why won't my digital camera turn on

November 4, 2004 2:22 AM

BrokenDigitalCameraFilter: My 18-month old Casio Exilim Z3 stopped working a few weeks ago (will not turn on). More Inside.

The camera was bought in the US at a Radio Shack, 18 months ago with a 1-yr warranty. Extensive googling (and mostly thanks to the forums at dpreview.com) points to a known problem in the main board of the camera. So, I sent the camera down to the local Casio dealer which promptly asked for €200 ($250) to replace the board, or $60 less than the same camera costs new back in America. My question is: is anybody aware of any shop or online service that will fix digital cameras for something more reasonable? I know it's a long shot...

posted by costas to technology (5 comments total)

Can you save me the googling and point me to info about the main board problems? My Exilim turns on and takes pictures, but all the sudden the pictures are corrupt. The previews are fine, so I didn't find out until I tried to download the shots. (Sorry to answer your question with a question.)
posted by ba at 9:04 AM on November 4, 2004

My question is: is anybody aware of any shop or online service that will fix digital cameras for something more reasonable? I know it's a long shot...

To the best of my knowledge, what the Casio dealer said is par for the course. Unlike older film cameras that people are still cleaning, disassembling, replacing shutters for, etc., most digital cameras are "lifestyle accessories" with built-in obsolescence and are not really meant to be repaired economically. This goes for dealers too--I've heard of many cases where people received brand-new cameras as replacements when they had sent their old camera in for a warranty repair, as it's simply not economical to make non-trivial repairs in many cases. Likewise for the customer, in most cases it's better to just buy a replacement/upgrade if a digital camera breaks out of warranty. Sorry.

My Exilim turns on and takes pictures, but all the sudden the pictures are corrupt. The previews are fine, so I didn't find out until I tried to download the shots.

Sounds more like a problem with your flash card than anything else. I think those tiny Exilim models generally use SD, right? Have you tried writing to a different card?

I'm not familiar with the main board issues on the Z3 and whether this is one of the symptoms.
posted by DaShiv at 9:59 AM on November 4, 2004

Ack! You guys are scaring me. I love my Exilim Z-3 with a passion and haven't had any trouble with it yet. Good luck on your repairs.

Yes, DaShiv, they use SD cards.
posted by rushmc at 11:47 AM on November 4, 2004

I've tried three different cards, bought at different times, so I don't think that's the issue. Although, if I ever get out of this cube and go home tonight, perhaps I'll try it on internal memory to see if that changes anything.
posted by ba at 3:15 PM on November 4, 2004

ba: can't give you a direct link to the javascript-heavy dpreview.com forums, sorry. Just go to the site, Select Forums->Casio talk and then search for "z3 dead". There are several postings about this, mostly by people that got their Z3 replaced or repaired by Casio eventually. I guess my luck run out 6 months late...

That said, I did love the Z3 while it was still working: I travel a lot and a tiny, good point-and-shoot has a wonderful toy. The Z3 was exceptionally quick and easy to use, with the drawback of taking very washed-out flash pictures... that, and the fact that it's dead now...
posted by costas at 3:52 AM on November 5, 2004