Digital Camera's

[Bernd]

Digital camera’s are not meant to be taken apart and fixed.         Don't ask..............Ah I'll tell ya anyway.

I've got a Kodak Easyshare M883 that I commandeered from the wife when she got her digital 35mm Cannon. I use it in the shop for the pictures I post on the internet and for my web site. Well the camera seems to be acting up. The auto focus doesn't seem to be working right in the close up mode, 0-28" focal distance. It keeps giving me a warning it's not focused. So on go the magnifying glasses and I start checking the front to see if there's any dirt.  Didn't find any, but..................but there are three little holes near the lens that look like they might be used for the focusing light or ultra sound ranging for the focus. So I looked the camera over and find many tiny screws hold it together. Yup, you guessed it. Out they came. I figure if I could get to the front of the camera that I could clean the range finder, if there was something there, and see if it would make a difference. After about taking off two layers of "stuff" I noticed that the wires could not be easliy removed. They were all soldered on.  With several layers still to go I figured no sense. They made these so you can't fix them. Ok........time to put it all back together. Now I had about a dozen or so screws laying in front of me. Different lengths and two different size threads. One thread for plastic, you know the ones with the course thread, and the other, a machine type thread. Almost together and I notice I've got more screws left than holes to put them in.   So to shorten this story up I did get all the screws back in where they belong and the camera is working, but not correctly in the mode I'd like to use the camera in.

I'm not looking for advice on what camera to buy. I just thought this would be good little story to relate to people who like to repair things at home. Sometimes you just need to look for the next best thing and that would be a new 35mm camera in the future.  The future being anywhere from tomorrow to a year or so from now.  Also depends on how mad I get at the camera, it might just meet the wall traveling at a high rate of speed. There "focus now, you somebeach".  

Bernd

[mklotz]

Are you using the "macro" setting when doing closeups?

[picclock]

@ Bernd

I'm surprised you didn't take pictures of the disassembly so you would know where the bits went   

I remember doing a similar thing to a kodak instamatic many years ago, which just ended up as a pile of non functional bits.

I've now got a panasonic LX10 which has std macro and zoom macro which seems to work OK for closeups.

If you just want pictures of smallish parts you can get quite good depth of field and resolution using a flatbed scanner.

>>>a new 35mm camera in the future

I think the digital ones are here to stay.

Good luck with your future purchase

picclock



 

 

[Bernd]

Are you using the "macro" setting when doing closeups?

It could be Marv. The dam thing has a several picturers on the viewing screen. If you want to do close ups you use the pic that looks like a flower. It will take pictures 28" or less from the lens. I did discover a switch on the side that let's you select "a picture of a camera", "screen" or "movie". I've always had it in "screen". I then tried the "pic of camera" setting and it worked fine after that. I need to see if I can find the instructions and see what the differernt settings mean. Pictograms are hard to decipher.

Now I have no excuse to propel it against the wall and get a 35mm camera. 

Bernd

[Bernd]

@ Bernd

I'm surprised you didn't take pictures of the disassembly so you would know where the bits went   

I guess I could have used the wifes 35mm digital for that, but what's the fun in that.

If you just want pictures of smallish parts you can get quite good depth of field and resolution using a flatbed scanner.

That's what I used to do before I got my first digital camera. Unfortunaley I would have burner the scanner up showing how I silver soldered the parts together.

>>>a new 35mm camera in the future

I think the digital ones are here to stay.

I forgot to add the "digital" to that statement. I have a nice Konica 35mm with a lot of lens. Haven't touched that in years. As a matter of fact I used the film camera before I had thought about using the scanner. I get the pictures developed and then scan them in. Then I had one of those "Ah-ha" moments, use the scanner dummy. The other thing is some of the pictures are of rather large items. Hard to put on the scanner, like when I moved my 2000lb (907.18 K) Bridgeport into the basement. 

Good luck with your future purchase

picclock
 

Thanks. Now that I think I have the camera working it'll be a while before that happens. (see my message to Marv)

[kwackers]

Anyone who doesn't have spare screws after putting something together again isn't trying hard enough or is too anal to stand any chance of fixing it in the first place!

OTOH, some of us actually breed screws as evidenced by always having a spare screw no matter how many times we dismantle the same object...

(I tend not to get too worried as long as they don't look 'big' and load bearing.)

[krv3000]

HI no but i melted my didgital camera wile tacing sum pics to post i noked the camera off the bench and strate in to a contaner contaning thiners by the time i notist this the camera was well melted      had to by a new one