My lens won't open when I turn on my camera...

Greetings all,

 

I have a small point and shoot camera that is not functioning properly...the

lens won't open when I turn it on. I have tried to replace the batteries but

to no avail it still does not work...any help would be grateful!

 

Regards,

 

J

It might help to know which camera you have. In general, problems of this kind aren't worth fixing if you have to pay for it (i.e. not under warranty). But maybe there is something you could try, depending on the model you have.

Probably not what you want to hear, but Mark is right. It makes no financial sense to repair a digicam that's out of warranty.

 

If all else fails, do what my grandmother used to do....give it a whack. Her rationale was that you can't break what's already broken.

There's some logic to it in this case. If a bit of grit is stopping the lens from opening, a whack my just dislodge it....just don't get carried away. :-)

I apologize ahead of time if this response seems to imply that you haven't checked the simple stuff first, but ... have you checked to make sure the camera isn't in the 'playback' mode? Most cameras, when turned on with the selector knob in playback, won't open the lens.

Also, batteries wear out after a while. You may need a new one.

I have seen this a few times. Quite often, it is a small grain of sand/detritus that gets stuck in the lens shutter mechanism, preventing it from opening. I saw this happening with digicams while shooting in the desert.

 

Recently, it happened to my son's Powershot; I took it to Canon, they cleaned it, and it is working fine. And it was free, but it was Canon Middle East (Oman), they are nicer than Canon Europe.

I don't know if this helps, but...my Canon Powershot has a switch: one setting for taking pictures, one setting for playing back on LCD. If I turn on the camera in play mode, the lens will not open.

 

Try new batteries, and while you're at it, check the contacts in the battery compartment, to see if there is corrosion or something preventing the batteries from making a good connection.

 

Try taking it to a camera shop...they might have seen this problem before.

 

Regarding the "whack" idea...use only as a last resort.

 

If all else fails, it might be time for a new camera.

 

Good luck with your camera!