nice to have the big SLR with the other half on hand to help out but when I’m just trying to capture an amusing-looking sheep I’ve passed on my bike I need a camera I can slip into my pocket. So for now the blog is going to have to be mainly words, unless anyone has any bright ideas.
* I did suggest last time that the other half get me a ruggedised camera, but I had a ruggedised phone, borrowed from Baby Mother, which I have also managed to break. So that probably wouldn’t have helped much either.
That is the trouble with these newfangled gadgets, built in obsolescence, you are not supposed to be able to repair them…
OK…this might not work but, in my experience, Fujis can jam their lens if it comes out a wee bit squint. Turn the camera up so the lens is pointing down, support the lens surround itself on something solid or put a thick cloth under it, and very gently add encouragement to it as you power it off.
I once sent an old Fuji back for this kind of repair and it cost over £110. They do, however, have a website selling refurbished models at about the same price or less…
SLRs are not complicated. In fact the more expensive and ‘pro’ they get the less complicated they get. These point and shoot cameras come with four and a half million modes all of which provide hints to the camera as to what you’re trying to achieve. With an SLR you don’t hint, you just tell. Put it onto AV mode (A on a Nikon). Set it to the lowest value if you want nice blurry backgrounds (the lowest value will be dependant on the lens), f8 if you’re doing portraits, f16 or f32 (again, may depend on the lens) if you’re doing landscapes. It’ll work out the shutter speed for you. If it’s less than about 1/100th of a second increase the ISO setting until it’s not or use a tripod. Job done. #soapbox
what ever you do please do it quick, I enjoy your pictures.
John
Odd, isn’t it, how some people are the kiss of death to electronic equipment. I had to get a new camera about 5 years ago because after they did the service pack thing for windows XP, the software for it wouldn’t run right any more. They quit making the model MP3 player I have 4 years ago. I was able to get a third handset for my cordless phone really cheap because they don’t make that model any more either (There’s no phone jack in my living room or my kitchen.) Of course, I did run my first cellphone through the washer a month after I got it, but that was 6 years ago, and I still have the replacement. I’ve had the little Maglite flash light on my keychain for almost 25 years.
Something similar happened to my Fuji Finepix a few years ago. I took it back to the shop for advice. All they did was to swop the XD card and it closed down properly. We put my own card back in and it worked fine. The suggestion was that, either because of a software glitch, low battery or low temperature (it always seems to pack up in cold weather), the camera failed to go through its shutdown sequence properly and just stopped. Evidently it must use the XD card as memory as well as for storing picture files.
Anyway, might be worth a try.
Thanks guys
I have now tried turning it on without the memory card (didn’t have a spare one), and some gentle encouragement, both to no avail. I think it does try and close down (there’s a feeble whirring noise) but nothing shifts which makes me think it may be something mechanical rather than software. But it seems a common problem with fujis.
Might look for a refurbished one… or head down the Tottenham Court Road when I’m in London and see if anyone can help
We had a recent problem with our little Canon happy-snapper. My wife had dropped it and the camera was mostly fine, but the automatically-closing lens cap had broken and the metal rim around the lens had got dented.
We took it to a local camera shop and the guy there was really helpful – it took him a while but he sourced a small replacement part from Canon and did the incredibly fiddly job of fitting it, for the relatively small sum of £25.
Might be worth taking it to a small, local, independant photo shop, rather than a Jessopsy chain-type place. Or give Great Western Cameras in Swindon a call and see if they can do a repair by post?
While that repair was being done we bought a “ruggedised” replacement – a waterproof, shockproof, Olympus. It’s very good and, apparently, the Olympus warranty is much better than other makes such as Panasonic.
And finally, my lovely wife got a DSLR for Christmas (a Nikon D5000 if you’re wondering). I’ve been hesitant about buying her one on the basis that:
– she dropped the happy-snapper
– we probably wouldn’t take it everywhere and use it much
BUT…we’ve been so impressed with the quality. Even the first few indoor shots on fully automatic, straight out of the box, were vastly better than we’d have got from a smaller camera. Photography has quickly become a fairly major hobby for her and she’ll find any excuse to take pictures now.
We like your photos! You live in a beautiful place and have a good eye for composition. I’d encourage you to get to grips with your other half’s big camera so we can see just how really beautiful your little corner of Scotland is.
thanks for the kind words… it looks like the last independent camera shop in the area went out of business, but I’ll ask around.
regarding the SLR, even if I could master it, and could guarantee not to drop it, having something I can’t just have in my pocket when I need it is the problem. Maybe I’ll sweet talk the other half into lending me the big one more often, but they do say that the best camera is the one you have…
Even I have a point and shoot that lives in my pocket on outings and I quite often use my iPhone camera. Having a big SLR able to switch on, focus and take 8 shots in 1 second counts for nothing when it’s in a bag on your back with no lens currently attached to it. They’re big, bulky, heavy and inconvenient, but they are bit hard to use
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