E18 message on Powershot A80

[Heartless]

Ok, this is my first post here, so I'll start by introducing myself. My name is Brian, and I am a student of journalism in the Midwestern United States. I shoot with a Canon A80, a Rebel Ti, and both the OM-2 and OM-10 from Olyumpus. Nothing wrong with old school, but I plan on upgrading to a DSLR sometime in the very near future.

One can see some of my photos at http://treklens.com/members/akula802/photos

...or on my personal site at http://heartless.dyndns.org/

Hope you like :)

However, I do have a problem which the members of this forum may be able to assist me with. Last week, My A80 decided to sieze up on me and flash the E18 error message, but I don't have any money to get it fixed. I looked up some solutions, but they require taking it apart and I'd rather not do anything drastic just yet.

Some details... when it first started doing this, the zoom lens locked in the out position, with the lens cover open, and simply beeped and displayed "E18" on the LCD.

Today, I powered it on and the lens retracted, and the lens cover closed. When I turned it back on a few minutes later, the lens extended, the cover opened, and the LCD displayed the Canon startup image like it normally does when I turn it on. Yes, I thought, it must have magically fixed itself.

I was wrong. The lens retracted again after a few seconds of displaying nothing but the startup screen, and a few seconds after that, the LCD turned off and there could be heard a series of grinding noises. More like a series of clicks, like something was trying to catch but couldn't. This is happening AFTER the lens retracts and the LCD turns off. After a few seconds of that, the "E18" message is displayed again, and the camera beeps for a while until I turn it off.

I have no idea what is happening, but I'd like to avoid spending money on repairs at a shop. Has anyone seen this before? Any suggestions? Troubleshooting tips?

Any help would be greatly appreciated, life without my cameras is bleak and meaningless :-P

-- Brian

[S45_fornow...]

The E18 error means that the lens mechanism is jammed and the lens cannot extend/retract.

It typically happens because of either a broken tooth on one of the gears in the lens mechanism, or because some debris got into the mechanism and fouled it up.

Your options are to either pay to have it fixed, take the lens assembly apart and try to clean it out and determine if a gear is bad and then replace it, or do nothing and hope it just goes away...

EDIT: I just re-read your post. The grinding noises are not good. I suspect a broken tooth in the gearing (they're all plastic). Not a cheap fix unless you can eBay another used A80 that has a good lens mechanism to swap out with yours. Sorry if that ruined your day...

However, if the cam is still under warranty and the damage occurred out of the blue as opposed to you dropping the camera or something like that, then Canon should cover the repair under warranty.

[saltobello]

Wow, this is exactly the problem I'm having with my camera, except for the griding noises. It is out of warranty so I don't have issues doing as you suggested: "take the lens assembly apart and try to clean it out". Is this easy to do? Is there a place on-line that provides directions to do this in a way that won't cause different problems?

Thanks!!