It was a sunny Saturday afternoon in Dublin and our young heroine was getting ready, some small pretty things gathered around her on the wooden floor of the terrace, the macro rings put into place, camera on its tripod, when suddenly... death struck this peaceful scene. Gasp!
For a few friendly seconds, the LiveView function showed the blue glass plate and some decorative innards of an apple. And then our heroine tried to take a picture, and then it was All F**cked Up. Suddenly, the Live View now longer viewed (much less live), the shutter button kept things shut, and the "off" button refused to off anything at all.
Many desparate rescue attempts later, the only noticeable change is that the Live View now shows grey instead of blue (the inside of those curtain-like shutter thingies?). It is not related to: The battery, the lens, the memory card, the firmware, user settings, or anything like the camera falling or being subject to any outside violence.
So testing it out, it still does everything. Except take pictures because, it appears, the mirror no longer moves and the shutter no longer... un-shuts? Nothing seems to be stuck there, though. Did some kind of motor die? Suddenly I think I haven't heard the dust buster sound in a long time. Was this a slow, silent dying process and I didn't notice?
This feels remarkably tragic. The camera is only three years old and has taken 15684 pictures. Certainly not enough to die?
Olympus customer care suggests I take out the battery for three days. (Three days? What mysterious energy-storing devices are in there?) The hidden menu shows me a damage code (8805) but Olympus does not reveal the meaning of them to outsiders. (Why?!) Google does not lead me anywhere, except to learning that if your camera is still under warranty, Olympus replaces it. Sigh.This does not help me at all.
I'm considering a move to Nikon. I might not even respect a reasonable mourning period for my deceased little camera. The only thing left to decide: D3100 or D5100? Is a swivelling display worth 400 additional pounds? Decisions, decisions.
Or maybe I just return to my sketchbook. And use the old camera as a very fancy picture-viewing devide for CF cards.
1 comment:
Sorry you can't resurrect your camera! 15000 actuations is pretty low. :(
However, I can say that in my experience, Nikon is great! I vote for purchasing the cheaper body and invest the money saved in a good piece of glass (i.e. not the crappy kit lens) and/or a hot shoe flash. Just my two cents.
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