Canon S90 functioning issue

Hi there

I'm having an unexpected issue with my canon S90. I'm using it since 11 months. No shock. Bought from France to a US dealer (=no international garantee), with a bet that there will be no issue.... Lost.

When I turn it on, no view of the scene is appearing on the LCD ; its remains totally black, with only the white indications of the parameters. Looks like there was a cap on the lens.
I tried to take a picture, and similarly it is totally black. EXIF seem to be "normal", ie nothing particular, apart that histogram is totally on the left.
To fix the issue, I have to go to the review mode, and then back to picture mode ; (press twice the review button) ; this is not optimal.

has anyone encountered the same problem ?
Many thanks in advance for your help or advices!

Do the pictures download black too? Is the lens cover opening when you turn the camera on?
Have you tried pressing the "Display" button a few times while it's on and in camera mode?

Jon wrote in post #10860372
Do the pictures download black too? yes
Is the lens cover opening when you turn the camera on? yes of course
Have you tried pressing the "Display" button a few times while it's on and in camera mode?yes, and at the second press, on the display, the camera is normally operational.

I do not understand unless there is a bug.
I have seen no firmware update that could solve the problem or reset the camera ; what if I choose return to factory settings ? I fear to loose the picture counter.

So if you press the "Display" button a few times after you turn the camera on, you can take a real picture, but if you just turn the camera on and start taking pictures you get blank frames?

A factory reset couldn't hurt.

The picture counter isn't going to change as long as you have loaded a memory card with the last photo taken into the camera. The camera will resume from that frame number. AA factory reset doesn't reset everything anyhow. The frame number is one of the things it doesn't change.

thanks Jon
to reply to your question, exactly, and my frames are totally black.

Factory reset has not fixed the issue, and indeed it does not reset picture counter.

I'm afraid the only option is going to be to send it in for repair. Any travel plans that would bring you to the US? As I recall Canon US won't ship repairs overseas, so you'd need to have a US address to get it to, and then you'd possibly get hit with customs again as it came back to France.

unless there is another forum member who had experienced the same issue and found the way to get it solved, I'm afraid that I am going to test the canon european repair service at extra cost.