gah!! broke the battery door on my 5050:(

[breadbin]

<p>it slipped out of my hand at waist high and the battery door flew open. turns out the hooks on both the battery door and body have come off so a new door might not resolve the problem. i'm using nurses tape now at the moment to keep it closed - anyone know what else i can do?<br>

wouldn't mind but don't have it long and absolutely fell in love with it for the month i had it:) ironic too that i went looking for a strap for it too the day or so before i dropped it:(</p>

[lex_jenkins]

<p>If it maintains electrical contact with the door taped shut, I'd just keep doing that. In fact, that's what I do with my Nikon N6006. That model - an otherwise very good camera - had a notoriously fragile plastic film door latch. After mine broke I just used tape to hold it shut.</p>

<p>But... stick with Scotch/3M brand blue masking tape. Lasts for months, even a year or more, doesn't get brittle and doesn't leave gummy residue. When I first used tape to hold my N6006 together I used duct tape. Big mistake. Took an hour with lighter fluid, cotton balls and cotton swabs to clean off the gummy residue, which also spread beyond the borders of the tape itself. Wotta mess. Scotch/3M blue masking tape is great stuff for temporarily sticking all kinds of stuff, including makeshift reflectors such as white posterboard to walls - so far I haven't damaged the surface of any painted or wallpapered wall, or furniture finish, using this stuff.</p><div></div>

[breadbin]

<p>i'm using nurses tape at the minute which is fairly strong but the pressre of the batteries pushing against the door is causing it to slip somewhat so was going to try some other tape. ha ha was going to get some duct tape but think i'll have a look for the scotch 3m stuff first:) thanks. did you ever try the 3m filament stuff? wonder if thats any good?</p>

[lex_jenkins]

<p>The reinforced filament type tapes will also leave a gummy residue. Really a pain in the neck to clean up. On the other hand, if you don't need to change batteries too often it might work out using stronger tape. I'm getting around 3-4 months use per charge with AA NiMH batteries in my C-3040Z, mostly by using the LCD screen and flash very sparingly. The non-rechargeable lithiums last pretty well too, if you minimize the use of power draining features.</p>

<p>Some battery compartments are too stiffly sprung to fix with tape. You might try compressing the springs to relieve some of the tension, altho' that's tricky depending on the camera design.</p>

[breadbin]

<p>yeah i think the 5050 fits into that "too highly sprung" category:( so might need another workaround. i heard from somewhere else that they drilled a couple of holes through it and popped some screws in there and it works so might give that a go too. thanks</p>