February 22nd, 2007
My trusty Canon A70 has followed me for many years, but last November it succumbed to the dreaded CCD fault. Even though I didn’t have proof of purchase etc. I got in contact with my local Canon repair centre via email and they said if it was the CCD bug, they’d replace it free of charge. I was fairly confident it was, as it had the tell tale symptom of only recording purple / black wavy lines.
I sent it off to Colchester by post for a few pounds on Saturday and it arrived back today, fixed free of charge. Hurrah!
To test it out I took three photos of my room–and yes, the photos hanging on the walls were all taken with my trusty A70.
February 26th, 2007 at 11:46 pm
You’ve got a knack for photography! And I find it interesting how your room is ALL WHITE! AHHH! I WOULD DIE!
Just got my Canon Rebel XTi today.. very excited to experiment!
February 27th, 2007 at 1:23 pm
Hi Alex,
Whilst searching for advice on what to do about my canon A70, I found your blog on Google and having read that you got your A70 fixed like mine (it just arrived back last Thursday)I thought I had better let you know that mine has developed a new fault of spontaneously turning itself on and off intermittantly, sometimes continuously! til I take the batteries out.
I only discovered the fault because my A70 was near me in it’s bag when I heard a bird noise,THE bird noise that I set the camera to make every time I press a button .
Luckily it was set to replay mode and not shooting mode otherwise it could be worse as theres no room in the bag for the lens to extend, so you might want to set yours to replay when not in use or remove the batteries as I have done. As it is I’ll call canon but as I have found no one else with this problem yet, What’s the bet they’re gonna charge me this time.?
Good luck ,
regards, Robert
February 27th, 2007 at 2:45 pm
Possibly you could email the Canon support centre? My camera, as of yet, hasn’t experience this problem and I keep it with the batteries in. Sounds like they may have botched something up when repairing your camera.
April 28th, 2007 at 6:28 pm
I’d be a bit wary about recommending the Colchester Canon repair centre to anyone. Earlier this month I sent my A70 to them. It had all the standard symptoms of a defective CCD, and a local Canon retailer had looked at the camera and verified the fault was with the CCD.
I emailed the Colchester repair centre (www.camera-repair.co.uk) explaining the situation, and they stated that if they found the fault was CCD based, it would be repaired free of charge. I then sent them the camera…..and a few days later received a reciept in the post telling me the camera would cost £126 to repair. They claimed it needed to be dismantled, have a general service, have the main circuit replaced and everything else reset - no mention whatsoever of anything CCD related.
I then emailed them again, suggesting that maybe their technician needed to take a second look at the problem, as his diagnosis seemed very strange in relation to the obvious CCD symptoms I’d described. I waited a week and received no response.
I then emailed them a third time, attaching a copy of the email they’d failed to respond to, and pointing out that quite frankly the situation looked as if someone was trying to pull the wool over my eyes and make some easy money out of me.
They then replied apologetically, claiming they hadn’t recieved the previous email, and that when their technican took a second look he realised the fault was simply with the CCD - a big change from the list of items they intended to bill me for originally!
They stated that had I paid the £126 it would have been paid back when the technician found the problem was only a CCD. But to my mind that isn’t the point. At that price I could have simply accepted their original diagnosis and considered it not worth having the camera repaired. With that scenario - the most likely had I not contested their original diagnosis - the Colchester centre would actually have ended up costing me hundreds of pounds. I’d have thrown away (after paying their £7.00 postal costs to get it back) a perfectly repairable (and warranty covered) A70, and gone and bought a brand new replacement.
You could also debate, with the Colchester repair centre’s hugely different original analysis of the problem, just how likely the technician would have been to admit his error had I paid the £126 without question.
So to anyone with an A70 suffering the CCD fault, in my experience the Colchester repair centre is best avoided. I certainly will never use them again.
There are a number of repair centres in the UK who will fix the CCD problem free of charge. If you email Canon UK they will supply you with a small list of them.