A few weeks back, I went to pull my trusty carry-along camera, a Canon SD500 that I bought a few years ago, and found that the LCD screen had cracked... Badly... as in totally unusable (although the camera did still work fine).
Poking around the net found lots of others with the same problem. Checked cost to replace.. a new Canon SD550 runs about $230... Getting Canon to fix the problem themselves would be $170 (it's out of warranty, even if I thought they would fix it), buying a new LCD and from Canon Parts (732-521-7230) would be $40 total, including shipping.
I have to admit I did consider buying a new Canon SD700 but it would mean going backwards in Megapixels (the SD700 is "only" a 6.0 Megapixel camera, even if it does have 4x optical and Image Stablization -- we all know it's all about Megapixels :-))
So I decided to order the new LCD figuring that at worst case I was out $40 and it would be cool to be able to say I took apart such a cool electronic device and successfully put it back together (assuming I could, of course).
The new LCD came in while I was away on a trip and when I returned I had to get onto a conference call right away, so I took the box into my home office and did the replacement while I was on the call (took about an hour that way).
I didn't end up with any extra screws and I did end up with a working camera & LCD again... YEAH!!!
My son just shakes his head, thinking I was crazy for fixing it myself -- but being that he's just 15, I'm thinking he think I'm crazy about lots of things.
UPDATE: 10/15/06 - While my camera is still fully functional after this repair, I've upgraded to the Powershot SD800IS.
Tags : canon / broken lcd / camera / sd500
10 comments:
Swapping out the LCD while on a concall? I have to say, Conor, I'd expect nothing less.
Welcome to the blogosphere. If you write something about identity, I'll feel justified adding you to Planet Identity :-)
Well I'm bound to spurt on about identity at one point or another, so you just as well should do it now.
OK - added you. Now, write something interesting, and none of your usual equivocation and timidity :-)
Thanks Conor. I've been brewing over the broken LCD on my SD500 for 4 weeks now. I could not convince myself to go with the newer models, just like you said. Knowing the ~$170 cost for LCD repair with Canon, I will go call the Canon parts number and attempt this repair myself.
So I got the part and the SD500 is more or less working again. Took 2 hours, with some screw shuffling, but at least I can see what I'm doing now.
Thanks again for the pointer!
Thanks.... you've inspired me to just fix it myself. :)
at one point you had the phone # for the Canon replacement parts store on your blog...do you still know what it is?
Yeah... It's on my related article: http://conorcahill.blogspot.com/2006/09/canon-sd500-cracked-lcd-screen.html
Would i need any special tools for this? I just ordered the screen.
All I needed was my micro-screwdriver set (if I remember correctly).
There are a number of small phillips screws, so your standard screwdrivers won't work.
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