Saturday, November 29, 2008

The desert killed another camera

My Canon is now official deceased. Dead. Gone to meet its maker. Jammed with grit and unable to focus or properly retract and extend its lenses. Maybe I can take it apart and clean it out and get it working again, but I doubt it, I suspect the gears are all stripped and it's a four year old digital camera (i.e. obsolete) so no spare parts are available.

Sigh. Time to get another camera. Hopefully one more ruggedized than this one. Too bad the ruggedized cameras all suck. But WTF, what else can I do?

-- Badtux the Cameraless Penguin

4 comments:

  1. When I take my Nikon to any place with sand, I put the entire camera in a sealed plastic bag with only the lens peeking out of a small hole.

    I got that advice from a grand old camera man and it's kept many a camera in working condition.

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  2. Cameras need special care in the desert.

    I take mine to the desert every time I go, and the worst I've had happen is to run out of batteries. It isn't a particularly rugged camera, either. But I am very careful to make sure it's secure at all times; it's either in my hand, while I'm actively photographing something, or it's in a (cheap, after-market) zippered case. The case either hangs around my neck or is attached to my belt. It took some doing(!), but I've trained myself to make sure I never set any of these things down in the field: my Brunton, my rock hammer, and my camera.

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  3. That's what ticks me off about this, I treated this camera fine and it *still* crapped out on me. It was either around my neck or in its case or sitting on the seat of my Jeep ready to grab.

    I might try Dusty's plastic bag trick next, problem is that these new-fangled electronic cameras have tons of teensy little buttons that are hard to use when obscured by plastic. Sigh...

    ReplyDelete
  4. I agree BadTux, its a pain to mess with all the buttons when your camera is inside a plastic bag. My D40 has a zillion settings.

    But if that's the cost to keep it in working order...gotta do what ya gotta do right?

    ReplyDelete

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