An anonymous reader writes "In the past week, fourmajorcameramakershave quietly published service advisories admitting their digital cameras aredying. In each case, the flaw appears to involve Sony CCD sensors using epoxypackaging that eventually lets in moisture. Sony's own cameras are among thoseaffected, and the company also has dozens of affected camcorder models. Sony isbelieved to be pickingup the tab for the repairs for the other camera makers as well, regardlessof warranty status. (If true, a laudable approach.) Given the large numbers ofcameras that are potentially involved, this can't be good news for Sony, who apparentlyalready is expectinglosses, and who has also recently announced majorlayoffs." Digital Camera Failures Log in/Create an Account | Top | 53 comments | Search Discussion Display Options Threshold: -1: 53 comments 0: 47 comments 1: 35 comments 2: 23 comments 3: 1 comments 4: 0 comments 5: 0 comments Flat Nested No Comments Threaded Oldest First Newest First Highest Scores First Oldest First (Ignore Threads) Newest First (Ignore Threads) The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way. They're complex. (Score:1) by CyricZ (887944) on Tuesday October 11, @12:10AM (#13762037) Digital cameras are very complex. Of course they'll run into problems now and then. At least they're usually not used for mission-critical applications. [ Reply to ThisRe:They're complex. by HotNeedleOfInquiry (Score:2)Tuesday October 11, @12:13AMRe:They're complex. by bigman2003 (Score:2)Tuesday October 11, @12:30AMRe:They're complex. by JeffSh (Score:2)Tuesday October 11, @01:00AMOlympus Rocks! by Colonel Blimp (Score:1)Tuesday October 11, @12:44AM Dammit!! (Score:2, Insightful) by gbulmash (688770) * <semi_famous@@@yahoo...com> on Tuesday October 11, @12:12AM (#13762055) (http://www.funnybutsick.com/ | Last Journal: Sunday May 22, @04:48AM) It may be a "laudable approach" for Sony to pick up the tabs for the camera makers, but what about the consumers? I have one of the Canon models mentioned. I'd like to get it fixed/certified NOW so I don't unexpectedly find it exhibiting these defective behaviors when I'm trying to tape something important like my son's first steps or his first Christmas.The Canon announcement is only for Asia and it only offers to fix the camera if and when it starts showing symptoms of the problems. As far as I'm concerned, that's bogus. They should offer a general recall and repair/replacement of all models affected so people don't lose the once-in-a-lifetime events they bought these cameras to capture.- Greg [ Reply to ThisRe:Dammit!! by DoorFrame (Score:2)Tuesday October 11, @12:15AMRe:Dammit!! by Milkyman (Score:1)Tuesday October 11, @12:19AMRe:Dammit!! by Ark42 (Score:2)Tuesday October 11, @12:20AMRe:Dammit!! by Max Threshold (Score:2)Tuesday October 11, @12:35AMRe:Dammit!! by LoverOfJoy (Score:1)Tuesday October 11, @12:55AM1 reply beneath your current threshold. HA! (Score:3, Funny) by VaticDart (889055) on Tuesday October 11, @12:13AM (#13762059) My 10D's might CMOS sensor will dance on the scattered bones of your useless moisture-letting-in-CCDs! [ Reply to ThisRe:HA! by Ubergrendle (Score:2)Tuesday October 11, @12:38AM1 reply beneath your current threshold. kudos to Sony (Score:2) by yagu (721525) * <yayagu@gmail.com> on Tuesday October 11, @12:14AM (#13762064) (Last Journal: Sunday October 09, @10:33PM) For all the Sony-bashing I've done, I have to salute Sony for stepping up to this one, no matter their motivation, though it looks mostly to be customer service and satisfaction. There are probably many of these defectives far out of warranty. Good for Sony! [ Reply to ThisRe:kudos to Sony by gl4ss (Score:2)Tuesday October 11, @12:18AMRe:kudos to Sony by TekPolitik (Score:2)Tuesday October 11, @12:50AM 1 companies problem, not 4 (Score:2, Interesting) by UniverseIsADoughnut (170909) on Tuesday October 11, @12:18AM (#13762087) I think the way this is titled is kinda funny. Canon, Fuji, KM, are victims of 1 company having a failure. Its one failure, not failures at 4 companies. Then again trusting sony is a form of a failure.Now to just keep hoping the sony CCD in my KM 7D doesn't have issue. Which would be real bad since it would be bad to have a leak in something that gets cleaned with liquid from time to time.Amusingly I got in a debate not long ago in a camera forum about Sony Quality, I think I have officially won that debate now. [ Reply to This I'm really happy now... (Score:2) by dieman (4814) on Tuesday October 11, @12:19AM (#13762095) (http://www.ringworld.org/) ... that I bought a Nikon Coolpix 5700 rather than a sony or a minolta! Yay!My DV cam is on the list though, grmbl. Hopefully they fix it if/when it breaks. Haven't used it in like, oh, six months, so no idea if its working or not, either. [ Reply to ThisRe:I'm really happy now... by kilonad (Score:2)Tuesday October 11, @12:34AM Education Hit (Score:2, Informative) by Kinky Bass Junk (880011) on Tuesday October 11, @12:23AM (#13762109) (http://www.freemm.org/) My school was badly hit by this - our Film and Video department was largely made of Sony digital cameras, and they all died over time. We have since switched to Panasonic, and they have never had to be replaced. [ Reply to This1 reply beneath your current threshold. Figures (Score:1) by Kickboy12 (913888) on Tuesday October 11, @12:28AM (#13762140) (http://cacrew.com/) Sony usually makes pretty reliable hardware, too. Although I guess they have been falling back lately. Panasonic seems to be stealing most of their thunder, especially in the TV market. [ Reply to This Sony DCS-F828 not affected - kinda puzzling (Score:2) by xmas2003 (739875) * <xmas2003b@@@komar...org> on Tuesday October 11, @12:32AM (#13762165) (http://www.komar.org/) I was pleasently surprised to see that while the DCF-F717 is affected, the DCS-F828 is NOT ... which I own. While the advisory states "October 2002 through March 2004" I've owned this camera for almost 2 years now ... so it doesn't sound like this is affecting any recent vintage digicams (?) [ Reply to This Nintendo Fanboy Inside Us All (Score:1) by bleaknik (780571) <bleaknik@nospaM.hotmail.com> on Tuesday October 11, @12:38AM (#13762208) (http://bleakinc.com/ | Last Journal: Thursday June 23, @10:00PM) Ok. So... Sony posts losses for one quarter, and they lay off a bunch of people... It's now my responsibility as a Nintendo Fanboy to jump up and down and praise this as the death of my archnemesis right?Ehh. Who am I kidding. Apathy is too much damned work. [ Reply to This Good timing! (Score:1) by eSchmitty (670312) on Tuesday October 11, @12:40AM (#13762218) My Canon Powershot A70 just started to exhibit this problem 3 days ago!I have found out that Canon USA and Canon Canada will both fix the camera, regardless of the warranty status.This is the 2nd time that I've had to send my camera back for service. The first time was soon after I bought the camera because of a different CCD problem. Despite all of these problems, I still really like the camera and think it was a good purchase. I probably wouldn't think this if they didn't fix this problem for free. [ Reply to This It has to be said... (Score:2) by jd (1658) on Tuesday October 11, @12:42AM (#13762231) (http://slashdot.org/ | Last Journal: Saturday July 30, @01:33AM) In the past week, four major camera makers have quietly published service advisories admitting their digital cameras are dying.Has Netcraft confirmed this? [ Reply to This1 reply beneath your current threshold. Thank you Amazon (Score:2) by ehiris (214677) on Tuesday October 11, @12:47AM (#13762260) (http://dan.hiris.com/ | Last Journal: Saturday April 09, @10:38AM) When I just recently bought my camera from Amazon, I read reviews on a few of the Canon cameras which were explicitly mentioning that some of the models were very sensitive to high temperature and after failures you couldn't get them fixed because the warranty specifies that it won't cover any damage due to Arizona-like temperatures and high temperature fluctuations. I followed the reviewer's advise and finally decided on the SD400 which doesn't have that problem. It's a good thing that they are now admitting to be at fault. They probably noticed the sales on those models taking a big dip and this is the only way to eliminate the cameras which are stuck in inventory. [ Reply to This Consumer Reports: Repair History of 186,900 users (Score:1) by NXIL (860839) on Tuesday October 11, @12:49AM (#13762265) CR says that Sony, Panasonic, Canon, and Olympus have the *fewest* problems.Pentax (sounds like a tampon brand), Konica/Minolta, and Toshiba are the least reliable, with Vivitar being the absolute least reliable.In absolute numbers, about 2.5% of Sony digicams needed repairs, about 10% of Vivitar cameras did.From the survery: "Based on 186,900 reader responses to our 2005 Annual Questionnaire about digital cameras bought new between 2002 and 2005. Data have been standardized to eliminate differences linked to age and usage. Differences of less than 4 points aren't meaningful."For autos, CR's surveys have been dead on, at least for me....every car I have had has aged and been as reliable as they predicted it would be, even down to individual systems (cooling, electrical, etc....) But, yes, for all you statisticians out there, I know that is completely anecdotal, as "n" is very small in my case....I keep my cars a long time.... [ Reply to This Just my Luck.. (Score:1) by ShaolinTiger (798138) on Tuesday October 11, @12:50AM (#13762269) (http://www.shaolintiger.com/) I'm in Malaysia and I own a Canon Powershot A70...And I had the CCD problem, it started about 6 months ago...first the backgrounds went slightly pink on bright shots, then it went a little fuzzy, then it went totally mangled and I couldn't see anything at all.So I paid to get it fixed, it wasn't cheap...now they are saying they will pick the tab?I wonder if I can get a refund... [ Reply to This That's why I love film (Score:2) by Anonymous Monkey (795756) on Tuesday October 11, @12:58AM (#13762315) (Last Journal: Saturday October 01, @08:08PM) WARNING: Pro Film RantMy 35mm SLR has never given me a problem. For any one looking to give up digital and buy a real camera I recomend a Pentax zx50, I love mine. It's going on 8 years old; I've dropped it, banged it, sat on it, left it on for days at a time, and it still works. The thing I like most about film is that it doesn't have a delay. I hate geting a picture set up, snapping the 'shutter' and then waiting, only to find out that the camera took the picture a second too late. I know, I'm trolling, and I'm off topic. But FILM BEATS DIGITAL ANY DAY! HAHAHAHAHHHAHAHAHA [ Reply to This Start making noise then. (Score:1) by robbak (775424) on Tuesday October 11, @12:30AM (#13762153) (http://www.robbak.com/) You may well get somewhere. Remember, a paper waranty is only an attempt to limit your common law rights - and rarely is it a successful one.(This does depend on how ancient you camera is, of course.) [ Reply to This | Parent Re:Grammar (Score:2, Funny) by Stevyn (691306) on Tuesday October 11, @12:34AM (#13762173) No, it's "affected"Effect is a noun, affect is a verb. How do you put a noun in the past tense? [ Reply to This | ParentRe:Grammar by Jeff DeMaagd (Score:2)Tuesday October 11, @12:36AMRe:Grammar by Max Threshold (Score:2)Tuesday October 11, @12:39AMRe:Grammar by DCstewieG (Score:1)Tuesday October 11, @12:57AM1 reply beneath your current threshold. Re:Grammar (Score:1) by DCstewieG (824956) on Tuesday October 11, @12:54AM (#13762292) (http://www.dcstewieg.net/) Slashdot article description ... FREEGrammar nazi correcting something that isn't wrong with something that is ... FREEHaving that post moderated +1 Informative ... PRICELESS [ Reply to This | Parent9 replies beneath your current threshold.