repair or replace s45?

[sarae]

a few weeks ago my s45 stopped working.. today i finally heard back from canon, who gave me a very vague descriptions of what needed to be fixed (basically they gave me no help at all) and a grand total of about $170, including shipping. (With the caveat that they might find more extensive damage, which would cost more.)

My dilemma is this: should I fork over the extra dough to repair this eighteen month old camera, or should I just forget it and upgrade to the G5? Any suggestions?

If my camera was not dead, I wouldn't be (seriously) thinking of upgrading, but when it died I started to look around, just in case.

[Jon]

What were the circumstances that made it stop working? A trip to the beach? Getting caught in a rainstorm? Soda bath administered by a 2-year old? Fall onto a concrete slab? Nothing - it just wouldn't turn on the next day? Having some idea of what might have precipitated the problem will give us some idea of how likely it is that Canon would find more damage. At a first guess, the $170 will probably be the final cost for the repair - they'd check it out as thoroughly as possible before quoting you, and the only things they wouldn't be able to test are components which would depend on other, known failed, parts.

Do you find the S45 missing features, or displaying limits, that you think the G5 will provide you? If the S45 did everything you need, then why upgrade? If you decide to, the A80 is closer in size to the S45 than the G5, has a lot of the same features and some nice differences (fold-out screen like the G5, for instance), and is now going for about $250, or not a lot more than the repairs for the S45. It's probably going to be replaced soon, which is why the price is coming down, but I'd expect the same of the G5, given the S1 IS and PowerShot Pro. The G5's still over $500.

[sarae]

What were the circumstances that made it stop working? ... Having some idea of what might have precipitated the problem will give us some idea of how likely it is that Canon would find more damage.

I don't know what caused it - just when I turned it on one day, it didn't work. A year ago, a friend had dropped it. There was the tiniest dent on the bottom, the guy at the camera shop I took it to first was trying to tell me that "something" could have been damaged and "worked its way" into the camera.

The one thing that leads me to believe that it could cost more to repair is that on the quote they mailed me, (I don't have it next to me, so I don't know the correct wording) they said something like this was the basic flat fee for repairs that they give - so that they would be able to give a quote - which makes me figure that every camera that comes in gets this fee applied to it, regardless of the problem.

[Jon]

What you're going to have to decide is how important the extra features of the G5 are to you. It's significantly more than the repairs would cost (more than twice). If you want those features, getting the S45 isn't going to make you not want them, so you might as well go ahead and get the new camera. If the cost is more critical, either fix the S45 or look at some of the less-expensive alternatives like the A80, which does also offer a lot of additional control for not too much more than the repairs.