Poor Little G6

Just thought I'd share this...

During my vacation last week, my G6 got it's lens stuck. I pulled it out of the camera bag to take a pic, turned it on, and the lens jammed about halfway extended. I turned it off and on again, but to no avail. You can see that the internal lens is just slightly crooked and that's what is causing the trouble. I am sending it in to Canon for repair today.

Now to answer the questions:

1. NO, I did not drop it
2. NO, I did not bang it against anything
3. NO, I did not try to mess with the lens

4. YES, I always have the adapter with a UV lens attached so the moving parts are always protected
5. YES, it was always in a Lowepro camera bag when not in my hands
6. NO, I never left it at the hotel, etc. - it was always with me
7. NO, It was not in my checked baggage - it was always with me
8. NO, I am not furious with Canon - these things happen

9. YES, my life was in shatters the moment I realized I no longer had a camera for the last 4 days of my trip

10. NO, I did not kill myself - I killed my pocketbook instead... I bought the XT to finish out the trip (I was going to buy it the first of the year anyway)

By the way, because this type of problem is often caused by dropping the camera - which I didn't do - I have taken photos of the G6 at every angle. If I am told Canon won't uphold the warranty because of misuse, they are going to have to prove the misuse. There are no dings, scratches, dents, etc. on my camera as of today when I ship it. Of course, I have every belief that Canon will take care of this simply and quickly and I will have my working G6 back in no time.

Sorry to hear of your misfortune. What type of adapter did you have on it? Keep us posted about the repairs.

Regards,

Tim
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I had the Canon adapter on it. I will keep you updated on the progress.

The irony is, no matter how much you try to baby an electronics product, as long as you are mildly careful with how you use it it's more likely to break due to some small defective part.

Only kidding...

Seriously though, how did the XT work out for you on the rest of the trip?

Sorry about that! My friend had a "weird" electric shortage when her G6 (lens?) touched a floor lamp - she heard a "ZAP" then the camera started only taking blurry shots - I think it shorted the flash. Luckily, a few hrs later, it was fine....Hope yours turns out okay as well.
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Kimnicho
Panasonic FZ-20, Sony V3, Sunpak 383
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Oops, I forgot a question!

The XT worked great. The first day I spent just playing with it trying to identify ideal settings, etc. Most of those pics came out pretty poorly, but by the end of the day, I had the settings fairly worked out. It handled excellent in the lowlight situations and the speed was amazing. I got the 18-55 kit lens and moving in a hair from the outside lengths seems to help with quality a lot. I also picked up the 75-300 lens. For me, anything over 200mm needs a tripod or extra support (but I have bad balance), and again I move in from the outside lengths just a hair. For now, both lenses are working fine. Once I have recouped the cost, I will buy some faster lenses.

I always figure "What are you going to do?" The G6 has served me very well and I have definitely gotten my money's worth, if Canon can fix it under warranty then so much the better, if not, then I've got my XT.

I just got the estimate this afternoon (right at the Canon Service Center's closing time for the weekend - convenient).

They are charging me $175 for the repair charge plus $8 shipping. The reason for the repair charge is:

"The repair charge indicated represents a standardized cost, enabling Canon to provide repair estimates free of charge."

Not quite sure on that. I have to call Monday and find out if I'm being charged because I somehow voided the warranty, I'm outside the warranty time frame on the repair type, or to pay for the "free" repair estimates they're providing to everyone...

My bigger question is do I spend the $183 for the repair and keep the G6 as a spare as planned or spend the $8 to return the broken camera and let someone "play" with it and try to unjam the lens?

Toedtoes,

I think it is just a matter of formality. When I took my S2 to Canon for repair the lady suggested that Canon would call me back to provide the quotation. I then said, 'hey! hold on, isn't that on warranty and why are you charging me'. The lady explained just this. When I got my camera back yesterday, it mentioned optical unit replaced and the charge is 'warranty'.

For stuck lens, it is mostly due to camera fault itself. Canon should well know about their famous lens stuck symptom.

Hope this help.

Daniel.

Toedtoes said:

I just got the estimate this afternoon (right at the Canon Service
Center's closing time for the weekend - convenient).

They are charging me $175 for the repair charge plus $8 shipping.
The reason for the repair charge is:

"The repair charge indicated represents a standardized cost,
enabling Canon to provide repair estimates free of charge."

Not quite sure on that. I have to call Monday and find out if I'm
being charged because I somehow voided the warranty, I'm outside
the warranty time frame on the repair type, or to pay for the
"free" repair estimates they're providing to everyone...

My bigger question is do I spend the $183 for the repair and keep
the G6 as a spare as planned or spend the $8 to return the broken
camera and let someone "play" with it and try to unjam the lens?

Click to expand...

I sure do hope so - thanks for the positive thinking.

The email is an actual estimate quote that requires my approval and credit card information in order for them to do the actual repair. Did you have to provide that BEFORE they did the work?

I contacted the service department today. I will start out to say that I was polite, calm and controlled during the entire conversation.

Me: why I was being charged for repairs when it was under warranty.

CSD: because it was a bent lens, and that is usually caused by dropping or banging the camera, that damage is not covered under the warranty.

Me: I know that lens damage is often caused by dropping or banging, but I didn't do either. My camera is either in my hand or in a Lowepro camera bag. That's why I made sure I explained that I had not dropped or banged it when I requested the repair.

CSD: We're not saying you did do that, but that is why we don't cover it.

Me: If you look at the camera, you can see that there is no trauma, dents, bangs, etc. to the camera. I even took photos of it to show that there is no damage.

CSD: Let me go look at the camera. Hold please.

(several minutes later)

CSD: There are a couple scratches on the casing, but nothing that looks like it was dropped or banged. We will offer you a ONE TIME COURTESY REPAIR on this. But, if there is any additional problems with the lens, we WILL NOT cover it under warranty. You should have it back in approximately 7 days.

Me: Thank you very much. I really didn't drop it. Please repair it.

This is all from memory, so the words aren't exact. However, I will say that #1) staying calm and #2) taking photos of the camera before shipping and making sure they know I did, made all the difference in the world.

So, in the end, my G6 is getting repaired under warranty and I have my new XT and life is good!

Glad that worked out for you and I think your advise is useful in dealing with service. Thanks for sharing that.

You handled that situation like a Pro! Glad they are doing the right thing...
--
Kimnicho
Lumix FZ-20, FZ1v2, Sony V3
Photoshop CS2

http://kimnicho.smugmug.com/
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I had the same problem with my S2 IS seems this not only a G6 problem now I show you how my camera did photo before the canon camera service fix



and this is after



what do you think about?

Mario

I Think you dropped the poor little G6 on purpose so you could get the XT and oh what a prime time to do it, while on a trip!!, But anyway enjoy the XT, glad for you that canon is understanding!
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G for 'GREAT' 6

Yeah, I heard that several times as I spent the money. "You broke it on purpose". If I had, I would have broken it about 1 month before my trip so I'd have time to practice with the XT before I left - I have a lot of lousy shots because I was figuring out the best settings, focusing, etc. on the new camera.

I am really happy they worked with me on this. I want to keep my G6 for macro shots especially.

Thanks! I am very glad they worked with me.

Thanks. I hope my experience might help someone else deal with repair service.

Toedtoes said:

CSD: There are a couple scratches on the casing, but nothing that
looks like it was dropped or banged. We will offer you a ONE TIME
COURTESY REPAIR on this. But, if there is any additional problems
with the lens, we WILL NOT cover it under warranty. You should
have it back in approximately 7 days.

Me: Thank you very much. I really didn't drop it. Please repair it.

Click to expand...

I had a similar experience (not mechanically related, but with several stuck pixels, 20 in the center of the picture), with Nikon customer service.

I have a Coolpix 885 that I bought new, and had taken very good care of it, same as you, either in my hand, or in a protective bag. After about 6 months, I noticed that I started having some bright green pixels stuck in the center of the pictures I was taking. I contacted Nikon, and they had me send it in. I figured, they would replace the sensor, but turns out, they just adjusted it. Well, it seemed to work fine for a while, but about 8-10 months later (as a warranty would have it--2-4 months out of warranty), the same problem occurred during the middle of our honeymoon, and was present in about 150 pictures (not visible on the LCD display, only when you get home and have them on the computer). I contacted Nikon, and told them the same thing had happened again, and they would not tell me if they would cover the repair under warranty (even though the warranty was expired), unless I sent it in for repair. I said I don't want to send it in, unless they can tell me they will cover it. Well, they wouldn't, so I figured I'd give it a shot. I got the same thing, an estimate for a repair, for $200+ (almost half the price of the camera). I told them it was because of their previous work on the camera, blah, blah, blah. After about 10 e-mails back and forth, they finally said the same words you were told, I told them in an e-mail afterward, that I wouldn't ever buy another camera from them again...looks like Nikon isn't the only one to do such things though.

Not only that, but I get the work order with the camera, and they once again, just adjusted the sensor. They wanted over $200 to adjust a sensor? I think it's a scam. They figure they'll get some people to bite, and others will just buy a new camera (hopefully from them). I think a camera should last at least 3-4 years, before having these kinds of problems, but for a camera that only took about 2000 pictures, I'd say that's pretty bad.

I hope I have better luck with my SD550 when it gets here.