1. Home
  2. Electronics Repair
  3. Canon A420 camera

Canon A420 camera

I have a three year old Canon A420 which has been working perfectly until last week. Now pictures are coming out grossly over-exposed, although they look satisfactory on the LCD screen right up to the point where the release button is pressed.

Moving from light to dark subjects, the system adjusts the image on the screen to the changes in light level in a normal manner. Holding the release button half way down 'freezes' a satisfactory picture, but then, after pressing it the rest of the way, the stored result is whited-out.

The storage card appears to work normally and an external card reader allows me to store and retrieve other images undamaged.

By deliberately choosing dark subject matter or something which needs flash, I can force the correct exposure. The picture then appears to have a fine horizontal line structure imposed on it.

I have re-set the camera by removing both power and memory batteriea, and fitted new batteries, but it makes no difference.

The camera has not been dropped or exposed to damp, although it was recently subjected to unusually cold conditions whilst taking snow photographs. The rotary function selector switch became very stiff and then eased-up suddenly just when the fault appeared - but I do not see any obvious connection between the two events.

Does the switch have multiple contacts? Any other suggestions?

--
~ Adrian Tuddenham ~
(Remove the ".invalid"s and add ".co.uk" to reply)
www.poppyrecords.co.uk
Reply to
Adrian Tuddenham
Loading thread data ...

Find someone who can repair it for less than a new camera would cost.

--
Live Fast, Die Young and Leave a Pretty Corpse
Reply to
Meat Plow

Is this in all modes - Auto, Program, etc?

Reply to
John Keiser

The warranty on the Canon A420 is 3 years. You might check with Canon if it's still under warranty and can be fixed for free.

--
Jeff Liebermann     jeffl@cruzio.com
150 Felker St #D    http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com
Skype: JeffLiebermann     AE6KS    831-336-2558
Reply to
Jeff Liebermann

Never mind. The original Canon warranty is only 1 year. Some dealers offered 3 year warranties if you buy from them. Sorry for the misinformation.

--
Jeff Liebermann     jeffl@cruzio.com
150 Felker St #D    http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com
Skype: JeffLiebermann     AE6KS    831-336-2558
Reply to
Jeff Liebermann

It seems to be.

Even using it with the manual exposure at its darkest setting gives over-exposure and a coarse 'raster' effect.

I have now noticed that the display has a slight flicker which I don't remember seeing before.

--
~ Adrian Tuddenham ~
(Remove the ".invalid"s and add ".co.uk" to reply)
www.poppyrecords.co.uk
Reply to
Adrian Tuddenham

"Adrian Tuddenham"

** The camera has no memory battery.
** Try resetting the camera to all defaults.

See P28 of the "Advanced Use Guide".

.... Phil

Reply to
Phil Allison

"Adrian Tuddenham"

** The LCD display flickers when pre-viewing a scene lit by fluoro lamps or other light source with mains frequency intensity variations.

.... Phil

Reply to
Phil Allison

Possibly the sudden freeing up of the mode switch is the clue. It may be "detached" and stuck in an inappropriate mode.

Basically with the cost of these device dropping continuously you will find - as we have - that repair is not a cost-effective alternative to replacement. That said, you have littlle to lose by disassembling it (not trivial) and exploring the internals with special attention to the mode switch.

Reply to
who where

It seems to switch between modes normally, so at least one section of the switch is working - but I agree it does seem the first place to look.

I have found two other references on the Web from people who have experienced the same fault - but neither of them appeared to have found a solution.

That's going to be my first plan of action. I notice there is a camera repair shop in London which claims to do economically-priced repairs on this model.

My problem with buying a new camera is that I may not be able to get a suitable card reader which works with my current Mac OS 8.6 system - and I cannot change the OS because all my business software runs on it.

--
~ Adrian Tuddenham ~
(Remove the ".invalid"s and add ".co.uk" to reply)
www.poppyrecords.co.uk
Reply to
Adrian Tuddenham

Can you be more specific? That would place it as a late Power Mac, or an early G3.

This is going to become more and more of a problem, as your 10 year old plus computer starts to fail and parts are no longer available. Besides keeping lots of backups, you should investigate either alternate hardware or spares.

I was given a beige G3 the other day, cleaned it up and gave it to a friend who uses one for his daily writing. His is starting to fail and now he has a "hot spare". The cost was zero to him, and the owner was glad to see it not end up in the recycle bin.

Cost of full refurbishement, which I did not do, would have been a $10 battery, and a new(er) floppy drive. Most just need to be taken apart, cleaned and lubricated, but this one has an electrical problem too, so I would have to get one from another less functional computer.

I do this as a "good deed" and I'm sure you could find someone who would be able to help you in your area.

Note that there is a program called SheepShaver that will run on a modern Mac and let you boot MacOS in a "virtual machine". You can boot your OS 8.6 under it and run your software.

While you are asking around for spares, you may want to ask about that too.

Geoff.

--
Geoffrey S. Mendelson N3OWJ/4X1GM
Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to misquote it.
Reply to
Geoffrey S. Mendelson

The system runs on a collection of beige G3s linked by Appletalk. The main business workhorse is ClarisWorks 4.

I have a shed full of spares and a lot of backup drives.

You can use a stack of much cheaper coin cells if you machine up a brass slug to fill the remaining space in the battery holder. These G3s have ATA drives as well as the original SCSI ones. so replacements are no problem.

I do have an Intel iMac which would take Sheepshaver, but I have been told it still wouldn't allow me too use Pub&Sub, which is what links all my sales software together. No only that, but the iMac won't work on an Appletalk network, in the past I have had to transfer files to it using FTP. It sits in a corner, switched off and effectively useless, while the G3s do most of the work.

--
~ Adrian Tuddenham ~
(Remove the ".invalid"s and add ".co.uk" to reply)
www.poppyrecords.co.uk
Reply to
Adrian Tuddenham

This one does, it is a 1220 coin cell in a little plastic clip at the opposite end from the main battery door.

Tried it - no difference.

--
~ Adrian Tuddenham ~
(Remove the ".invalid"s and add ".co.uk" to reply)
www.poppyrecords.co.uk
Reply to
Adrian Tuddenham

I've taken it apart and discovered that the mode switch is a robust single pole type with nothing to suggest a fault. The click mechanism is outside the main casing underneath the operating knob and I suspect that it became stiff when some dirt got into that part of it.

I have put the camera back together and it operate exactly as before.

Next step is to contact the camera repairers in London, when they come back after the Bank Holiday, and ask for an estimate.

--
~ Adrian Tuddenham ~
(Remove the ".invalid"s and add ".co.uk" to reply)
www.poppyrecords.co.uk
Reply to
Adrian Tuddenham

"Adrian Tuddenham"

** The advice for your problem is that the shutter is stuck open causing over exposure on bright subjects.

.... Phil

Reply to
Phil Allison

Good luck with that (sincerely). You may also be able to locate a pre-loved A420/430 for the same sort of cost.

SD/MMC? Close to standard for very many cameras.

We have a couple of Canons here (A200 and A540), chosen for quick point-n-shoot duty. They were selected because of key features on my shopping list - AA batteries, macro, USB interfacing, etc etc - if you start the hunt for a replacement with a "must-have" feature list you'll surely have some success. (We don't read the card to retrieve pics, we use ZB and the USB posts only).

Reply to
who where

"Adrian Tuddenham"

** Then the camera was made prior to 2006.

Musta been old stock when you bought it.

... Phil

Reply to
Phil Allison

(snip)

posts -> ports

Reply to
who where

I'll let you know how I get on.

That was a problem I had with the A420, the Mac could see the USB port on the camera but the camera wouldn't allow access to the data without its own software running on the Mac OS - and the drivers supplied by Canon didn't work on OS 8.6

I solved the problem with a cheap USB card reader.

A friend has recently bought a card reader to use with her Sony camera on Mac OS 8.6 and discovered theat it won't work because they now put the reader software in the computer, not in the reader and ...guess what... the card software won't run on OS 8.6 !

--
~ Adrian Tuddenham ~
(Remove the ".invalid"s and add ".co.uk" to reply)
www.poppyrecords.co.uk
Reply to
Adrian Tuddenham

This may be of interest to you:

formatting link

It was the last USB update that will run on MacOS 8.6 and it states what will and will not work.

Geoff.

--
Geoffrey S. Mendelson N3OWJ/4X1GM
Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to misquote it.
Reply to
Geoffrey S. Mendelson

ElectronDepot website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.