Canon Digital Camera Repairs?

[SeanMoran]

I've had the same Canon Powershot A620 for a few years now, and it's part of my life, especially here in Thailand where there's 100 pictures to take everyday, but the gear mechanism for the focus/lens/zoom shat itself last week, and I just bought new litium batteries too!

I broke the case apart gently with a pen-knife for a micro-phillips screwdriver on Friday to have a look at it, but the lens/zoom/gearbox appears to be a closed unit, so I put it back together and now it won't even take blurry pictures. The gearbox has had it.

The choices I have next week are:

1. Go for a walk through Tesco Lotus and buy the cheapest digital camera I can.

2. Take this camera I know and love somewhere to a repair shop and see if someone can fix it over a few days.

I expect that option #1 should set me back around 3,000 if I'm not fussy, but start this thread to ask if anyone might have been through option #2 somewhere around the Rayong/Ban Chang/Chonburi area, for that might be a better alternative, even if it costs the same, but I don't know where to go nor who to talk to about repairing the old Canon.

Any ideas would be appreciated if you've had this happen and found a solution in the way of repairing a malfunctioning lens/gearbox on a Canon or similar digital camera.

[kandahar]

I'm not in your area. However, my Canon flash mechanism quit a while back. Took it to one of many local Canon dealers in my town. The fellow took it, sent it to BKK (Canon Main Repair Center, he said) and got it back two weeks later, repaired. Works good. They even returned the broken part that needed to be replaced, which is a small circuit card. The fee was around 1,200 baht, Hated to be without the camera for that long but was pleased with the price and the fact that it was repaired correctly without damaging it further. I suggest visiting any shop in your town that displays the Canon sign and see if they can help in the same way.

[SeanMoran]

I'm not in your area. However, my Canon flash mechanism quit a while back. Took it to one of many local Canon dealers in my town. The fellow took it, sent it to BKK (Canon Main Repair Center, he said) and got it back two weeks later, repaired. Works good. They even returned the broken part that needed to be replaced, which is a small circuit card. The fee was around 1,200 baht, Hated to be without the camera for that long but was pleased with the price and the fact that it was repaired correctly without damaging it further. I suggest visiting any shop in your town that displays the Canon sign and see if they can help in the same way.

Thank you. I am very grateful for your advice and will take a look around the local shops tomorrow here in Ban Chang, Rayong, and see if I can find a reputable looking Canon shop. Two weeks is a long time, but I don't like to waste a good camera that has done me well for so long if I can find a good repairer to fix it rather than tossing it for a new cheapie.

Thanks for your advice Kandahar.

[BWPattaya]

When I had a faulty Canon camera I took it to a camera shop who wanted to charge for sending it for repair. No promise that it could be repaired, the charge was for simply sending it to Canon. I decided to take it myself to Canon head office where there is a reception area for service/repairs. They told me if it could be repaired and how much it would cost. They then posted it back to me. Excellent service.

They may also honestly advise if it would be better to replace with a new one, better specifications and lower price, plus a one year warranty.

If there is a queue you can spemd a few moments looking at the Canon museum with some old camera models.

It is on Lower Sathorn Road, get off the skytrain and it is only a minute's walk.

By the way, if there was a recall on your model for any reason (usually the CCD sensor) they probably won't repair it as you opened it yourself. Modern cameras are usually way beyong home repairs.

[astral]

Canon does have a good network of service depots.

However given the age of your camera, I suggest you request an estimate.

Then decide whether to repair or buy a new model.

//Moved to Photography section//

[SeanMoran]

Canon does have a good network of service depots.

However given the age of your camera, I suggest you request an estimate.

Then decide whether to repair or buy a new model.

//Moved to Photography section//

Thanks for the futher advice from both respondents, which I will take heed of after sleeping on the value of my sentimental heart, tomorrow. Also my apologies for posting on a generic forum on technology, rather than the specific forum. It's just that I'm not taking any decent photos for almost a week now, so I didn't wanna rain on the parade.

Thanks for the adjustment, Astral. I was in two minds over it...

[pilou]

Hi

I have a now outdated Canon PowerShot A60, bought in France many years ago. The CCD failed a few months ago, I brought it to Denchai in Chiang Mai, it has cost me 500 bahts for shipment to Bangkok, it was back after a few weeks with a new CCD and new firmware, at no other cost, even it was long out of guarantee and not bought in Thailand.

I was quite impressed by Canon customer care, and my old camera is still working very well to this day.

Phil

[Sel]

Had a similar problem with A50? a few years ago. It was out of warranty by nearly a year or so. Phoned and then went into canon head office bangkok and for something like another 1500 baht they gave me a new A520.

[SeanMoran]

Had a similar problem with A50? a few years ago. It was out of warranty by nearly a year or so. Phoned and then went into canon head office bangkok and for something like another 1500 baht they gave me a new A520.

Thanks for these further reports on Canon. I'll trust in the reputation and drop my beloved little darling A620 in somewhere around here tomorrow. Now I believe that they will take care of her as well as I have tried to or better.

[VerbalKint]

Option 3. save some money and buy a new good camera, might be worth your while when taking that many photographs

[SeanMoran]

Option 3. save some money and buy a new good camera, might be worth your while when taking that many photographs

Time is of the essence.

I have 3,000 baht. allocated for this unfortunate emergency next Friday. What are you offerring?

[katana]

I had a Canon video camera several years back that broke down in BKK. Took it to the Canon service centre there myself, but they said they didn't do my model in Thailand, so couldn't fix it. Anyhow, with a bit of persuasion they agreed to take a look and were able to fix it in a couple of days for 1000 Baht. It's still working today, touch-wood.

[svenivan]

When my favourite camera at that time (Sony DSC-V1) just disappeared one day I found a used one at Ebay, paid like 50US for that one.

The day after it arrived I found the first one in the storageroom!

Now I am happy owner of two of this very good camera!

[SeanMoran]

Thank you for further suggestions.

Just to report back on the situation so far:

Knowing that God, weather, and health permitting, I'm scheduled for a trip to Chanthaburi next week, and keen to take more photos of the same places I shot on 35mm three and four years ago, and assuming that dropping the broken camera off at a shop here in Ban Chang, Rayong would mean at least two weeks waiting for repairs somewhere far away, I was lucky to find a friendly camera shop on the third floor of the Tesco Lotus building, just right of the escalator; west of Coffee Today; and bought a new Canon Powershot A480 for 2,990 from a very nice saleslady who went to the trouble of providing pasa Thai lessons while configuring my new camera.

This newy is around 5mm shorter, 10mm narrower, and half as thick: 90x60x30, and fits easily into a back pocket. It's 10.0 megapixels compared with the 7.1 resolution of the broken one, which is some consolation for the 3.3x zoom not as much as the old one that had 4x zoom, (although it's not zooming at all anymore), came with a 2Gb memory card and two AA cell batteries (the old brick needed four AA cells), twelve month warranty including the email address of the sales assistant, has a flash that likes to flash, defaults to AUTO but has a range of preset program settings for all kinds of different complicated things like pets and flora and sunsets and beaches and more than I can remember, and takes 16 minute .avi movies all for under 3,000 baht.

I've promised to take the old one in to the same shop tomorrow for repairs, which she mentioned will take around a month, but now I've got this little baby setup, I don't know of any particular reason to bother fixing up the old A620, apart from sentimental reasons. I might as well just stick it in the suitcase with the other useless souvenirs.

It's great to have a camera again that will do everything I did with the old one, and ten baht change out of the 3,000 I had allocated is like a dream come true.

[paquito]

Seems I'm a little bit late. Nevertheless here's my experience with Canon Thailand:

A few month back my camera (IXus 960) just froze after taking a picture, lens wouldn't retract mo reaction when pressing the on/off button, even after removing and reinserting the battery.

Took it to Canon repair shop in MBK, Bangkok. They told me it's the chip. Warranty was expired and they quoted THB 5000. Not an option, considering that a new model is about 10 to 12000.

Took it to 'DSC', small shop next to the right hand side escalator of Pantip Plaza, 4th floor. The girl there looked at it, said they would need to change the chip (same as Canon had said). They would do it for THB 2000 by evening next day. I asked if they could do it by noon (less than 24h), did not haggle. Agreement was that I'd only pay if the camera would work again. Went there next day, camera worked fine and still is doing so now, 3 months later. So I can recommend that shop, although you might want to bargain a bit - I could not, getting it back the naxt day was more important, I had to leave town.