Canon Powershot A95 -- LCD Problems

[Cajungirl]

Hi. I recently purchased a Powershot A95. In the first couple of times I used it, it worked great. Then within 2 weeks the LCD started doing something odd. A new feature with the A95 is the flip screen. It's a little confusing to explain so please bear with me. When you first get the camera, the lcd screen is facing the inside of the camera and the Canon logo is facing you. The first thing you need to do is pull it out of the housing with the LCD screen facing you then you flip it 180 degrees and push it back into the camera space it came out of. This makes the screen face the opposite direction. Then you push it back into the camera housing so that the LCD screen is once again facing you but is now inside the camera. As you are doing this you can see the image on the lcd screen and when you flip it you can see the image flip too which puts everything back into it's right perspective. Ok here's where things are going haywire:(. In the first position as you flip it away from the camera everything is great, no problems whatsoever no matter what kind of lighting. Once you flip it back into the camera housing, or position #2, with the LCD facing you is when everything goes goofy. Now keep in mind these conditions are indoor lighting...like normal 60 watt or 300 watt bulb lighting. Also note that in the first flip all is fine so the second position should have the same quality. However, what I get is a really really poor contrast ratio. It's like coming up on a laptop from the side view how the image becomes all black and grey almost washing out the image. This is how it looks as you look at it right in front of you. Now what I'm getting from Canon is that this is a glitch with all the A95's. I'm wondering if anyone has heard of this? I have read reviews from different websites including Consumer Report's ranking this as a #1 camera and a best buy. I find it hard to believe, that if all of the cameras would be experiencing this problem, it would be getting such a good rating not to mention something being said about the problem in the review. I have also read individual's reviews but there is no mentioning of this problem. Another thing too is it worked fine the first couple of times I used it, so how can this be a glitch that "suddenly" comes on? So I'm just wondering if anyone else is experiencing this problem? Thanks in advance.

[d8168055]

glitch? i never had this prob (yet, x's fingers)... but in the instruction manual, it said that the LCD screen may dim in STRONG lighting or sunlite. strange,tho, in ur case... Maybe canon has a firmware update for it?

[Cajungirl]

Hey. Don't know about the firmware thing...from what the repair supervisor told me that the engineer told her was that this was problem wide with all Powershot A95's. I think they are trying to dupe me. Thing is this is my first Canon camera, I read up on it, thought it would be an awesome little camera and now I'm to the point of never buying a Canon product again. If I had purchased it from an electronics store, I'd have been able to exchange it. It started giving me problems within the 2 week time period they usually give for exchanges. Which is the another thing working against this whole situation is that I purchased it through Dell and when I finally got through to them, after being on hold for 45 mins, they told me I had to deal with Canon they couldn't help me. So my advice don't buy anything from Dell unless it's a Dell brand name because they give you 0 assistance.:evil: So I'll be calling the Canon repair dept again tomorrow...they've been having my camera since 3/11 which is almost 3 weeks...everytime I think about it I start fuming. It's just disgusting. I think they should just exchange it out...what is it going to cost them...they'll be able to refurb. that one anyway. I have a Sony Cybershot 3.2mp that has been a good little camera...I bought this one because of the awesome deal I got through Dell and because it's a 5mp camera. I have also heard awesome things about Canon cameras. I guess I was just lucky to get the lemon of the bunch:cry:. Anyway, hopefully this gets rectified soon...or Canon will lose a customer.

[Bodryn]

I have two Canons, an A70 and an S1 IS. Both have very good LCD views and I've been very happy with just about everything about them. I can't imagine somebody trying to tell you that the faded out view is normal. What jerks! It makes me very angry to hear this story. If it were me, I'd take it back right now, because whether or not somebody else thinks it's all right, you know better and you're not satisfied. That should be sufficient. Canons are good cameras, but occasionally one can get a lemon. I'm sorry that things like this have to happen and ruin your faith in Canon cameras, just because some jerk is trying to save a few bucks at your expense.

[Cajungirl]

Hi. Believe me when they tried to push that story on me I wasn't too happy. I have posted in a couple of forums to get some feedback and I can tell this was an ill concocted story/excuse. I mean all I'd have to do is buy another camera to see this wasn't a model wide issue. If I had purchased the camera from one of our local electronics dealers I'd have been able to simply exchange it BUT I purchased it through the Dell computer company. I got it while on sale and had a discount coupon so it was purchased at an awesome value. However, Dell doesn't have a great exchange policy on non-Dell items, which unfortunately I learned only because I was having a problem. I called them and after being on hold for literally 45 minutes; they told me that I would have to deal with Canon directly. I had even purchased the extended warranty but that doesn't kick in, also found out after the fact, until after the 1 year warranty through Canon. It's just a lot of red tape to deal with for something that, to me, is pretty cut and dry, fix it or replace it.

Which brings me to today's hopefully good news...I just got off the phone with them and they replaced the LCD screen and couple of other things I didn't catch so I should be getting it back like Tuesday of next week....I'm hoping that did the trick. I'll let ya know. I'm glad to hear they did do something though. I had already sent it in one time and all they did was clean it and send it back to me ( from 2/18 to 2/28 ). I was ticked to say the least. So I called them, they sent me a shipping label, and I sent it right back to them (from 3/9 till now)...so this was try #2. When the supervisor said it was a problem model wide I thought they weren't even going to try fixing it...so I'm really hoping it's fixed now and I won't have to deal with any repair depts EVER again...and I can go enjoy my new camera:). Thanks for the replies:cool:.

[agent007]

Technical issues are always a possibility with any device. It would be unfair to base your decision about the company on one defective device..The the SONY works for you, then you should continue with the same. Considering the cheap deal, maybe the camera was refurb

[Cajungirl]

I understand that they'll be lemons in every bunch but that's what warrantys are for aren't they? And if I have a bad experience with not only the product but even more so with customer service; I'm not going to reward them by spending more of my money on something else that if something goes wrong I'll get the same sort of response. So yes, I would hold it against the company.

Also, the deal would have been cheaper with any brand of camera that Dell sells on their website, (i.e., Sony, Canon, Fuji, Kodak, etc.) because it was a coupon that I redeemed along with a 10% sale they were having already. So I know it definitely wasn't a refurb. camera I purchased.

[agent007]

As far as support is concerned, Sony has a terrible history of not acknowledging the defect at all and Dell aint any better.

[Cajungirl]

Well Sony I haven't had to deal with customer service because I didn't have any problems with my camera. As far as Dell goes, that was absolutely the worst service I've had with them (being on hold for 45 minutes). I have owned 4 computers from Dell, still have 3, and the few times I've delt with their customer service I'd rate about a B+. It could be better but they have fixed or help me fix the problem without costing me anything except time so I guess that's not so bad.