I BROKE my camera!!!!! What to do?!??!

“It was like something out of a nightmare and I'm still sick about it.

This area school elected a homecoming queen who has cerebral palsy. Very inspirational, right? I was covering the homecoming parade when, as I got names of some kids, I dropped my $500+ Canon G5 top-of-the-line non-35 MM camera to the street, where it hit with lens out, of course.

I am anal about making sure the neck strap is wrapped around my wrist, so that if something like this should ever happen, hopefully I'm far enough away from the hard ground that it will just drop, catch and not hit (the theory in rock climbing with ropes, ya know). For some reason, I had the camera case yet. **IT** was the strap wrapped around my wrist.

I picked the camera up. It didn't work. aaaaaack! I got a message saying "lens" and also, at times, a message saying "Error 25," I believe.

So I headed to Rochester to do some quick legwork on what to do. At Ritz Camera, a woman who uses G5s and G6s in classes looked up the repair price in her book. $45 to just look at it -- and Ritz sends it to Canon, which she said I could do directly to save time.

First she said repairs started at like $165 or something for the Canon Sureshots. Then, upon further perusal, she said this camera probably qualified as the "Pro Series" (which I would guess, too), where repairs start around $350 -- with an asterisk item pointing out that impact damages could well run more.

She told me a new G6 runs $500 or $599 or something. (I was literally in shock from all this, just like if a person had a physical injury! I shoulda written down these numbers!) It uses compact flash, like my current camera.

She encouraged calling Canon, which I haven't yet done.

So then I went to Best Buy. I haven't shopped for cameras in over two years and had no clue what recent innovations are -- like these teeny tiny 5 MP cameras that are maybe $300 or less. And I saw **NO** cameras using compact flash for the "film."

Due to the arrangement I had with my boss on this camera, I don't know how much I or he will pick up. This is the second camera I've broken in three years. When I got the G5 he paid $100 toward it, I paid the rest and it was both work and play camera for me. (The first camera was the newspaper's, but went everywhere with me and I was on a hike, slipped and fell and it hit a log and broke when it broke. That was a Nikon 3 MP) I haven't even told the boss yet. He's been very much against buying cameras lately to just have as spares in our various offices although, yes ironically, we do need cameras for our job, doh!

Anyway...

1. Should I send it out for the $45 to see what's wrong, which would apply toward repairs, if done? Anyone have any experience on repair charges? Or places to go other than Canon?

2. What's a good 5 MP camera in the $200 range? Any type of card is fine. I realize optical zoom is good to have, however probably 95 percent of the time when I'm reporting I get in the person's face to get a shot (not afraid to do that as a reporter), so I could get by with minimal optical zoom, I'd think. I saw some Olympus 5 MP at $150!!

3. How about in the $400 to $500? I don't need anything above 5 MP.

4. Keep in mind that if I'm using it, I do landscapes and would like to be able to print at the very least a good 8x10 shot. (I've never gone beyond that size yet, although my Canon i9100 could do up to 13 x20 or some such thing)

5. One more thing, I have always felt the G5 is a heavy camera to take along backpacking....

I'm strapped for cash if I'm getting it. Wow, I just don't know what to do. So thanks for help!
last edited: 10/08/05 12:21:48 PM”

“

"I BROKE my camera!!!!! What to do?!??!"

What do you want to do?

Do it!
last edited: 10/08/05 12:28:48 PM”

“Stop taking pictures for your boss for a while until he comes up with the cash. He has a few less piccies to fill holes for a while he'll soon realize there's some value in the investment.”

“Yes, I know all that... (and keep in mind that for 3 years I took the newspaper camera that was NOT mine in any way, shape or form on all my trips. I had asked to set up the last agreement cuz it got me a good camera, plus some help in purchasing it -- all AFTER I had broken the newspaper camera that I should not have had on the hike in the first place)

I need recommendations as to repair or what might be a good replacement.”

“Well I guess the G6 would be the logical replacement, since you've had such great results with the G5. And Digi camera move so fast these days that spending a lot to repair a two-year-old camera doesn't seem worth it to me.
One of the Olympus wide-zooms 7070 or 8080 would also be a good bet to me. Read something the other day about a war snapper using a bunch of these instead of an SLR.
Other than that you could look for a second-hand G5.
Some of the Fujis have also got great reviews.”

“here's a G6 for 475
http://www.digitalcamera-hq.com/canon-powershot-g6-reviews.html

I liked the one Nigal got BTW.
You could even look at getting a second-hand digital rebel for these prices, there seem to be great deals on that out there at the moment.”

“liz, I really wouldnt' pay that...
way too expensive.
look you can find this camera on ebay for $200 and free shipping[if no one places a bit]
http://cgi.ebay.com/Canon-PowerShot-G5-Pro-5-0-Megapixel_W0QQitemZ7552137139QQcategoryZ48539QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

if you wanna repair...
I do know that there is a company on the web that repairs cameras way cheaper then others...but I can't remember the url. maybe someone else does.
last edited: 10/08/05 12:57:54 PM”

“Say I wanted something other than a G5, which is great, but HEAVY. I was just looking at Canons on a website to compare... what about some of these. I'd be especially interested in ones taking compact flash, as I see a few of these lighter weight models do:

http://pcworld.pricegrabber.com/search_compare.php/?topcat_id=11&page_id=48&Compare=COMPARE&page_id=48&masterids%5B%5D=3894471&masterids%5B%5D=4422716&masterids%5B%5D=2301610&masterids%5B%5D=2300826&masterids%5B%5D=4422717&cds_name=&cds_city=&cds_state=&cds_zip=&cds_address_1=&cds_address_2=&cds_email=

What about the S60 or A95?
last edited: 10/08/05 1:41:28 PM”

“If you are going to go cheap I highly suggest the A-series of Powershots, like the A520 can be had from Dell.com for $169 (though it's a 4mp instead of the 5). The A95, and A80 are both great cameras. In fact, when it first came out the A80 was commonly refered to as the Baby G4. Unless you are heavy into photography and know what you are doing most people won't see any performance increase of the G5 over one of the higher end A series. The Rechargable battery, Hotshoe, and a faster lens especially at telephoto is what you will lose.”

“My wife has a G6 & LOVES it. THink I paid 4-500 for it.”

“Ask G-force to follow you around and take pictures. He has taken a great shot of you.

Go down to the library, check out Consumer's Reports, and buy a top rated lightweight camera for less money.”

“I broke mine too! They want me to preapprovbe $150 to fix it.. and I paid $400 for it.

UGH!”

“Lizs. We have the same camera and I had to send it to Canon a few months ago, as the memory cards were not going in all the way. The pins were bent. Why? I have no idea. The card is always inserted with care and it only fits one way. Anyhow, they tried to charge me 195 dollars, saying it was my fault. I argued with him and he gave me a one time "courtesy" of warranty work. He had said that I voided the warranty. I did get it covered. But, just watch them...”

“http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/sonydsch1/

http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/canons2is/

http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/panasonicfz5/

$400-$500 range with 5mp and tons of zoom

i have the sony and it is an awesome camera.”

“Get a TT cabanna boy to carry you camera gear...then go all out! :)”

“DANG!
Sorry about your camera, lizs.”

“Liz,
One thing to remember buying cheaper digital cameras usally means slower start up and shutter lag that you don't get in the higher end cameras. For a 5 MP camera you may want to check out the Kodak Z740, $350 at Best Buy, its light has a 10X zoom and responds pretty well. It also has a small internal memory so if you forget you media card you can still shoot a few shots. I just picked one up for work it takes nice shots.”

“I understand that there are some higher quality Nikon Coolpix cameras that do a pretty good job (from what I've heard from other photographers online--I have a NIkon D100 myself.)

Try going to www.wetcanvas.com and the photography section-- there are a lot of people there who use digital cameras-- they might be able to give you some advice... :-)”

“lizs - I apologize for my previously post on this string. Sorry about your problem.”