Digital camera problem

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Tom

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This was my trip for stuff to quit working. After a couple of days of snapping photos at Moab using my small Minolta digital camera, I figured I'd better look at what I'd taken. That's when I noticed that 60-70% of my photos were virtually plain white. Playing with the zoom a little, I could get the condition to occur, become less, or even disappear. I'm left thinking that somehow light is getting past the lens except in some positions.

I switched to my old Sony that writes to a pocket CD, although I received a few funny comments from folks because of the large size of this camera. But it still works, albeit at lower resolution and has a 10X optical zoom in addition to image stabilization.

When I looked at Minolta's web site I found a message saying "Konica-Minolta exited the camera business in March, 2006. Go talk to Sony for customer support". Since I'm out of warranty, I'm not holding my breath for any help there.

Before I give up on this camera, does anyone have any idea what might be wrong &/or an economical way of fixing it? The little camera has been a real workhorse since I bought it 2 years ago. It's so convenient hung on my belt - it's always there when that Kodak moment arrives and has taken many hundreds, if not thousands of photos.

TIA.
 
Tom said:
Before I give up on this camera, does anyone have any idea what might be wrong &/or an economical way of fixing it?

A couple thoughts come to mind, Tom.

o A light leak: I had an older Minolta once that I had to tie a rubber band around to keep the light out. Am thinking of the case vs. the zoom lens.

o An inadvertent setting: For example, can you set the camera to Manual vs. Auto mode? If it is set to manual by mistake -- and the aperture is wide open -- or shutter speed really slow, the corresponding actual lighting may be overpowering. Another setting that could affect amount of light is the ISO.

Am down to those two -- either a leak or inadvertent setting. If it's a light leak, you may want to just consider a new camera. On one hand, the value of yours has gone down drastically so the cost of having it fixed would be much greater than the cost of a new one. OTOH, a much better camera can be had now for the same price you paid for this one. Most of your stuff that I have seen is done in close to ideal lighting situations -- and when that is the case, a point and shoot in most cases can do as good a job as a much more expensive unit.
 
A light leak is my bet too Bob, since the camera is permanently on auto. (I use it like a point and shoot). Another option might have been the imager but, since I can get the condition to change with lens position, it's more likely to be associated with the lens than the imager.

I've actually purchased a "replacement" camera, partly because I needed one this week and partly to evaluate some features either missing from or different in the old camera. The store where I bought it has a liberal return policy so, if I could get the old camera working reliably (e.g. by using a rubber band approach), I'd return the new one. That would also allow me to buy a less portable one with a higher zoom (e.g. the one that Jerry has), or a digital SLR.
 

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