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Photo Forum / General Photo Topics / UK Photography / February 2005

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Canon Powershot G5 Fried. A Cautionary Tale.

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carrigman - 24 Jan 2005 21:18 GMT
My beloved little G5 was fried at a rock concert last night:-(

My son's band was playing at a local venue and I was taking some photos. I
positioned myself near a (very loud) loudspeaker to take some shots.
Everything was going well. I then had to change the CF card and when I
replaced it I got a "Memory Card Error" message on the LCD. Thinking it was
a faulty card I replaced it again only to get the same message. And the
camera started responding *very* slowly to the ON/OFF command. It was clear
that it was seriouslly ill. I've recharged it but to no avail.

I checked the User Guide book only to find the following:

"Avoid Strong Magnetic Fields...Never place the camera in close proximity to
electric motors or other equipment generating strong electromagetic
fields....exposure may case malfunctions or corrupt image data".

So, I presume that the field from the loudpseaker has fried the camera's
innards.  Canon advises that a repair will likely cost about ?160. Am trying
to decide whether to go ahead with the repair or opt for a new G6 instead.

So, steer clear of large loudspeakers when using digicams folks.

(Sigh).

(It wouldn't have happened to my trusty manual Nikon FM2).

Carrigman
Mark Dunn - 25 Jan 2005 10:38 GMT
Ouch. Nothing like that in my Olympus instructions. Can someone shed some
light?
> My beloved little G5 was fried at a rock concert last night:-(
>
[quoted text clipped - 23 lines]
>
> Carrigman
Networkguy - 25 Jan 2005 14:01 GMT
> Ouch. Nothing like that in my Olympus instructions. Can someone shed some
> light?

Magnetic fields & electronics are best kept well apart.

As an experiment place a speaker near your TV screen and see what happens.

I once managed to kill a mobile phone this way when I was stood up against a
big subwoofer in a nightclub with my phone in my back pocket.
Roger Whitehead - 25 Jan 2005 16:49 GMT
> I once managed to kill a mobile phone this way when I was stood up against a
> big subwoofer in a nightclub with my phone in my back pocket

Yeah, some of those bouncers are pretty unpleasant.

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Roger

Chris Savage - 25 Jan 2005 22:28 GMT
>> Ouch. Nothing like that in my Olympus instructions. Can someone shed some
>> light?

No light, just a lot of scepticism. A magnetic field might induce some
unwanted current here and there and possibly cause equipment malfunction
until said equipment is removed from the field. I doubt it could cause
permanent damage to anything but a microdrive (which might get wiped but
no worse.)

> Magnetic fields & electronics are best kept well apart.

Difficult if not impossible.

> As an experiment place a speaker near your TV screen and see what happens.

The magnet in the speaker deflects the electrons in the CRT (if we're
talking about CRT TVs.) And?

> I once managed to kill a mobile phone this way when I was stood up against a
> big subwoofer in a nightclub with my phone in my back pocket.

Cause? Effect?

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Chris Savage                  Kiss me. Or would you rather live in a
Crawcrook,UK                  land where the soap won't lather?

Mark Dunn - 27 Jan 2005 16:09 GMT
I couldn't figure out a mechanism for the damage either.
> >> Ouch. Nothing like that in my Olympus instructions. Can someone shed some
> >> light?
[quoted text clipped - 22 lines]
> Chris Savage                  Kiss me. Or would you rather live in a
> Crawcrook,UK                  land where the soap won't lather?
Peter Parry - 27 Jan 2005 17:31 GMT
>I couldn't figure out a mechanism for the damage either.

Vibration.  The magnetic field from even a big speaker is low - but
the vibration from the things - especially when driven hard from
electronic noise sources (sometimes misnamed music) is very high and
close to them can easily vibrate IC's and interconnects to death.

Signature

Peter Parry.  
http://www.wpp.ltd.uk/

sparkie001 - 15 Feb 2005 04:53 GMT
Our G5 got the same error today. When I took a closer look with a
magnifying glass I found that one of the pins is bent inside the camera
where the CF plugs in. So two pins were inserting into one "socket" in the
CF. Don't ask me how THAT happened! I guess one of the employees forced
the card in, but how would you know what was too much force?? Anyway,
looks like this is toast. I might offer to take it home and perform
surgery... hope this helps.
John Cartmell - 15 Feb 2005 09:21 GMT
In article
<615911dee642734799d92cc2b8966c37@localhost.talkaboutphotography.com>,
> Our G5 got the same error today. When I took a closer look with a
> magnifying glass I found that one of the pins is bent inside the camera
[quoted text clipped - 3 lines]
> Anyway, looks like this is toast. I might offer to take it home and
> perform surgery... hope this helps.

Probably tried to put it in sideways.
It can be mended with the help of a thin tool and plenty of care.

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