Woohoo! New camera!
Posted: Thu Apr 24, 2008 2:38 pm
Two weeks ago my trusty Canon Powershot S1 IS had a CCD failure, resulting in white lines across all photos. I've had this camera a few years now, and was disappointed that it looked like I'd have to buy a new one, but I went to the Canon site to check to see if there was maybe a firmware patch, or some other way of possibly rectifying the issue.
When I selected my camera model up popped a box telling me that in June 2007 there was an advisory notice posted about issues with the CCD is this camera model, as well as others (later digging around Google I found this issue affects models from many manufacturers, all of whom used Sony CCDs manufactured between 2002 and 2004), and so I contacted Canon support who told me I'd need to send my camera to a repair centre to have it checked.
In the UK this is handled by Colchester Camera Repair Service, so I printed off their repair form and posted off my camera. I rang a couple of days ago to ask what their normal turn around time is, and was told it's 1-2 weeks. They looked up my camera status, and told me that it was awaiting parts - good news, because that meant Canon were footing the bill so it was the suspected CCD failure. I was prepared for a wait while parts were sourced, but at least it was free.
Today (about 10 minutes ago to be more precise ) I received a phone call from Colchester Cameras - Canon are unable to get parts for my S1 IS, so would I like a brand new Canon Powershot S5 IS instead. I nearly leapt down the phone with a shout of YES. OK, there is a downside - I've got 4 Compact Flash cards (including a 2GB Microdrive) that I can't use any more, but I'll give these to my dad as he has a Samsung camera that uses CF, and I'll have to buy some SD cards instead but these are pretty cheap nowadays (and my TomTom and my wife's Canon Powershot A400 use them too so I've got more uses for them than just the S5).
Moral of the story - just because your equipment is out of warranty when it breaks it doesn't mean you should just write it off and buy a replacement
When I selected my camera model up popped a box telling me that in June 2007 there was an advisory notice posted about issues with the CCD is this camera model, as well as others (later digging around Google I found this issue affects models from many manufacturers, all of whom used Sony CCDs manufactured between 2002 and 2004), and so I contacted Canon support who told me I'd need to send my camera to a repair centre to have it checked.
In the UK this is handled by Colchester Camera Repair Service, so I printed off their repair form and posted off my camera. I rang a couple of days ago to ask what their normal turn around time is, and was told it's 1-2 weeks. They looked up my camera status, and told me that it was awaiting parts - good news, because that meant Canon were footing the bill so it was the suspected CCD failure. I was prepared for a wait while parts were sourced, but at least it was free.
Today (about 10 minutes ago to be more precise ) I received a phone call from Colchester Cameras - Canon are unable to get parts for my S1 IS, so would I like a brand new Canon Powershot S5 IS instead. I nearly leapt down the phone with a shout of YES. OK, there is a downside - I've got 4 Compact Flash cards (including a 2GB Microdrive) that I can't use any more, but I'll give these to my dad as he has a Samsung camera that uses CF, and I'll have to buy some SD cards instead but these are pretty cheap nowadays (and my TomTom and my wife's Canon Powershot A400 use them too so I've got more uses for them than just the S5).
Moral of the story - just because your equipment is out of warranty when it breaks it doesn't mean you should just write it off and buy a replacement