I’ve mentioned my ailing PowerBook and the ever-vexing question of whether I should get a new one or not. Here’s another one for you: if your camera is slightly broken, when should you get a new one?
We have a Sony DSC-P200. It is/was very nice indeed. Then we dropped it, trying to take a picture of ourselves. The zoom lens was out so now the camera doesn’t zoom anymore. Its focusing capabilities are now in the range of “no focus at all” to “very, very nearly in focus”.
We’d like to get it repaired. But here’s the thing. The camera cost about £200. We rang Sony and asked how much it would cost to get it repaired. £112 (or something very close) just to have it looked at, with the possibility of more costs if parts need replacing. So basically the entire cost of the camera then?
“But aren’t there other people who could repair it?” you might ask. No. I rang a camera repair shop to ask that very same question.
“Ah. It’s a Sony is it? That’s going to be a problem. They won’t sell us the spare parts.”
So only Sony can repair your camera if it goes wrong and it’ll cost at least half the price of the camera to get it replaced.
I’m thinking it’s time to buy a Fuji Finepix F30. Anyone had any experience with one of those? The ISO3200 feature looks very inviting…