At first I thought, "She'll be right!"; the little camera is built like a tank! Why, I cannot even see any dent or scratches after the drop!
Appearance is deceiving! The camera do not work anymore! The retractable lens is half-out and refuse to retract fully when the on/off button is pressed. All you can see on the rear screen is a line of text: "Lens error, restart camera"!
Those Canon engineers sure have a weird sense of humour! How the hell you are suppose to "restart" when the bleeding lens is STUCK outside the body?!!The next day, my young one called a camera shop and enquired if they can send the G7 to Canon NZ to get a repair quote. She was shock when they told her that Canon charge NZ$150 just to give a quote! Bad idea!
Next she called her insurance co and even more distressed to find out that her access is $250.00!
By now she pass me the sick G7 and I ponder if I should ask one of our friend to take back to Singapore and get it fix!
I took the camera to my work place and our technical whiz offered to take it home and "take it apart"!
It was then I realised I have not GOOGLE my problem!
My "Canon G7 lens error" return 8,000 hits and right at the second hit, in Yahoo!Answers; I learned the "lens problem" is also known as E18 error and thousands of Canon P&S owners suffered the same predicament!
The best answer to my problem was given by "MAMA" two year ago! Here is what MAMA said:
"yea i just fixed my mommy camera(she didn't know)....all u gotta do it turn on the camera n quickly try knock the lens back in the camera while it is on....don't break the lens ....so don't knock it too hard!"
Using that as a guide, this is what I did... look at the picture below:
I placed the G7 with stuck lens pointing down on my table, my left palm is holding the left side of the camera with my thumb resting on the on/off button.The right palm is placed on top of the camera so I can press downwards.
Upon turning the camera on and immediately hearing the start-up chime, press the camera down firmly to force the lens back into the camera body!
Presto! After the lens went in and I restart the G7, it came back to life!!
I did a few test shots and everything is honky-dory!
Hello Canon NZ, is that how you fix "lens error"? And I have to pay you $150 to tell me the repair might cost another $200? Ha ha ha..
Famous Last Words:
Caution! This method has worked for lots of "lens error" sufferers but it might not work for you. Sometime the lens refused to retract because sand or dirt has gone into the lens barrel and forcing the lens back might cause more damage. You have a choice ;)
It is a good idea to clean your extended lens barrel frequently to avoid dirt getting into the innards.
For the more adventurous, this camerarepair blog is absolutely awesome!!
Happy shooting!
Latest:
I was told this method also works for G9, G10 and G11.
I am not sure about G12, but I think it might work too :)
6 comments:
ha ha ,, victory for the consumer!What a rip off for Canon to charge so much money!
Yahoo Answers is a really good resource for problem solving, It takes a matter of minutes before the first answer comes in,
We experienced the lens error this weekend after dropping our G7 a short distance into snow (extended lens down... doh!). Just tried this fix and now everything seems fine. Thanks for the tip!
Thank you so much for the tip and the picture, this will save Christmas. After I got the error this morning and needed a camera to take pictures of my kids opening their gifts and now thanks to your tip it works fine.
Hi ,Thank you and this is a good Help.. it worked .. :)
Seems to work, thanks!
Brilliant. It worked. Cheers!
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