Canon Powershot repair

I broke me wittle camera! Wah!!

No really, I'm seriously bummed. My Powershot Pro1......

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canon_PowerShot_Pro1

...... was on a tripod for a macro shot I was setting up. The horz
hinge was not tight enough and the camera swung forward/down onto the
wooden table, bumping the front lens ring, but not enought to damage
metal ring or glass. It was only about 2"-3", but was a solid hit
(clunk!) and now my auto focus is whack. Not horrifically bad, but
bad enough that auto-focus is no longer sharp enough to be viable.
The manual focus on this camera is pretty lame.

This camera came with a 7.2mm-55.8mm 7X zoom Ultrasonic red-line lens,
but it appears to be a fixed lens, despite a "ring release button".
Not sure how this works. Can I get a replacement lens? I see nothing
on the subject in the manual other than mention of a 500D macro lens
and that seems to be merely some sorta adapter/converter.

This is really a great camera and I'm devastated that it's now blooey.
I bought it used a couple yrs ago from B&H and it was essentially NIB
for 1/4th the orig price. I take extra careful care of this camera
--with one obvious exception (DOH!)-- and it's in otherwise mint
condition. I plan on moving up to a used D60, but I love this
camera's super macro mode and really would like to have it repaired.

What are my options?

nb

 

With such an old camera (long out of warranty), having it fixed
may be more expensive than buying a secondhand one.

Therefore, check eBay and Amazon...good luck and happy hunting!

John

 

He's right. These days, except for the highest priced items, cameras
rarely get repaired - it's not cost effective. Contact Canon and see if
they even offer parts availability, let alone repairs; most companies
don't after the legally required five years. Finding a used one - or a
newer model - is almost certainly your best choice.

 

Yer probably right. I understand the business model and economics of
it , but it's still too bad. It's really a great camera and a crying
shame to hafta toss it for something that probably could be repaired.
It's also a drag that something so minor as a medium bump could render
this camera almost useless. This camera was NOT cheap, when new.

Till I get another camera, it's back to my ancient S10 brick. I think
I could safely knock out a bear with that all SS bodied camera and not
sustain any damage. Perhaps I can learn to better utilize the manual
focus and focus braketing for tripod shots on the Pro1. (sigh)

thanks all,
nb

 

Hello John. The "ring release button" is for removing the ring on the front
of the lens in order to fit a ring flash or a tele-convertor.
See pages 174 and 179 of
http://gdlp01.c-wss.com/gds/4/0900001304/01/PSPro1CUG-EN.pdf

Regards, Ian.

 

Unless you can find a technician capable of dismantling the camera to see
what has been knocked loose or bent out of shape, you'll probably never
know. Sad (

The lens isn't interchangeable (unless you know a technician ... and have
access to replacement parts).

In the words of the page 207 of the User Manual (found on Canon's web
site),

Turn off the camera. Then press
and hold the ring release button
and remove the outer ring on the
lens.

(so as to be able to attach a 'converter' to the front of the lens).

One of those fabled independent technicians? Don't give up on the makers
just yet though; even if they won't undertake a repair, they may be
prepared to "reward your loyalty" )

There's a lot to be said for beanbags, sandbags, sacks of oatmeal, heap of
coats, etc, when you can't get the tripod attatchment close to the centre
of gravity of the camera plus lens.

 

More than likely you have already removed the battery for 5 minutes,
but if not, try that and also remove the sd card, and date battery.
Then reinstall and use max zoom in and out a couple of times.
Its worth a try.

 

Well, your Canon "PowerShot Pro 1" certainly >looks< like a fairly
rugged device.

My own Kodak "P850" has around 26,000 shots on it. The model was
introduced during 2005, and I obtained mine in May of 2006.

Last year, its built-in pop-up flash developed a defect; the
spring mechanism failed. Thus, I merely inserted a piece of
plastic, to keep it propped up permanently.

As my main documentation camera, indoors, I leave the P850 out of
its bag. Otherwise, my quick solution could be a bit cumbersome.

John

 

In reality, Ian, you were responding to the original poster ("notbob").
You'd removed my entire reply to him, other than my first name.

John

 

I hadn't tried that, but I finally did. Looks like it might have done
the trick. Comparing older pre-accident shots and my current shots,
the camera seems good as new, or at least darn close. I'd guess
the camera was only about 5% off perfect from the bump, IFP. It looks
better, now. OTOH, I've become more critical, I can tell. Could be
my new flat panel monitor makes 8MP not look as great as it did when I
first got the camera and I still had an old CRT mon. Regardless,
thank you the tip. Whoda thought my camera could reset itself like
my modem/router.

nb

 

Yay! Hope it is fixed and continues working ok.

 

Me too. I love the super-macro mode. My next jump will be to a used
Canon DX0 class SLR so I can use L zoom and fixed lenses for bird
photog. This Pro1 camera really taught me about digital photography.
I had no idea, despite being a film fan from way back. But, I also
learned, with a more advanced SLR, I need to buy more lenses for macro
work. DOH! So, the built-in macro features of the Pro1 are quite
handy and it would be a shame to lose them. Again, thanks for the
much appreciated advice.

nb

 

Remember that macro does not mean "move the lens extremely
close to the object" but "the image on the sensor is as large
as in the real world (1:1)" (or even more, Canon has a loupe
lens that only does macro, *starting* at an 1:1 magnification).

You want some distance between the front end of the lens and
the object --- you need to get some light on the object and
insects may flee if you come too close. You'll probably want
some tripod and perhaps macro slide rail for focussing (the
focussing ring changes the magnification drastically, which
you probably don't want to change). If you can't expose for
fairly long times on the tripod because of subject movement
you also may want flashes.

You also might want to think about focus stacking as the DOF
is extremely shallow at these magnifications (and so is the
effective aperture. And you don't get the crop factor to the
focal length ... both are simplifications for infinity and
work real good for low magnifications (=> normal distances),
which macro is not.)

-Wolfgang