camera: bad news
 

so this past weekend we went to autocross again in Indiana (brutal one this time, rain then toooo hot, hit wayyy too many cones, so did everyone else, it seemed impossible to get good time and get a clean run, very frustrating).

BUT...i had my camera in the storage compartment behind the seats, and sat there for a while in the sun, and soemthing must have melted or fryed from the sun, i remember grabing it to get a in-car-video and mount it on the suction cup mount, and it was soooo hot that it was impossible to hold it, tried turning it on but it never came on.
at first i tought it was the battery that died, although the night before i had it recharged, but no luck when i came home and tried recharging again.

i am very sad tho, as i loved that camera, it was not an expencive one or aything, but i loved all the features and was learning a lot from the 400pg. manual for it, a lot of functions and i always had it with me, even though its a huge camera by todays standards and slim camera designs, butthe pictures were very good.

i tried to fix it, but no luck.
i dont want to throw it away tho :( anyone have any suggestions as to what to do with it so that i dont forget it? (make something out of it hehe).

but...now its time to look for a better one, as exciting as that sounds, its also sad.

i dont even know how i got so attached to it, as i went trough couple before that one, but i just love taking pics with it(o really now :rolleyes: ) and this one was very good and fit nicely, but i dont think i want to get the same one again, as there are wayy better ones out there for the price.

its funny im talking about the camera like this, but yeah...

btw, this is the one im talking about.
http://www.dpchallenge.com/images_ca...ershot-s50.jpg

did you call Cannon? Maybe they'll take a look at it.

i actually did, but it would cost me more to get it shipped there, shipped back, look at it, and get it fixed than i would like to spend.
im going today to look at new ones and 'try' and decide what id like to get.

Did you try buying a completely new battery? Not just recharging the old one? I've had this happen before and it just needed a new battery because the old one was fried.

no i havent. it charges up fine, and light goes green indicating that the battery is good, so im kind of going based on that.

Have you tried a new battery today? Heat will fry batteries very quickly. I can snap lots of pics over a two week period in the wintertime in MN on one set of batteries, but can burn through a single set in just one day here in the FL summer.

A few suggestions for cameras, Leica and Panasonic have partnered to build these cameras :
Leica D-LUX 3

Panasonic Lumix DCM-FX30S
The panasonic is very similar to the leica with the exception of the obvious (7.2MP vs. 10 MP) but both have the same Leica optics inside.

We have the Leica here at the office and it is an incredible camera, compact too. I'll be buying one or the other here in the not to distant future.

This might be a nice way to memorialize it:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VnGXIHnkbdU

yueah i tried today as well...

but for me in the winter time i can only get a few pics where in the summer i can get a LOT. weird.
like sometimes i would leave it in the car over night during winter, in morning battery is dead.
i left it for a few days in the passinger footwell and it was fine this past few warm days here...weird that we get different results

if it makes you feel any better, almost the same happened to me the weekend before last: I am always using my Olympus C770 on a Brey-Krause camera mount to shoot in car videos.
When I packed up after the Auto-X, I noticed that the battery was empty.
The reason is that two of the four mode switches no longer work (shutdown and play).
So I can still select "still picture" and "movie" but then have to wait for the camera to auto shut off (which I now set to 1 minute, however auto-shut off does not retract the - very long - lens).
And of course this happens a week after I bough a new 2 GB XD card ....

For the photography you like to do, you might need to steer away from the small pocket size cameras.

I recently got a 7.1MPix Canon SD1000. Great little camera, awesome features, and it fits in my pocket easily.... however, there is a bit of barrel distortion, and images are a little fuzzy when compared to my other digital camera - a Kodak DX7590. For a 5MPix 'SLR-like' format, it takes AMAZING pictures! (not so much in dark settings, but most cameras suffer in those conditions)

I'd look at something like the DX7590, or whatever the latest iteration of it is... Mine's about a year and a half old, and it was a model that had been around for a while. It's got a buttload of features, and can do some pretty neat stuff, including fully manual settings. The lenses are the deal maker, tho. I think they are Schneider and Kruznach (sp?), and they are GOOD lenses.

The only real disappointment I have is that it shoots video in .mov format. I'd rather it shoot in .avi like the Canon I got.

Djomlas, very sorry to hear about your camera. You have been my mentor for taking pictures since I found this forum. When I see some new photo you post it gets me motivated to go out and try to take some really good pics. I hope you get a new camera soon.

Hi,

DJ - That sucks! Like others, I think the issue is with the Battery. NiCad Batteries don't do well in temp extremes. Even though you say the charger indicates a Green Light, I have seen failed batteries in both my Nikon D70 and Nikon D200 fail and have the charger show Green. This is because the Charger interprets the Battery drawing no current as being Fully Charged.

My suggestion would be to go to a Batteries Plus or some such. Explain the situation to them and ask if you can try a new Battery with the intention of buying it if it fixes the problem. I bet they'd work with you.

If that doesn't work, consider moving on to a digital SLR. I have always used Nikon Film Cameras - FM, FE2, F3 Highpoint and since it's operating functions have always worked the reverse of their biggest rival, Canon (and still do), I chose to stay with Nikon, though I believe in several ways, the Canon Digitals may be superior.

One doesn't necessarily need a sophisticated camera, rather, people usually want more individual control, or better, more specific optics as their skillset develops which a simple Point & Shoot Camera cannot give them. Some of your work is quite good, and it may be worth the investment for you.

I am not recommending any particular SLR, because I don't believe there is truly a Best one. The differences between the Brands and Models is usually a series of trade-offs - pick up an advantage here, lose one there, etc.

If you do go SLR, don't let Resolution (megapixels) alone determine your choice. Differences in Metering, Optics (both in quality and availability), Programs, Media Storage, Focusing, etc. can often be more important than resolution alone.

But, I hope you aren't forced to make a change and that the Battery swap does the Trick. Good Luck!...

Happy Motoring!... Jim'99

thx guys, i really appreciate it.
i usually shoot my pics with a tripod on manual modes so i really liked the camera, although it is a point and shoot, i really didnt use it that way hehe, well sometimes yeah i did.

just goes to show you that you can ger great pictures with a simple camera if you learn to use it, and use the lighting to your advantage, some angles, a nice backdrop, and just have fun.

usually you want to hav the camera set to highest resolution, and what i do is shoot pretty much million pictures, then load them up and choose which ones i like and edit them a little. although i always intend to delete the ones i dont use, i always end up just leaving them on the comp, and wow is this thing slow now, but i dont want to delete them ehehe :(

anyways..i went to frys today to look at some potential candidates so we shall see. btw, got a very nice little gadget of a sort, a suction cup mount, although a small one, that thing holds like crazy. i stuck it to the screen of my GFs TV and was able to pick up a TV with it HAHAHA, hey had to try it.

and Jim,
thx for the info man.
i will definitely go tomorrow and talk to a few places about the battery.
its strange, when i got this camera i was just gonna use it for a little while and upgrade, but was relllly amazed by the quality of pictures it takes, so i just kept on using it and using it.
and as for DSLR, id like to get one, but just dont have the funds available to spend on a camera, well at least not that much , but sometimes in the near future. i want to trat myself for graduating college in NOvember with something, so that mught just be it. :D

went to a camera store today, and they had some canons as well, and the guy was nice so he took a battery out of another camera that obviously turned on, we put it in mine, and nothing....
seems that its soemting else...
looks like i will b getting somethign new