colblaha
15th of June 2003 (Sun), 03:57
This my first post on this forum, but I just wanted to get an idea of how many people out there are having as many problems as i am with my A70.
I first bought it from OfficeMax because it came with a free 64mb card, so with that money i saved, i got an extended warranty plan [which will come in handy soon]. I took it home, but found out the lens cap didn:t close all the way when i turned it off. I called the store, but they didn:t have any in stock, but had to get one from another store across the state. I traded mine in and got the new one, and everything seemed ok. I was able to take pictures for a week or so no problem, but then now and again, it wouldn:t turn on when i put in my kingston 256mg card. My way around it was to take the card out, turn it on then off, then put the card back in and it worked. This didn:t happen too often so i didn:t think much of it. I bought the camera with the intention to take tons of pictures during my 8 week study abroad trip to Japan. I flew out only a few days after getting the error message. I had written and email to canon, but they told me a few things to try to prevent the errors from happening. They said to keep it away from speaker magnets and harddrives, and metal detectors, anything that could induce some sort of EMF which might corrupt my data. I didn:t have time to test it out, so i had to fly out no knowing what was wrong with it. After my first day or so here, i started getting Memory Card Errors, and Corrupt Data errors along with E50 and E51 messages in the lower left hand corner just about every day. I got lucky and was able to get the pictures off the camera before the camera `ate` them. One day, i went to take a shot, then i saw that there were no images on the mem card, even though during the days before, i had taken at least 30 pictures. I download my pictures straight from the camera, but they were not there. In the format option, it showed that i was using 50 megs or so, but there were no pictures. Not having an external card reader, i accidentally formatted the card. Since then, i can:t even turn on the camera with the supplied 16mb card from canon, unless i hold the power button down for 12 seconds, and all i get is memory error, and i can:t format it from there. My Lexar 64mb card sometimes works, but now gets Memory Card errors, and can:t take pictures. My Kingston 256mb card is a mix between the Lexar and the Canon card, where it will sometimes turn on and sometimes won:t. Last night i took a good batch of 30 or so pictures on the Lexar and a 3 minute movie on the Kingston, but then all of a sudden, I couldn:t use any of my cards. Fortunately, i bought an ext. card reader and was able to get the pictures from the cards. [I had read on another post that ext. readers do the trick when you get memory card read errors] I left the batteries out overnight, but almost 14 hours later, i still can:t take any pictures.
I have tried turning it on w/o a card and taking pictures, taking out the batteries for a while. formatting the cards in windows with an external card reader, and just about anything else. once i had thought it was having problems when the batteries started to die, but then i put in freshly charged 1850mAh NiMH batteries and still, the same problems.
I can:t get the camera fixed here in japan because the warranty covers only US repair offices and won:t accept/ship cameras from out of the country.
Like i said earlier, i would like to know if this is a widespread problem, or if i:m just having horrible luck with their cameras. I:m about to go on my 3rd A70 :[
I first bought it from OfficeMax because it came with a free 64mb card, so with that money i saved, i got an extended warranty plan [which will come in handy soon]. I took it home, but found out the lens cap didn:t close all the way when i turned it off. I called the store, but they didn:t have any in stock, but had to get one from another store across the state. I traded mine in and got the new one, and everything seemed ok. I was able to take pictures for a week or so no problem, but then now and again, it wouldn:t turn on when i put in my kingston 256mg card. My way around it was to take the card out, turn it on then off, then put the card back in and it worked. This didn:t happen too often so i didn:t think much of it. I bought the camera with the intention to take tons of pictures during my 8 week study abroad trip to Japan. I flew out only a few days after getting the error message. I had written and email to canon, but they told me a few things to try to prevent the errors from happening. They said to keep it away from speaker magnets and harddrives, and metal detectors, anything that could induce some sort of EMF which might corrupt my data. I didn:t have time to test it out, so i had to fly out no knowing what was wrong with it. After my first day or so here, i started getting Memory Card Errors, and Corrupt Data errors along with E50 and E51 messages in the lower left hand corner just about every day. I got lucky and was able to get the pictures off the camera before the camera `ate` them. One day, i went to take a shot, then i saw that there were no images on the mem card, even though during the days before, i had taken at least 30 pictures. I download my pictures straight from the camera, but they were not there. In the format option, it showed that i was using 50 megs or so, but there were no pictures. Not having an external card reader, i accidentally formatted the card. Since then, i can:t even turn on the camera with the supplied 16mb card from canon, unless i hold the power button down for 12 seconds, and all i get is memory error, and i can:t format it from there. My Lexar 64mb card sometimes works, but now gets Memory Card errors, and can:t take pictures. My Kingston 256mb card is a mix between the Lexar and the Canon card, where it will sometimes turn on and sometimes won:t. Last night i took a good batch of 30 or so pictures on the Lexar and a 3 minute movie on the Kingston, but then all of a sudden, I couldn:t use any of my cards. Fortunately, i bought an ext. card reader and was able to get the pictures from the cards. [I had read on another post that ext. readers do the trick when you get memory card read errors] I left the batteries out overnight, but almost 14 hours later, i still can:t take any pictures.
I have tried turning it on w/o a card and taking pictures, taking out the batteries for a while. formatting the cards in windows with an external card reader, and just about anything else. once i had thought it was having problems when the batteries started to die, but then i put in freshly charged 1850mAh NiMH batteries and still, the same problems.
I can:t get the camera fixed here in japan because the warranty covers only US repair offices and won:t accept/ship cameras from out of the country.
Like i said earlier, i would like to know if this is a widespread problem, or if i:m just having horrible luck with their cameras. I:m about to go on my 3rd A70 :[