Canon A420 camera

[Adrian Tuddenham]

Geoffrey S. Mendelson <gsm@mendelson.com> wrote:

Adrian Tuddenham wrote:
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 !

This may be of interest to you:

http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1238?viewlocale=en_US

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

Thanks, I have installed it on my machine and will send a copy to the
friend who was having trouble with the card reader. I suspect the
problem will still be that her card reader needs its own software in the
computer.

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

 

[Adrian Tuddenham]

Phil Allison <phil_a@tpg.com.au> wrote:

"Adrian Tuddenham"

** The camera has no memory battery.

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


** Then the camera was made prior to 2006.

Musta been old stock when you bought it.

It was - but the price was right.


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

 

[Adrian Tuddenham]

Phil Allison <phil_a@tpg.com.au> wrote:

"Adrian Tuddenham"


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

That seems to be the most likely cause. I have found a firm that will
repair it (with a guarantee) for Ł72, so that is my least-bad option.

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

 

[Meat Plow]

On Tue, 04 Jan 2011 10:41:53 +1100, Phil Allison wrote:

"Adrian Tuddenham"


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

Only if it had a shutter.




--
Live Fast, Die Young and Leave a Pretty Corpse

 

[Phil Allison]

"Meathead Blowhard"

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

Only if it had a shutter.

** Fuck off - IMBECILE !!!!!!!!!!

 

[Phil Allison]

"Adrian Tuddenham"

Phil Allison


** The camera has no memory battery.

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


** Then the camera was made prior to 2006.

Musta been old stock when you bought it.

It was - but the price was right.

** So it is NOT a 3 year old camera at all but may be up to 13 years old.

Just that YOU have owned it for 3 years.



..... Phil

 

[Phil Allison]

"Adrian Tuddenham"

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

That seems to be the most likely cause. I have found a firm that will
repair it (with a guarantee) for Ł72, so that is my least-bad option.

** Seeing as cold temp caused the problem - try warming the camera ( to
say 40C with warm air ) and operating the shutter over and over and tapping
on the lens assembly.

Cost you nothing and you got nothing to lose.


...... Phil

 

[Geo]

On Tue, 4 Jan 2011 15:28:03 +0000, adrian@poppyrecords.invalid.invalid (Adrian
Tuddenham) wrote:

Phil Allison <phil_a@tpg.com.au> wrote:

"Adrian Tuddenham"


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

That seems to be the most likely cause. I have found a firm that will
repair it (with a guarantee) for ÂŁ72, so that is my least-bad option.

Have you looked at the price and spec of a Canon replacement?
e.g:-
<http://www.canon.co.uk/For_Home/Product_Finder/Cameras/Digital_Camera/PowerShot/PowerShot_A495/>

--
Geo

 

[Adrian Tuddenham]

Geo <hw9j-s5hw@dea.spamcon.org> wrote:

On Tue, 4 Jan 2011 15:28:03 +0000, adrian@poppyrecords.invalid.invalid
(Adrian Tuddenham) wrote:

Phil Allison <phil_a@tpg.com.au> wrote:

"Adrian Tuddenham"


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

That seems to be the most likely cause. I have found a firm that will
repair it (with a guarantee) for ÂŁ72, so that is my least-bad option.

Have you looked at the price and spec of a Canon replacement? e.g:-
http://www.canon.co.uk/For_Home/Product_Finder/Cameras/Digital_Camera/Pow
erShot/PowerShot_A495/

That does look pretty good as long as I can get the pictures out of it.

It says it will take SD cards, so my external reader might work with it.
(I seem to remember some memory card size limitation on either the
reader or the camera, can't remember which.)



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

 

[Meat Plow]

On Wed, 05 Jan 2011 13:56:46 +1100, Phil Allison wrote:

"Meathead Blowhard"

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

Only if it had a shutter.


** Fuck off - IMBECILE !!!!!!!!!!

Is that OOOPSIE! in Phil-Speak?



--
Live Fast, Die Young and Leave a Pretty Corpse

 

[Phil Allison]

"Geo"

Have you looked at the price and spec of a Canon replacement?
e.g:-
http://www.canon.co.uk/For_Home/Product_Finder/Cameras/Digital_Camera/PowerShot/PowerShot_A495/

** The A495 is no replacement for the A420 - since it completely lacks an
optical viewfinder.

The A420 has one with inbuilt zoom that actually tracks the main lens -
without an optical viewfinder, such cameras become near useless in daylight
because the LCD screen is washed out.

I have owned an A430 ( near identical to the A420 ) for the last 4 years.




.... Phil

 

[Jeroni Paul]

On 2 ene, 19:34, adr...@poppyrecords.invalid.invalid (Adrian
Tuddenham) wrote:

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.

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.

Given all your described sympthoms I would say it is the CCD sensor
starting to fail. It is showing some dark rows across the pictures,
typical of problems with these sensors. These dark rows make the
camera think the picture is darker than it is and increases exposure
to compensate. When you see the picture on its LCD live it is not
analyzing all the rows but a small fraction and these failing rows
have no impact at all, so it appears to work properly. But when you
take the photo it processes all the information.

I think the sensor will have to be replaced (if worth) but meanwhile
you can lower the exposure manually as you did as a workaround.
Consider also that overexposed photos may be corrected to some degree
with an editing program that can correct brightness/contrast. I get
quite good results with MS Office photo editor, my camera has a
tendency to take pictures too dark mainly under artificial light and I
fix some of them before printing.

Sorry if it sounds like bad news.

 

[Phil Allison]

"Jeroni Paul is a TROLL"



Given all your described sympthoms I would say it is the CCD sensor
starting to fail.


** Shame how it works fine when viewing on the LCD display.


..... Phil

 

[Adrian Tuddenham]

Jeroni Paul <JERONI.PAUL@terra.es> wrote:

On 2 ene, 19:34, adr...@poppyrecords.invalid.invalid (Adrian
Tuddenham) wrote:
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.

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.

Given all your described sympthoms I would say it is the CCD sensor
starting to fail. It is showing some dark rows across the pictures,
typical of problems with these sensors. These dark rows make the
camera think the picture is darker than it is and increases exposure
to compensate. When you see the picture on its LCD live it is not
analyzing all the rows but a small fraction and these failing rows
have no impact at all, so it appears to work properly. But when you
take the photo it processes all the information.

That sounds quite possible - especially as the sensor had been exposed
to very cold conditions for the first time and I now discover that
sensor faults were not unknown in early versions of this model.

I think the sensor will have to be replaced (if worth) but meanwhile
you can lower the exposure manually as you did as a workaround.

I've sent it away for repair and the quote was for a 'replacement lens
unit' (which presumably includes the sensor).

Consider also that overexposed photos may be corrected to some degree
with an editing program that can correct brightness/contrast. I get
quite good results with MS Office photo editor, my camera has a
tendency to take pictures too dark mainly under artificial light and I
fix some of them before printing.

Most pictures were so severely 'crushed' that no recovery was possible -
I did manage to use one but it was a struggle.



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