...or the story of a G12 which came in from the cold.
Searching for Christmas presents I happened upon a second-hand store which had, on a lost shelf, a box with a notice on it: 'Canon G12. Sensor broken, repair will cost around 1000kr (Swedish kronor, ~$130 US), newprice around 6000 kr ($780 US... Swedish prices are often rather inflated...). Price: 45 kr ($5.75 US). Talk about an offer you can't refuse...
Of course I bought the camera - which came in its original box, with all accessories included except the lens ring (previous owner seems to have used the lens barrel extension). Once the battery was charged it powered up, but the display looked... interesting. The pictures it took, even more so.
This is a lamp. It does not really look like this.
My daughter, in heavy rain or fog...
Interestingly, the problems disappeared when I pressed on the back of the camera, next to the dial...
Picture taken with broken G12, while pressing on back of camera (next to dial)
This clearly indicated a bad connection between the sensor and the main board or on the mainboard itself. Once opened up and carefully prodded with a bamboo skewer, the defect seemed to be located in the connector on the flexcable between the sensor and the main board, or the socket on the mainboard.
Left side of flex cable connector
Right side of connector
The camera seems to have fallen, given the presence of a small indentation on the bottom left front. The connector, once mounted in the socket, forces the flex cable down over the ridge next to it, stressing the solder connections. The picture shows how small these connections are - they can not take much stress. As the connector is only held on the cable by the solder connections, it does not take much of an impact to cause problems. This, in my opinion, is clearly a design problem which could be alleviated either by lowering the ridge over which the flex cable has to pass right next to the connector, or by adding a physical restraint (epoxy, screw connections, etc) to hold that connector in place on the flex cable.
Repairing a camera which shows these problems is rather easy if you have access to a hot air repair station or another type of temperature-controlled hot air solder system. Just put a small nozzle on the wand, set it to ca. 340°C and, while holding the connector in place with a pair of tweezers, reflow the solder on both sides of the connector. You do not need to remove the sensor from the camera for this repair, just be careful not to bend the flex cable to much.
If this repair fails, 'new' (?) sensors can be had for as little as 55 kr ($7 US) including shipping on eBay or AliExpress.
If you don't feel comfortable repairing your camera yourself, you might know someone who can do it for you. It should be clear that this is not a big or difficult repair, and it should not be priced as such. It does not take much time to remove those 8 screws, remove the back, lift the connector, reflow the solder, put the connector back and reassemble the camera - maybe 10-15 minutes if you've never done it before. The prices I've seen quoted for a repair like this rival that of the needed hot air repair station so it might even be worth investing in one of those instead.
An offer you can't refuse - $5.75 for a G12
Searching for Christmas presents I happened upon a second-hand store which had, on a lost shelf, a box with a notice on it: 'Canon G12. Sensor broken, repair will cost around 1000kr (Swedish kronor, ~$130 US), newprice around 6000 kr ($780 US... Swedish prices are often rather inflated...). Price: 45 kr ($5.75 US). Talk about an offer you can't refuse...
Of course I bought the camera - which came in its original box, with all accessories included except the lens ring (previous owner seems to have used the lens barrel extension). Once the battery was charged it powered up, but the display looked... interesting. The pictures it took, even more so.
This is a lamp. It does not really look like this.
My daughter, in heavy rain or fog...
Interestingly, the problems disappeared when I pressed on the back of the camera, next to the dial...
Picture taken with broken G12, while pressing on back of camera (next to dial)
This clearly indicated a bad connection between the sensor and the main board or on the mainboard itself. Once opened up and carefully prodded with a bamboo skewer, the defect seemed to be located in the connector on the flexcable between the sensor and the main board, or the socket on the mainboard.
Left side of flex cable connector
Right side of connector
The camera seems to have fallen, given the presence of a small indentation on the bottom left front. The connector, once mounted in the socket, forces the flex cable down over the ridge next to it, stressing the solder connections. The picture shows how small these connections are - they can not take much stress. As the connector is only held on the cable by the solder connections, it does not take much of an impact to cause problems. This, in my opinion, is clearly a design problem which could be alleviated either by lowering the ridge over which the flex cable has to pass right next to the connector, or by adding a physical restraint (epoxy, screw connections, etc) to hold that connector in place on the flex cable.
Repairing a camera which shows these problems is rather easy if you have access to a hot air repair station or another type of temperature-controlled hot air solder system. Just put a small nozzle on the wand, set it to ca. 340°C and, while holding the connector in place with a pair of tweezers, reflow the solder on both sides of the connector. You do not need to remove the sensor from the camera for this repair, just be careful not to bend the flex cable to much.
If this repair fails, 'new' (?) sensors can be had for as little as 55 kr ($7 US) including shipping on eBay or AliExpress.
If you don't feel comfortable repairing your camera yourself, you might know someone who can do it for you. It should be clear that this is not a big or difficult repair, and it should not be priced as such. It does not take much time to remove those 8 screws, remove the back, lift the connector, reflow the solder, put the connector back and reassemble the camera - maybe 10-15 minutes if you've never done it before. The prices I've seen quoted for a repair like this rival that of the needed hot air repair station so it might even be worth investing in one of those instead.
An offer you can't refuse - $5.75 for a G12
