Is it Worth Repairing?

Before I delve into the repair topic, I have to tell you about my little photo adventures this week.
I like to walk my dog at the park in the morning. Most of the time I take my camera along just in case something worth shooting presents itself. Tip: Always take your camera with you. Tip: Don't take your camera with you if it will damage the camera (unless you can afford to buy a replacement) or get it stolen. Tip 1 is the rule unless Tip 2 over rides it. Having learned of some car break-ins in a nearby park recently, I decided to leave the camera at home until after the dog walk. On the way back from the park I saw several animals running around near the road ahead. I tried to figure out what they were but couldn't make it out yet. They were about the size of a large cat or a small cocker spaniel, but they only had two legs. As I got closer I realized that whatever these black eggs on stick legs were, they were powerful enough to stop huge dump trucks. Yup, the quarry trucks were making their morning deliveries but each one had to wait for the critters to clear the road. Upon closer inspection I discovered that the animals looked like black and white speckled chickens. They had white heads. Since I didn't have my camera along I took my dalmation home. I looked for the birds in my Audubon field guide but didn't find them. I did find a prairie chicken which looked similar, but was brown, not black. The book said the prairie chicken has been exterminated from much of it's range due to destruction of prairie lands. I was worried that the birds' home was disturbed by new quarry work so even though I thought they would probably be gone if I went back with the camera I gave it a shot. Luckily they were there. I counted 8 on one side of the road and 2 on the other. I got two shots of them before a car came up behind me and I had to move on. When I turned around and came back they were gone. Later, the pictures, although hurried and not great, helped us positively identify them as Guinea Fowl. Web searches found historical references to them back to Thomas Jefferson's time. The ones I saw may have been someone's pets or wild.

My other photoshoot this week was a portrait shooting of a famous worship rock star. Well, ok, he is locally famous, or will be someday. He's also a great photographer so I was glad to have the opportunity to learn from him. We went to a park and took a lot of pictures of Jon with his guitar in various poses. It was a cloudy day, so I set the ISO to 200 and the white balance to cloudy. I took some shots in portrait, some in auto, and some in aperature priority. We used the wide angle lens for all of them. Maybe I'll post one later if Jon is ok with it.

Now let's move to today's topic, Is it worth repairing??? That is one of the most common questions that comes across the counter at the camera store. First find out if the camera is still under warranty and if the problem is covered by the warranty. Most warranties don't cover droppage, water or sand damage (any kind of user abuse actually). Think about it, warranties are intended to cover you against a faulty product, not to cover you against accidents or user abuse. So take good care of your camera. There is a warranty called the ultimate that does cover droppage for film cameras though. Most cameras are covered for 1 year by the manufacturer. If you bought the extended warranty you may have 3 to 5 years of coverage. Tip: If the camera costs more than $200, buy the extended warranty. It's a small price to pay for the value received if your camera should fail. 8% of digital cameras fail in the first 3 years. That isn't a huge number, but if yours fails, you will wish you had bought the extended warranty. If you have lost your paperwork on the camera and don't know if you bought the warranty, go to the store where you bought it and ask for a copy of your receipt. You will need to send the receipt along with the camera if it goes in for repairs under warranty. Also, the receipt should have the camera serial number on it. That is how the manufacturer knows that the camera you are sending in is in fact the camera you bought on that receipt. If the store you bought it from doesn't put the serial number on receipts, shop at a reputable camera store in the future.

Should you repair it?
If it is under warranty and it is a warranty covered problem - YES
If it is a point and shoot film camera and it is no longer covered under warranty - NO, you can buy a new one for about the cost of the repair and repair shops are likely to turn you down anyway since they don't keep parts for old point and shoots.
If it is digital or an SLR (you can change the lenses) and is not covered under warranty - Maybe. The average repair cost for a film SLR is $150. The average repair cost for a digital camera is $300. If the repair cost is considerably less than the cost of a replacement, or if the camera has sentimental value consider doing the repair. Tip: If you repair one part, remember that the camera still has other old parts that might break, so if the camera is old it may be better to get a new one.


The camera store has been hoppin' this week. Our best seller has been the Pentax 750Z. This is a great little camera. It's a 7 megapixel, 5x optical zoom, with a flip screen. Lots of people want a small camera they can fit in their pocket but they also want a lot of zoom. Well "small" and "a lot of zoom" are mutually exclusive terms. That zoom has to go someplace so more zoom means a bigger camera. The 750Z is a good option though if small and zoom are your goal. A 5x zoom gives you 200mm of zoom. Not bad. The body of the 750z is bigger than a pocket camera, but not to big to fit in a purse or fanny pack. Another neat feature on this camera is the diopter that allows you to adjust the focus of the viewfinder. Inexpensive cameras don't have diopters. Come back later to learn more about what makes an inexpensive camera cheap and what makes an expensive camera worth more bucks.

TTFN,
geopic