Went to turn on the IXUS 700 this evening to take a picture of Cam running around building towers in the kitchen and there was that horrible grinding noise from the plastic gears in the lens, three or four high pitched beeps and the dreaded message on the screen “E18”.
Bugger.
That’d be the error that seems to plague the IXUS cameras. The error that Canon refuses to acknowledge. The error the Australian staff “had never heard of.” The error that my thankfully got while under warranty and was replaced. The error that almost seems to inspire thoughts of products “not of merchantable quality” and “defective design.”
First photo with the new IXUS 700
A bit of hunting around shows that the first one lasted from to — just on six months — then expired. The replacement took over two months to turn up, but I’ve been using it from up until last weekend — somewhere just over 4000 photos, it claims to be upto 4318, but has done some odd jumps when I’ve moved the memory card from a video camera back to the IXUS700.
I guess I’ve had a reasonable run out of the camera, but I see no reason why I should have to spend big money because the bloody thing broke due to a fault that Canon built into them.
Tomorrow I find out how much they want to repair an almost perfectly good camera that for four years has done almost everything I want. Sure, I’d prefer better macros and a better zoom, but anything else and I’d be giving up the convenience factor and the pocketability of the IXUS.
Refs:
Updates:
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: Canon now have fixed price repairs, dependent on initial estimate and camera model. I was prepared to go up to 50% of the price of a new IXUS200IS, which sells for around $450-$500. Quote is $207.90 so off the camera goes into the repair system.
Receipt #CPBB61052, expect to hear from them in 10 days…
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: Only three calendar weeks and I’ve got my camera back — a big improvement on my previous experience of Canon service. Newly repaired and hopefully good for another four years’ use!
