Dead Canon PowerShot A75

Yeah, electronics can croak like that. It might have been ESD when you are out skiing. Lots of synthetic fabrics and no humidity, you can build up big static charges.

There are outfits that will fix these cameras for $50 or so.

Jon

Get it fixed for free under the recall:

That's only for 1 particular CCD fault.

I've had it on an A85 and got it fixed for free. Here's what the photos look like - as you see it still works. The OP's doesn't. You may even be be able to make out the road, grass verge and a lamp post.

True. However, it has many symptoms, including a black screen. It is possible that failure to turn on might not be covered under the recall, but it doesn't hurt to ask.

So, what are you suggesting? That he tear apart the camera and try to fix it himself? That might be useful if he had some experience in camera repair. I'm suggesting that he try to get it repaired under the recall. If that fails, then do the Learn By Destroying(tm) exercise.

Actually... it's made the round trip for the CCD fault and if I remember correctly some here might have told me about it.

The only reason I'm trying to save it is that it's got an optical viewfinder which is nearly impossible to find in a true pocket sized camera nowadays.

That was probably me.

(worth viewing)

And, why is that so great? You don't know what the imager is actually seeing, especially if it has optical zoom. With close-ups you get a lot of parallax.

Jon

Muchos Gracias.

In direct sunlight the LCD turns into a black mirror.

Geez.. here's a silly happy ending. Pretty much gave the camera up for dead, then as a last resort I cleaned the battery door contacts with alcohol and a toothbrush.

I don't know about you, but this has never worked for anything I've tried to fix... until this time. Pressed the on button and bing, back to life.

Nicely done.

Many digital cameras have an external DC power connector. I have a univeral camera power supply. Something like this:

Whenever I suspect a power related problem, I try the external power supply. The last one turned out to be a piece of paper that had fallen into the battery cave, and had blocked the battery connector.

The external power supply is also handy for using a digital camera, with the all too common broken LCD, as a security camera or webcam.

This is more-common than you might think. Contacts can get shmuztik, from junk in the air, or outgassing from the battery. This is particularly true for products using button cells.

A85 you see the 3x optical zoom in viewfinder, it's fine for most shots. OK there will be parallax in macro mode. There is a stop in zoom, then it will go to digital zoom for 11x. Dunno about A75.

You wanna try it under water.

Couldn't see screen to zoom and the optical was impossible with a snorkel mask on.

I've not fixed an a75m but on many there are contacts from the battery terminals soldered to the board that break. Resolder and you're done. This happens on the rectangular shaped Elphs alot.