S95 Lens Error - who else had this issue?

My S95 is little more than 13 months old, already exceeded one-year Canon default warranty. I used often but didn’t take many shots each time. Guess only around 1000 or less shots totally. I have taken care of it very carefully, in a belt bag with some protection everytime when I went out, never dropped, never bumped. This came to my surprise that it suddenly displaying Lens Error last night when I tried to use it. I heard sizzling but lens never come out after many tries. I just called Canon and ask to ship in to VA service center. I hope Canon can honor this issue as fault of early batch as it seems a common issue when I searched in internet. How many your guys who own S95 had this issue?
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http://qianp2k.zenfolio.com/

No other S95 owners had this issue in this forum? It seems that I am a unlucky guy LOL. I will not buy another camera in early batch. I will wait one year before buying forthcoming 5D3 after it released My early batch 60D also suffered the issue of rubber peeling off around shutter area. So far unlike 5D1's mirror off issue that Canon officially recognized both these two issues are not officially stated by Canon but they deal with case by case.

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My first s95 had this issue and was broken. I was able to exchange it at the store I bought it (within the first 30 days).

My second would sometimes extend the lens when it was in my pocket, but for some reason on the second model it just need to be turned off an on again to get it working again.

Many people have had this issue.

e.g.

http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/readflat.asp?forum=1010&message=39120500&q=s95+lens+error&qf=m

http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/readflat.asp?forum=1010&message=39104427&q=s95+lens+error&qf=m

http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/readflat.asp?forum=1010&message=38903192&q=s95+lens+error&qf=m

My S95 developed this issue in May - about 8 months after I purchased it. I am now about 5 months in with the replacement lens assembly and hoping that it lasts longer than the first.

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"We can judge the heart of a man by his treatment of animals." ~ Immanual Kant

Wow, my worst nightmare comes to true. This is my first major failure of any Canon products while I didn't think rubber peeling off from 60D is a big deal that was still in one-year warranty. Now I am worrying about have to pay the repair fee while I paid in full to buy in first batch back in September last year. I think this issue will popup sooner provided I used S95 more but I have 3 Canon DSLRs in addition to S95 while I don't use any camera very often anyway.

http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/readflat.asp?forum=1019&message=38339298

Anyway I learned a lesson that I will not buy a camera right after release anymore. Wait and see at least 6 months.

B1ackhat said:

Many people have had this issue.

e.g.

http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/readflat.asp?forum=1010&message=39120500&q=s95+lens+error&qf=m

http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/readflat.asp?forum=1010&message=39104427&q=s95+lens+error&qf=m

http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/readflat.asp?forum=1010&message=38903192&q=s95+lens+error&qf=m

My S95 developed this issue in May - about 8 months after I purchased it. I am now about 5 months in with the replacement lens assembly and hoping that it lasts longer than the first.

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"We can judge the heart of a man by his treatment of animals." ~ Immanual Kant

Click to expand...

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http://qianp2k.zenfolio.com/

This has been a problem with Canon since they first came out with the small cameras. Look at the 1 ratings of any Canon on Amazon and you'll find lots and lots of people who suffered from this failure mode.

Yes. This is a well-known problem. It was the stopper for me when I was thinking of S95. If I buy my next camera, I want its lifetime to be much longer than 12 months since I do not update my gears too often. Hopefully this is fixed in S100 now, but it will take some time to find it out...

Not fixed in the S100. There was already at least one customer who received a brand new S100 with this error.

v2005t said:

Yes. This is a well-known problem. It was the stopper for me when I was thinking of S95. If I buy my next camera, I want its lifetime to be much longer than 12 months since I do not update my gears too often. Hopefully this is fixed in S100 now, but it will take some time to find it out...

Click to expand...

Daniel Lauring said:

Not fixed in the S100. There was already at least one customer who received a brand new S100 with this error.

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:-(

Thank you for the information.

I'm always cautious to avoid being swayed by what could statistically be an insignificant number of failures relative to the number of cameras sold. The internet always draws people with product issues to search and post their experiences. It could be widespread or it could be less than a 1% failure rate. I think it's usually the latter and when it isn't, it will be obvious based on the sheer number and spread of reports.

Yes, you have to be cautious jumping to conclusions. Having said that, I have had two lens error failures in the 8 or so Canon cameras I have owned. I have had zero lens error failures from any other brand. Pretty much every Elph style camera, on Amazon's website has some 1 ratings from people who have had this failure. While we don't know the exact statistics we do know that your likelihood of having this failure is much, much higher with Canon than with other brands. It is one thing, when it happens to a $150 dollar camera. It is another when it happens to a $400 camera.

Michael919 said:

I'm always cautious to avoid being swayed by what could statistically be an insignificant number of failures relative to the number of cameras sold. The internet always draws people with product issues to search and post their experiences. It could be widespread or it could be less than a 1% failure rate. I think it's usually the latter and when it isn't, it will be obvious based on the sheer number and spread of reports.

Click to expand...

Daniel Lauring said:

While we don't know the exact statistics we do know that your likelihood of having this failure is much, much higher with Canon than with other brands.

Click to expand...

^ This. I've owned 2 Canon P&S digital cams, 1 Nikon, 2 Panasonics, and 1 Sony. The 2 Canons were the only ones to ever require any type of repair. If you peruse the other forums (e.g. Panasonic, Nikon), you will also very rarely see any posts of this sort regarding premature failures. So, no, we don't know the exact statistics, but we know that the problem is more common with Canon than other brands.
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"We can judge the heart of a man by his treatment of animals." ~ Immanual Kant

My S90 just had this error come up. Dead as a doornail. Arrgh.

Thanks all feedback.

Just updated you the status of my S95 journey to Canon for repairing. I shipped to Canon service center in Virginia in the past weekend. I attached a copy of original invoice that unfortunately shown purchased on Sep 13th 2010 that already exceeds the default one-year factory warranty. I also attached a detail letter to indicate this is not my fault as I don’t use very much and asking a free repair. To my surprise, they charged me $149 for repairing, $10 for shipping back and $10.10 for tax, with total $169.10 (while I paid in full price $399 in last Sep to get the camera). This is outrage! I called the service center and complained to a manager to indicate this is not my fault at all and obviously they can see not caused by a drop or bump. I said I don’t use that much as I also owned 3 Canon DSLRs, and 8 Canon lenses, 2 flashes, one Pro printer and I am CPS member, blah,blah, blah. Guess what, it works, and now they removed all charges, so appears a happy ending I actually wished they will tell me that “instead of repairing we will swap S100 to you since you’re valuable customer”, haha, dreaming big

My lesson learned is that I will never buy a new product from Canon in early batch anymore on the incidents of 60D (rubber peel off at shutter area) and now this one.

qianp2k said:

My S95 is little more than 13 months old, already exceeded one-year Canon default warranty. I used often but didn’t take many shots each time. Guess only around 1000 or less shots totally. I have taken care of it very carefully, in a belt bag with some protection everytime when I went out, never dropped, never bumped. This came to my surprise that it suddenly displaying Lens Error last night when I tried to use it. I heard sizzling but lens never come out after many tries. I just called Canon and ask to ship in to VA service center. I hope Canon can honor this issue as fault of early batch as it seems a common issue when I searched in internet. How many your guys who own S95 had this issue?
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http://qianp2k.zenfolio.com/

Click to expand...

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http://qianp2k.zenfolio.com/

I just bought an S100 and now wonder if this problem has not been fixed between the S95 and S100. Any other reports of lens errors on the S100?

What do readers think? My serial number is low: the last six digits are 000803, so I am guessing that it is an early build. Should I take it back and wait to see if there are any big problems reported by early users? I don't need a camera for another few months. I bought it on impulse when I saw it in the store and had access to a 10% coupon. I'm within Best Buy's 14 day return window.

CameraCarl said:

I just bought an S100 and now wonder if this problem has not been fixed between the S95 and S100. Any other reports of lens errors on the S100?

What do readers think? My serial number is low: the last six digits are 000803, so I am guessing that it is an early build. Should I take it back and wait to see if there are any big problems reported by early users? I don't need a camera for another few months. I bought it on impulse when I saw it in the store and had access to a 10% coupon. I'm within Best Buy's 14 day return window.

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I doubt it has been fixed. Canon has had at least 5-6 years to correct this problem and it continues to be a issue with their cameras. There have been articles on tech sites, 2 class action suits, a wiki page, and even a website dedicated to the problem. Still, not everyone experiences the problem obviously and even though it is widespread, I still think the majority of users have no issues.

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"We can judge the heart of a man by his treatment of animals." ~ Immanual Kant

CameraCarl said:

What do readers think?

Click to expand...

Personally, and I keep meaning to try them side by side to be sure, I think that s95 was particularly susceptible to the lens error because it was easy to accidentally hit the power button while putting the camera away. The location of the power button put it right under your index finger, and it wasn't difficult to brush against it and turn the camera on. With the s100 I feel like they improved this, you have to more deliberately push the power button to turn on the camera than you did with the s95.

It's entirely possible there are other issues as well - for example my first s95 had a lens error with the lens partially extended, and that broke it, while with my second s95 (replacement) the lens would self-extend sometimes but it didn't break the camera, turning the camera on and off would clear up the problem. I don't know if waiting on the s100 would help with that or not.

Anyone heard the cases of the problem came back after repairing? I hope Canon aware the issue and does some steps to prevent this issue from re-occurring as they did the fix in 5D mirror-falloff issue. My 5D which is late batch (as purchased on early 08) never had the issue and not every 5D had that issue. Still I sent 5D into Canon service center to receive the fix. From what I heard Canon adds a strength bar and I never heard this issue re-occurring among 5D users after the fix. Anyway provided I used S95 more often the issue likely will occur within first 12 months so I don't have to fight for the mercy of free repairing

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http://qianp2k.zenfolio.com/

Miss Canon's delivery just one day before heading to a 7-day vacation without this lovely S95 on my belt Anyway just received the camera after returned from vacation. Canon said it replaced the optical assembly. Now it works as used-to-be but with an updated firmware (not sure what version) - a fancy new Play mode. Hope it will last to its life time without this issue re-occurring.

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http://qianp2k.zenfolio.com/

qianp2k said:

Miss Canon's delivery just one day before heading to a 7-day vacation without this lovely S95 on my belt Anyway just received the camera after returned from vacation. Canon said it replaced the optical assembly. Now it works as used-to-be but with an updated firmware (not sure what version) - a fancy new Play mode. Hope it will last to its life time without this issue re-occurring.

Click to expand...

Really? What do you mean by a fancy new play mode?

I ask because the Canon site says there is not firmware upgrade...