No Camera for a month!

[earthlight (Anne-Louise)]

Well I've finially done it. I've taken the Ixus in to be repaired.
It's terrible to be without a camera. I never realised how much I use it.

So this morning I took my last photos in our garden.

The rose is Perfume Delight, one we've has for nearly 15yrs or more. Just devine to smell.

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Earthlight

[RB (Andrew)]

Beautiful photos earthlight.
So lifelike, I can almost smell the rose.

What is wrong with the Ixus?

[earthlight (Anne-Louise)]

The flash went pop one morning a couple of months back. Hence it didn't work again. I also dropped it last year but hopefully that doesn't have anything to do with the problem. Canon says it will be about 4 weeks to replace the flash unit and check over the camera. As it isn't under warranty I don't get a tempory replacement camera in the mean time.

Thankfully Tony has lent me his work camera a few days a week so I'm not totally camera less.

I could go back to film, but I was so disappointed with the negative scanning results last time I don't think I could do it again. I have also become so used to the instant result with digital. With kids that is very handy! The cost of developing is also an issue and I hate the "it's the machine, sorry can't adjust it". I think film will be only used for star trails in my camera. One day we'll be able to go digital SLR.

Love your entry for the photo comp. Such a great shot, I've got no chance to win now

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earthlight

[iceman (Mike)]

Nice photos, sorry to hear about the camera. Just get a camera phone in the meantime

[Omaroo (Chris Malikoff)]

Earthlight - how does your Ixus treat its batteries? Whilst we have film SLRs, we also have a couple og Ixus 300's and an Olympus AZ-1 "glovebox" cameras that are great for that "quick - there it is!" type of photography. We used to use our first Ixus a lot until it started chewing through batteries at an enourmous rate - like gone in 6 photos! I considered taking it in for repair, nut found that it was cheaper to buy another older model from eBay. That worked for a while too, and seemed to be OK. All of a sudden it started to munch batteries as well. I started to suspect the batteries themselves as well as the charger - but we bought replacements that do the same thing even when chargers are changed. I'm not sure what to do next - junk them?

I'm stumped. We then bought the Olympus and it's been brilliant ever since. The only thing is that it has vertically-stacked internal optics so that there is no protruding lens as such. This makes it difficult to use on the telescope as the cup of the eyepiece doesn't have a natural place to mate with the camera. It's great as a camera though as the rear display is 2.5" - and much clearer than the Ixus.

[[1ponders] (Paul)]

That's is a lovely rose Anne-Louise, I can almost smell it from here, but c'mon, isn't it about time Tony lashed out and got you that DSLR you've alway wanted? Probably won't cost much more than getting your camera fixed And if you use a DSLR we will be able to smell it. They are that good

[earthlight (Anne-Louise)]

The Ixus 500 has been great. We got it after our car was stolen in 2004 as a replacement for the Ixus 2 we had. The 2 batteries that were replaced definitly were different even now one showes that it is flat in 10-15 shots but will continue to work for ages but nowhere as long as the other. I should have had it replaced but I chronically leave them in the charger (original Ixus 2, never got the other one out of the box) so maybe it was left in too long constantly.

Ok real battery life example, went to Australia Zoo a few weeks ago and took 157 photos/movies or 549Mb, arrived at 10:30am and the good battery lasted till 3pm. Bad one didn't last long enough to take a photo of us all when we left at 4:30pm.

I considered taking it in for repair, nut found that it was cheaper to buy another older model from eBay. That worked for a while too, and seemed to be OK. All of a sudden it started to munch batteries as well. I started to suspect the batteries themselves as well as the charger - but we bought replacements that do the same thing even when chargers are changed. I'm not sure what to do next - junk them?

Canon wants $50 to do a quote on a repair in brisbane. Personally I'd try it for one camera just to see if it's cheaper to fix than buy another 'old used camera with unknown faults'. Both our cameras got to about 2 years old without problems. I do believe it is a better to start new with electronics, but who knows as even new can have problems. Our video camera was 9 months in repair in the first 12.

I don't know what to do with the Ixus 300, we find ours great for telescope moon shots. As you say easy to align the camera to the eye piece. Haven't had a chance to do it for a while.

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earthlight

[earthlight (Anne-Louise)]

That's is a lovely rose Anne-Louise, I can almost smell it from here, but c'mon, isn't it about time Tony lashed out and got you that DSLR you've alway wanted? Probably won't cost much more than getting your camera fixed And if you use a DSLR we will be able to smell it. They are that good

Yes that would be great except for the fact when he went to take the Ixus in to be repaired the car cracked the radiator and the head cover warped (sorry if incorrect vocab, I'm not a car person). $2400 and 2 weeks later I had a chance to take the camera in. Soooo there will be no frivolous spending going to occur for a while. Plus there is a house to paint, termite protection to get and so many other things before we get another camera.

Here are a couple more pics I took that morning. I'll have to try Tony's work camera but being a step down to 4MP I already see a difference to the child shots. But I finially captured a smile of Hadar!!! So hard without a flash, he moves so much.


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earthlight

[jjjnettie (Jeanette)]

Beautiful Roses!
Hope your camera gets well soon.