Skip to main content

The old bang-the-hell-out-of-it solution

Last year we bought a Canon PowerShot SD780IS Digital Elph camera (say that five times fast). It has been a great camera and together with our iPhones has taken most of the photography that appears on our blog.

So we were extremely saddened when the camera refused to open its sleepy eye one morning when John was trying to upload new pics to our computer. We of course didn't have our original receipt (who keeps all their receipts?!), so we weren't optimistic that our warranty would be valid.

Well, tonight Erin put in some serious web research and found a solution. After reading through hundreds of posts on various Canon/digital-camera help sites she found one solution kept popping up again and again: Just bang it on a hard surface and the lens will dislodge and deploy properly. We weren't the only ones to doubt the wisdom of this violent solution:


Another option was to send it in to Canon where they would likely deem the cause of the problem "improper or harsh usage" and charge $200 for the fix. A new camera is only $180!
Nope.

Fortunately there was an alternative to the banging it solution: shake it vigorously while turning it on. Well, Erin gave it a shot and it worked! Our comatose camera miraculously woke up and took a picture of a surprised John and a hysterically laughing Erin.

Just in time for Owen's first day of kindergarten and Mar's first day of preschool tomorrow! More soon.




Comments

Anonymous said…
I'll keep this in mind if we ever have a similar problem with our Canon.

Love the surprise/laughing photos! :)
Bonzer said…
OMG. I'm pretty sure a little pee came out.
TheOtherMother said…
Dear People in Charge of Where I Get a Job,

I hope that this blog post helps you understand why I pray for a job in Los Angeles.

Love,
Lindsay
Unknown said…
That may be my favorite pic of Erin...and that is saying a lot! I thought this post would be a photo of the kids beating the heck out of a toy...but apparently it's the parents beating the heck out of their toy.

Popular posts from this blog

back-talk begins

me: "owen, come here. it's time to get a new diaper" him, sprinting down the hall with no pants on: "forget about it!" he's quoting benny the rabbit, a short-lived sesame street character who happens to be in his favorite "count with me" video. i'm turning my head, trying not to let him see me laugh, because his use and tone with the phrase are so spot-on.

The Long Con

Hiding in Plain Sight ESPN has a series of sports documentaries called 30 For 30. One of my favorites is called Broke  which is about how professional athletes often make tens of millions of dollars in their careers yet retire with nothing. One of the major "leaks" turns out to be con artists, who lure athletes into elaborate real estate schemes or business ventures. This naturally raises the question: In a tightly-knit social structure that is a sports team, how can con artists operate so effectively and extensively? The answer is quite simple: very few people taken in by con artists ever tell anyone what happened. Thus, con artists can operate out in the open with little fear of consequences because they are shielded by the collective silence of their victims. I can empathize with this. I've lost money in two different con schemes. One was when I was in college, and I received a phone call that I had won an all-expenses-paid trip to the Bahamas. All I needed to d

Reader Feedback: Whither Kanake in (white) Astronomy?

Watching the way that the debate about the TMT has come into our field has angered and saddened me so much. Outward blatant racism and then deflecting and defending. I don't want to post this because I am a chicken and fairly vulnerable given my status as a postdoc (Editor's note: How sad is it that our young astronomers feel afraid to speak out on this issue? This should make clear the power dynamics at play in this debate) .  But I thought the number crunching I did might be useful for those on the fence. I wanted to see how badly astronomy itself is failing Native Hawaiians. I'm not trying to get into all of the racist infrastructure that has created an underclass on Hawaii, but if we are going to argue about "well it wasn't astronomers who did it," we should be able to back that assertion with numbers. Having tried to do so, well I think the argument has no standing. At all.  Based on my research, it looks like there are about 1400 jobs in Hawaii r