So, for those of you who have followed the sordid and sad tale of Sandy's fancy camera. I hate to tell you but I am writing to close this tale, write the last chapter, as it were.
After many, many months (9 to be exact) I gave birth to a new camera tonight. Well, HA, my previously sick Canon Rebel XT has been rehabed!!! Yes, it has been fixed, cleaned, shined, and whatnot.
Four weeks ago I spent several days (this was probably my fourth time doing this) purusing Canon's cludgy website. I could find no help whatsoever for my issue (no flash). I finally used their web help form and submitted my problem. I heard back right away to send my camera in.
Being cautious and nervous to do so, I called them the next day, wanting to make sure that this was for real. The rep emailed me some forms and information, and definitely said this was not a repair I could make. I sat on this for a week. Here is why - The camera, brand new today is about $325, originally $1000 when it first came on the market. If the repair is around $250 (my guess) hardly seems worth the postage. My hubbie strongly encouraged me to send the darn thing in, quit fussing about it, and get it over with. Yeah, I have whined a little about it.
So a week later, I get my baby all ready for shipping. In the last minute I decided to throw in the camera lens whose hood was damaged by airport security in July going to SU! Convention. I thought, if it is going to cost a fortune to send it, (I insured it both for their original value, not taking any chances...) I might as well have them look at the lens also.
I kissed my babies goodbye at Brown (UPS), crossed my fingers and waited. Once it was received by Canon I was able to tract the repair quite easily. Camera estimate came back $190 plus return shipping. Lens came back $110 plus shipping. I hemmed and hawed for a day. This was going to be a lot of money. I could get a new lens for $200, to put on what? New camera? If I was going to get a new camera, I would want an upgrade, and now we are back to talking around $1000 for what I want, at least that much. It was a lot of money in repairs. Hubbie says go for it, it made you so happy when it was working. I stalled. I gulped. I said "go ahead, repair the darn thing"! It took a day or two to get excited, not scared about $350 for repairs and shipping, not to mention the $47 I already spent to ship it to Canon to even get it looked at in the first place. When Canon does their repairs they repair everything back to factory condition. Which means cleaning internal mirrors and lens and other parts I could never do. That was probably worth it.
BTW - Ritz camera quoted me $250 to send in the camera to their repair facility. That quote was just to have the camera looked at, not even repaired. THAT is exactly what had been scaring me off all these months, the $$$.
OK, back up to 2 days ago (Monday) when I heard the Brown truck pull into the driveway. I knew what it was. I let hubbie bring the box in. He put it in a quiet corner of the living room, where it has sat for 2 days, until about an hour ago. I felt spooked, jinxed, intimidated, and excited. I carefully unwrapped the items from packing, brought out my battery and CF card and loaded them up. Cautiously I I turned it on...I aimed...I shoot...I scored! It works just perfect. It still takes darn nice photos and has so many settings I never even got a chance to play with. Now I will.
After many, many months (9 to be exact) I gave birth to a new camera tonight. Well, HA, my previously sick Canon Rebel XT has been rehabed!!! Yes, it has been fixed, cleaned, shined, and whatnot.
Four weeks ago I spent several days (this was probably my fourth time doing this) purusing Canon's cludgy website. I could find no help whatsoever for my issue (no flash). I finally used their web help form and submitted my problem. I heard back right away to send my camera in.
Being cautious and nervous to do so, I called them the next day, wanting to make sure that this was for real. The rep emailed me some forms and information, and definitely said this was not a repair I could make. I sat on this for a week. Here is why - The camera, brand new today is about $325, originally $1000 when it first came on the market. If the repair is around $250 (my guess) hardly seems worth the postage. My hubbie strongly encouraged me to send the darn thing in, quit fussing about it, and get it over with. Yeah, I have whined a little about it.
So a week later, I get my baby all ready for shipping. In the last minute I decided to throw in the camera lens whose hood was damaged by airport security in July going to SU! Convention. I thought, if it is going to cost a fortune to send it, (I insured it both for their original value, not taking any chances...) I might as well have them look at the lens also.
I kissed my babies goodbye at Brown (UPS), crossed my fingers and waited. Once it was received by Canon I was able to tract the repair quite easily. Camera estimate came back $190 plus return shipping. Lens came back $110 plus shipping. I hemmed and hawed for a day. This was going to be a lot of money. I could get a new lens for $200, to put on what? New camera? If I was going to get a new camera, I would want an upgrade, and now we are back to talking around $1000 for what I want, at least that much. It was a lot of money in repairs. Hubbie says go for it, it made you so happy when it was working. I stalled. I gulped. I said "go ahead, repair the darn thing"! It took a day or two to get excited, not scared about $350 for repairs and shipping, not to mention the $47 I already spent to ship it to Canon to even get it looked at in the first place. When Canon does their repairs they repair everything back to factory condition. Which means cleaning internal mirrors and lens and other parts I could never do. That was probably worth it.
BTW - Ritz camera quoted me $250 to send in the camera to their repair facility. That quote was just to have the camera looked at, not even repaired. THAT is exactly what had been scaring me off all these months, the $$$.
OK, back up to 2 days ago (Monday) when I heard the Brown truck pull into the driveway. I knew what it was. I let hubbie bring the box in. He put it in a quiet corner of the living room, where it has sat for 2 days, until about an hour ago. I felt spooked, jinxed, intimidated, and excited. I carefully unwrapped the items from packing, brought out my battery and CF card and loaded them up. Cautiously I I turned it on...I aimed...I shoot...I scored! It works just perfect. It still takes darn nice photos and has so many settings I never even got a chance to play with. Now I will.
Hubbie gets the first picture post since he is the one that made me do it.
Lesson learned, next time I have to go through airport security I will not wear my industrial strength bra with underwires that kept setting off the detectors so that they have to haul me into a private booth for a half hour while they wrangle with my stuff (and drop it). And I am strapping the camera to my ankle to be extra safe. Just try and get it off me, just try!
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