A20 overexposure problems

[stduc]

I have had an A20 for just over 2 years and have taken over 10,000 shots. I took some shots of the recent eclipse in Scotland and they came out just fine. Later the same day I tried to take a shot of a building on a hillside on full optical zoom and it came out totally white. A bit of experimentation showed that the camera worked fine until one step before full optical zoom when it then grossly over exposed. (The images are nearly 100% white!)

The sun was not very bright around the eclipse but it was very damp and misty. Although nearly 2 weeks later the camera is still malfunctioning and it must have dried out by now.

I called Canon, but they had never heard of the problem. I don't plan to get it repaired - I went down that road with a video camera and lived to regret it!

My questions are as follows. All and any comments welcomed.

1. Did the sun mess it up? I was using both full optical and full digital zoom. (The pictures are good though)

2. Did it get too wet? (It didn't get visibly wet!)

3. Do you think it's died of over use?

4. Should I cut my losses and get an A70?

I should add that I have always had to use manual exposure and -2 on sunny days outdoors. So maybe I have always had a problem?

P.S.

I've bought the A70 anyway. I'll try and post something worthwhile about the A70 shortly.

[stduc]

I got an A70 - I still haven't had an email reply from CANON and calling them by telephone was a waste of time.

Can no one in this forum help? I shall still keep the camera and use it when I don't want to risk my A70.

[liertje]

this is because of the not correct working of the shutter it's probebly worn out because of much using! this is a common problem of the A20. some pictures are orange and some are white (depends on flash/no flash) your lens unit has to be replaced! I don't think it's wise to let it be repaired because of the costs and the age of the camera.

[hoganlo]

Did you ever get an answer on the cause or how to fix this? I have the same problem. Canon of course acknowledges nothing about it. Thanks!

[shrugs*]

I'd probably try different shots in different lighting (dark..very dark.. extremely dark) to see whether it's a problem with the shutter staying open too long or the sensor.