My camera is malfunctioning. how can i fix it?

Question

in june i bought a fujifilm finepix j10 camera. until two days ago, it was working just fine. i've never encountered problems with this camera.

i've dropped it once though but there was no external damage & there weren't any signs of malfunction. today, i turned the camera on and the lens comes out and the LCD screen shows the "fujifilm" logo then goes black. at this point, i presume it has automatically turned itself off but the lens has not retreated back into the original position (it's still sticking out in shoot mode). i've checked the batteries and they're charged.

should i take this down to a repair shop? if so, how much would it cost?

Answer 1

Hello there.  Sorry to hear about your camera.  If you dropped the camera... no one is going to take it back.  The warranty has been voided, as it does not cover malfunction due to dropping,  falling in water,  leaving in a hot car.  It only covers the camera not working due to manufacturer defects.   You can try sending it back to Fugi... but if the internal damage indicates a fall they will just send it back and charge you for the return shipping.   I would take it to a repair shop and ask the technician for an evaluation of the damage and an estimate of the repair charges.    His fee for that may be $15.00 or it might be free...  but if he tells you that it is a manufacturers defect... he will advise you to send it back for warranty repairs.    

PS.  Don't tell the tech you dropped the camera... let him determine if that is what is wrong with it.  

Hope that helps.  Thanks for reading.

Answer 2

Take it into a shop that sells cameras and get them to give you an estimate. Usually the cost of repairing a point and shoot is higher than replacing the entire camera.

Ebay may sell odds & ends to fix it. But, I would take it into a shop like radio shack and show it to them! Get a professinals point of view first before you do anything=]

Answer 3

If you bought it in June (I assume this year), and it is now July - perhaps less than 30 days passed. You may still be able to take it to the place where you bought it and have it replaced with identical model. This does depend on store returns/exchanges policy though. Some allow it up to 90 days, others for just 7 days. So you may or may not be able to do that. This is of course, if you kept the original box and all the packing materials (I always keep the packaging for everything I buy for at least 30 days just for that reason)

If not, call fujifilm customer support. It is still under a warranty. But do keep in mind, that if the repair shop (either one you bring it to by their direction, or the fuji factory shop if you have to mail it to them) determines that the malfunction is a result of you dropping it - they may refuse to repair the camera under warranty and/or may even charge you for the estimate. So check their terms first, before you give camera to them.

LEM.