I've been here before, and it's no fun!
I wear my lovely little 860IS (Elph 870 in the US, I think) in a little Lowepro case on my belt, and it goes pretty much everywhere I do.
Some months ago, it started showing focus problems. I had it repaired under warranty. Yesterday, when I pulled a few pictures off the camera, I thought that the problems had returned. So I did a test this morning:
This was taken facing square on to a wall. The bottom right quadrant is clearly drastically out of focus.
My belief - not backed by any real evidence - is that the problem is caused by the way that the camera oh-so-easily switches on while in the little case. The lens slides part-way out of the body before the case prevents it going any further, and I end up having to wrestle the camera out of the case. I am sure that this must be knocking something out of alignment.
A keylock, or a "dual button press" requirement to switch the camera on, would prevent this from happening.
So I shall check to see if there was a warranty offered with the last repair, but since that was done under manufactutrer's warranty then I doubt it.
I know that in the US Canon has a policy of accepting failing out-of-warranty cameras as a trade-in against newer models. Any idea if there is something similar done in the UK?
regards,
/alan
