My G1 Just Died

[fredshead]

Sorry if this has been discussed in another post:

My G1 just died today. I have had the camera for about 9 months and I am in love with it. I have taken 1000s of photos. The camera has been everywhere, the beach, the mountains, the warm and cold weather.
I have never had a problem with the camera.

Today, as my wife was taking photos of our new baby it just died. Lens out. Just went dead.

I tried to use the D/C adapter (which usually charges the battery or powers the camera) and Nothing. Dead.

So since I have two batteries for it, I tried both. Nothing. Completely dead. :(

I could understand if she had dropped it? Wacked the lens? But that isn't the case. How frustrating. Does anyone know what could cause this to happen? Has this happened to anyone before? Should I just send it out to canon for repair? The lens is still out?

I am at a total loss. Very upset. I shoot everyday with this baby.

[Boyd]

Sorry to hear that. Same thing happened to me (se earlier 'Boyd' post). I had to send it back to Canon for repair, they replaced the power unit, but I never did get to the bottom of the cause.

Hopefully Canon will have got to the bottom of the problem and fixed it for good in the repair. If mine goes again when out of warranty I'm going to be mad.

Fingers crossed....

Boyd

[Zampe]

Same here!! My G1 just died, and just like this first post says. Lens out and nothing helps:-( Also my camera is now about 8 moths old.

[gcla]

For what it's worth, this happened to me too. It gave out over Thanksgiving, and this is the first place I've checked for info since I've been back at a keyboard. I noticed that a day or two before it went, the LCD occasionally shut off for a second or so, before coming back to life. It died immediately after I took a picture (with built-in flash); the lens is stuck in an extended position, none of the switches do anything, and the mains charger has no effect (no lit orange charging LED). I am using an IBM 1Gb microdrive. I have no idea if this is related. I plan to call Canon today and try to have the camera repaired/replaced. Perhaps significantly, my camera is also 9 months old, and I've taken hundreds of pictures with it.

Graham

[fredshead]

I am sorry to hear that more people have had this problem. Since you have all added to my original post I will follow up with the story thus far.

Sent the camera back to Canon (packed very well) and got it took about 2 weeks to come back. Apparently they replaced the main fuse which must have burned out? No charge. (I have an extended warrantee) They also cleaned the camera inside and out and tightened up the LCD which was great. Just like new.

I was so excited! Everything back to normal. Taking pics like crazy. This morning, however, I was taking a few and the LCD just went black. Then the camera turned off and on. Everything was fine but it was weird.
Now, after reading GCLA's post about the LCD occasionally shutting off, I am a little concerned.

I will pay close attention and report back here with any news.

As for the camera dying, I would guess it is the same problem I had. Main fuse burn out. I don't think it is a microdrive problem.

Canon was good to me, I hope they are good to all of you. I included a nice letter explaining what had happened and professing my love for the camera.
maybe that helped? heh.


fred

[raghunathi]

I have been merrily using my G1 from May 2001 until February 2002, when one day it suddenly died on me. Just the same as many of you have described above. The lens would not retract and the camera generally displayed complete lack of any power - via battery or AC adapter. I sent the camera to the Factory and got it back after 3 weeks.

To my horror I discovered new problems.

Problem (1) If I take a picture with flash and the monitor LCD panel flipped open, I cannot take a second picture with flash unless I power the camera off and on, or close the monitor LCD panel and reopen it.

Problem (2) Even with a fully charged battery, if I randomly alternate between navigating through the menus and switching between different modes on the mode dial, the camera suddenly powers off indicating low battery (L6). Turning the camera power off and on does not help. It continues to show low battery. However if I switch to replay mode, everything works fine. If I open and close the battery compartment then too the camera recovers and show full power. The camera then works fine until I go back to switching modes and navigating menus. (If you are wondering why I do that, I stumbled onto this as I was trying to change modes and resolution).

None of these problems existed before the camera was sent to the factory. The camera now shows firmware revision 1.0.0.3. I am quite sure the version in my camera prior to sending to the factory was either 1.0.0.0 or 1.0.0.1 - considering that I bought it in April 2001. Have any of you noticed any problems with firmware v1.0.0.3 ?

Help :(

[haroldcolomes]

How happy you are all of you :(

I had the same problem (LCD switched off, lens out, no power), and unable to use the camera anymore.

I brought back the G1 to the store, and after 3 long weeks, Canon replys that my camera has been hurt so it is not guaranteed! it is not the case, of course!!!!

It is really unacceptable to buy a 1000 usd camera, have a power cut after 3 monthes of carefull use, and be told that it is not guaranteed for whatever bad reason !


What can i do ? Please help
For information, my camera was sent to the Swiss Canon Centre.

[acks]

My G1 died nine months to the day (it died yesterday - Sunday) from when i bought it. It has been used regularly (100-200 photos a month). Exactly the same as all the others. The battery was fully charged, I had just turned it on, adjusted the zoom, about to press the shutter release, then everything goes blank (the camera, not me). The LCD went black, LED display gone, lens still out. Plugged in AC adapter and no blinking orange light to indicate charging. I use 128 flash so its def not a microdrive issue. I brough it back to the store today and they are going to send it to the local Canon service centre (Mississauga, Ontario, Canada). But they said it was probably going to take 4 weeks!

[mt1977]

Strange coincidence that these G1's all began dying just as the G2 came into the market! If I have any problems with mine, I'm in trouble. I bought it from someone, no warranty!

[paulvm]

I just joined this group to see if there were any easy answers to this exact thing that happened to me. I had just taken 3 shots and it died - lens out, no display, etc. Neither battery works, AC adapter doesn't work. To my dismay, it sounds like I am SOL. I have had my camera for over 1 year so I am afraid that there is no more warranty. I can't find any reference to the warrany in the manual. Anyone know how long the warrany is and what they will do if I send it back to cannon for repair? This is obviously a design fault and happens too often. I use this camera daily to take pictures of my 8 month old son so the family across country can see him. This STINKS!!!!!!!!!!!!! Phooey!

[joe1611]

My G1 exhibited this same thing about 2 months after my 1 year warranty ran out. I sent it back to Canon, expecting to shell out a huge chunk of cash to get it fixed. To my surprise, there was no charge! Got it back in three weeks, and all is working well.

[acks]

G1 is back!
I finally got my G1 back after 3 weeks (see post March 25). They said the DC converter was replaced. I checked out the camera and everything seems okay. Hope nothing else goes wrong coz manufacturer's warranty ends in June.

[haroldcolomes]

G1 is back !
After 3 months my camera is back.
Actually, canon sent me a new one.
Many thanks to my boss wo helped me in the request :)

[paulvm]

I sent mine in and after about 3 weeks, I got a letter saying that it would cost about $170 to fix my camera. After stewing and thinking about it for a few days I sent the form back saying to fix it. What else could I do? I believe Canon is not handling this issue very well. Yes the camera was more than a year old, but this is obviously not some isolated incident. And judging from the posts, they are also not being very consistent in their handling of it either. I guess I just hoped I would be one of the ones that they fixed at no cost. Oh well.

[nicolas]

I bought my G1 about 18 months ago and it is still going strong. I even manged to drop my 1Gig Microdrive from waist level and it still works... the words "I have never dropped this" had just come from my mouth a few seconds earlier after I had removed it to show to a friend. Hope I don't curse my camera by posting this... Great Site...

[RichardSimon]

I had the same problem with my G1 at 11 months. Sent it back to Canon USA and they returned it 15 days later. They replaced the DC converter and updated the firmware. The particular repairs are covered for 90 days, but the warranty period is about over.

Interestingly, my case was slightly dented on two of the corners (I try to be kind to my G1, but it goes
everywhere!) and they didn't complain or fuss at me. I
think they may have replaced one of the panels on the bottom.

As long as I had to send it in, I also asked them to address five hot pixels. They didn't address that problem! When I called one of their technicians, he was apologetic, and encouraged me to send it back for additional repair, which I have done. I sent them an exact list of the dead pixels; perhaps they will fix the problem.

[unclegoody]

My camera did exactly the same thing 6 months out of warranty.
Jessops wanted to charge £417 to replace a pcb. I thought this was a bit steep so I rang Canon.
To my surprise they agreed to have a look at the camera free of charge to see what the problem was.
4 days (yes 4 days) later I got the camera back all fixed and no charge!!!!! They said they replaced the 'DC-DC converter & cleaned camera'
Now that's what I call service and wouldn't hesitate to buy another Canon product with backup like that!!!!

I think it is important how you handle the 'complaint'.
If you are civil and polite then I'm sure they'd do their best to help. Think of how you'd like to be spoken too!!!

As to what the actual device they changed looks like I haven't a clue I'm affraid.

Do later G1's have modified pcb's with better DC-DC converters??????

[raghunathi]

Well, I called up Canon after the first repair did not work out satisfactorily. They asked me to resend the camera to them. A week later they replaced the camera and sent me a completely different piece (it looks very new, it is a G1 and has firmware v1.0.0.2, and has a very different serial number).

All looks well with this piece so far.

Thanks to Canon they did a fast turn around the second time. The camera was under warranty both times and they did not charge me either times.