It’s Alive!
My Canon PowerShot A60 camera has apparently come back from the dead, and all it got me was a lousy T-shirt. 
wTwNjzVFVU
After doing a little pre-purchase research on a new camera, I discovered someone’s post regarding his Powershot A590 and a problem that was partly similar to mine, where the battery just seems to drain within moments of use.
Apparently, he fixed the problem by reformatting the compact flash memory card using the camera. I figured perhaps part of the problem with my camera was also related to the memory card.
So I charged up a set of NiMH batteries, took out the 2GB Kingston Elite Pro 50X compact flash card I was using and put the original 16MB Canon compact flash card back in the camera and turned it on.
The first thing I noticed was that the camera didn’t display the “Change battery pack” error message but the LCD picture was still corrupted.
After a moment of toggling the shooting mode dial and activating the auto-focus/exposure meter a few times, lo and behold, the corrupted LCD display cleared up!
I took out the batteries, replaced them with Energizer Lithium Ion AAs for high drain devices, and the camera displayed the change battery error message before almost immediately shutting off.
Looks like my camera has somehow gotten picky about not only the type of AA batteries it will accept, but the kind of memory card it uses… Go figure…
I’ve decided to keep using the 2GB card (don’t have any other use for it unfortunately) and store the camera with battery compartment lid open. I’ll also keep the 16MB card with it at all times just in case and “exercise” the camera more often.
To Buy Or Not To Buy Anew?
I might end up getting a new camera anyway because I simply cannot trust this PowerShot A60 to work reliably when I might need it to.
I’m reluctant to go with Canon again due to the history of problems their consumer end model lines seem to exhibit. Unfortunately, Canon seems to rule the roost when it comes to providing a budget camera with manual controls
Manual control is important for me as it allows me to be more flexible when it comes to composition. Since I do more macro shooting these days, being able to have control over aperture settings is crucial.
Other manufacturers offer comprehensive manual shooting modes in their higher priced model lines but I don’t want to spend significantly more than perhaps $250 for a new camera since I don’t require high resolution and I don’t use a camera that often— though, perhaps I should. It’s a useful artist’s tool.
If I find I’m stuck with Canon, I might be tempted to go with Canon’s PowerShot A590 since a lot of camera retailers have marked it down to make room for the latest models. Henry’s has it for as low as $169.
It currently costs as much as what I paid for my A60 a few years back but with the manual controls and 8 megapixel resolution, it’s a significant upgrade.
Then again, if I buy the A590, I would have paid well over $300 for both PowerShots. If I had spent that much in the first place, I may not be in the position I find myself now.
My camera’s barely seen much use, yet I’m already put in a position of replacing it. My brother-in-law’s 5-year old Pentax Optio has seen lots of use and it’s still going strong and their current models are about $329+.
So maybe I will aim a little higher on the price range this time around so I won’t have to go through this again any time soon.
The search continues…
Tags: a590, a60, broken, canon, compact flash, lcd, memory card problem, nimh, pentax. optio, powershot
Entries (RSS)