THE LITTLE THINGS- THE CAMERA DOCTOR IS IN

The reader may have noticed that this blog has relatively few pictures.  That’s partly because uploading them is rather tricky and uncertain, but also because my camera has been out of commission for some time.  I use an Olympus Stylus 760 All Weather digital camera  for most purposes.  I like it because the camera is affordable; it fits well in a pocket, takes decent pictures in both normal and macro modes, and is water resistant.  It’s also remarkably tough.

I have two of these cameras.  The first one I took to the Civil Air Patrol’s Hawk Mountain Ranger Training School . That was a wonderful time of living outdoors, training in search and rescue and getting to know some first class people.  It’s the toughest emergency services school the U.S Civil Air Patrol offers, and I lost over 30 pounds during the nine-day program.  (I also hurt my knee on the OC and took over a year to recover, but it was worth it!) Anyway, the camera survived the event too, but the viewfinder was cracked in the process.  The dark area around the crack slowly spread during the next several months as air leaked in and damaged the display.  Eventually it all turned black and was largely unusable.

It seemed like a simple matter to fix, for just the view screen needed to be replaced.  So, I found a mail-order camera repair company and sent the camera in with $60 for the work.  After a substantial delay, they sent the camera back saying it was beyond repair.  The camera still worked and took pictures, so I didn’t wholly accept their judgment, but neither they nor the manufacturer would sell me any replacement parts.

So, I bought another of the same model. (Partly because I liked the camera and partly to avoid having to relearn a new camera’s functions and features.)

I happily carried the new camera with me everywhere for about a year, even using it while working in my garden and on projects in the back yard.  That means the camera was subjected to shock, vibration, moisture, abrasion and worst of all, dirt.  In the pocket of my working jacket it was often liberally coated with dust, sand, sawdust and whatever else was floating about.  For awhile it worked just fine until some sand worked its way into the telescoping lens aperture.  Then it jammed in position and the camera refused to function anymore. 

This is not a criticism of the camera’s design or construction.  As an engineer, I really like the design and think very highly of the people who made it.  I am using it in ways that surely exceed the design criteria and accept the consequences since I haven’t found a similarly priced camera with the same features that is rugged enough for my use.

For awhile I had to borrow a camera whenever I needed to take pictures.  Friends and family were gracious and understanding, for awhile.  But I realized I was hard on cameras and would sooner or later damage one of theirs and have to replace both theirs and mine.  I couldn’t really justify buying another camera, let alone two!

My daughter suggested at that point I use the two damaged cameras to make one good one.  It was a sensible suggestion, be sounded very simplistic.  After all, I’d hear horror stories from people who’d taken a camera apart and had it literally explode its tiny, spring loaded precision parts in all directions once the cover was removed.  It’d tried some time ago to repair a 35mm reflex camera that had jammed, and given up shortly after removing a few portions of the external housing.  Now, I’m a degreed engineer and know something about mechanisms, but the camera is in a special class by itself for complexity and difficulty of repair.  Give me an old Kodak Brownie box camera – that’s about my speed!

Finally, after several camera less days and a multitude of missed photo opportunities, I relented.  After laying out some newspaper on the kitchen table, I took a miniature screw driver and a magnifying glass and scrubbed for surgery.  Carefully, I removed the tiny screws that hold the housing on my Stylus 760 and removed the housing.  Not too bad. 

Nothing sprang loose, and I removed the trim strip and power buttons.  Four more screws later I had the viewfinder assembly loose and saw that it had only one ribbon cable connecting it to the main body.  It is an ingenious design where a tiny plastic clamp keeps the ribbon cable secure in the connector, but allows it to be inserted and removed repeatedly.  I was delighted.

THE DAMAGED VIEWING SCREEN AND THE TOOLS OF THE TRADE

In short order I had swapped the viewfinder assemblies and tested the good one before reassembly.  It worked!  Then I reassembled both cameras and began taking pictures with the result. 

I was feeling heady with my success and tried to fix the flat screen monitor that was also broken.  It was one of the few nice computer gadgets we have, and somehow the power button had been mysteriously mashed into the housing.  It was either the cat or my daughter that had probably knocked it off the desk and done the damage.  Since it somehow returned to the desk top, I think it was unlikely the cat did it. 

Anyway, I disassembled the monitor and admired its quality construction.  I found the problem – the plastic switch button had been forced in under the front panel.  A little tweaking and it was fixed.  However, the monitor would still not turn on.  This one was beyond me.  Well, batting 0.500 isn’t too bad and I saved about $100 with just 30 minutes work.