Canon Camera Recall
July 31st, 2008 by ComputerBob
Since early 2005, my wife and I have owned two Canon PowerShot A75 digital cameras. They’ve been great cameras — we’ve happily shot about 5,000 photos with each of them — and we’ve never had any problems with either one.
Until now.
A few weeks ago, I noticed that my camera started acting weird intermittently. In the middle of taking great photos, the LCD viewfinder would suddenly display everything all purple, blurry and distorted. If I took a photo when the display looked that way, the photo ended up looking purple, blurry and distorted. I had no idea what was causing the problem, but since it only happened a few times, I hoped that it was a freak occurence and didn’t worry about it.
But early last week, it suddenly got a lot worse. The LCD display started showing every photo as purple, blurry and distorted, and all of the resulting photos looked that same way. I began troubleshooting it by installing new batteries, but the problem remained. I connected it to our TV, using its special cable, to see if the purple, blurry distortion that appeared on its LCD display would also appear “live” on the TV. It did. But if I switched to “view photos” mode, its entire menu system displayed normally, without any distortion.
While I was troubleshooting it, the problem got even worse. The image on its LCD display and on the TV screen kept displaying at its full width, but it shrunk vertically so that it only took up about the center one-third of the screen, and it appeared to be twisted and in black-and-white.
I removed its batteries and left it on our kitchen counter for several days. Each time I re-installed its batteries, it acted exactly the same way. Changing its memory card didn’t make any difference either. Then, last night, I did a Google search for “Canon A75 problems” and discovered that Canon has known about the problem for almost 2 years, and it involves the CCD image sensor’s connections in several different Canon still and video cameras. If your camera is affected by the problem, and you live in one of the geographical areas that are covered by the recall, Canon will repair your camera for free.
Here is Canon’s announcement about the problem and its offer to repair any affected cameras for free.
I called Canon an hour ago and described the problem with my camera. They’re going to email me a shipping label that I can use to ship my camera to their repair center free of charge. If they confirm that the problem is caused by bad CCD wiring, they will repair it for free and ship it back to me. They’re also going to send me a second shipping label, just in case my wife’s PowerShot A75 (that we bought one month after I got mine) starts to have the same problem.
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Tags:
Consumer Info, Hardware, Images, Personal
July 23rd, 2009 at 5:02 pm
Wow, thanks for your information on the Canon Powershot A75 CCD image sensor’s connection problem. My camera seems to be having the same problem and I used your information to request help with my problem from Canon. Thanks again for the info. Have a nice day.
July 23rd, 2009 at 5:42 pm
You’re very welcome!
August 2nd, 2009 at 10:02 pm
thank you very much for the information, im going to contact canon in the morning and send my camera back to have them repair it. Thought it was going to cost me alot to have it fixed but because of your post i think it will get repaired free. Thanks a million
August 2nd, 2009 at 10:19 pm
I hope it goes as well for you as it has for others, Chris! If you get a chance, please come back later and give us an update!
August 8th, 2009 at 12:21 pm
Hi C.B.,
Thank goodness my brother told me to look up this problem on my computer. I have loved my A75 and taken thousands of pictures with no problem then bam!…I turned it on and there was the purple/pink blurry picture when I tried to take a picture. I also changed batteries, compact flash card to no avail. I have 3 flashcards so wanted to be able to still use them so I bought another A75 from Ebay but when I got it it too had the same problem. YIPES!!!
So, I am going to call Canon on Monday and hopefully I can send in one of these cameras and get it fixed.
Thank you so much for the info.
You don’t happen to have the phone number do you?
Laurie
August 8th, 2009 at 12:51 pm
It sounds like there’s a good chance that Canon could end up repairing both of your cameras for free, just like they did for my wife and me.
Canon’s phone number is on the Canon announcement page to which I linked in this Journal post.
August 13th, 2009 at 4:46 pm
I just sent my camera off to canon and WOW, awesome service. They paid to ship both ways and repaired it to normal operations, and on top of it all they replaced a couple of parts for no charge…. I am very Satisfied
November 10th, 2009 at 11:30 pm
My A75 had a similar problem (no LCD picture) about 2 years ago. Canon repaired the CCD connections and returned it to me for free. Now just over 2 years later, I have the same problem exactly that you described on your camera. With the purple, blurry and distorted LCD. I wonder if Canon will fix it a second time? I guess a phone call is in order. Will let you know what they say.
December 3rd, 2009 at 12:24 am
Well, I got my Canon A75 back from the Canon repair center in Montreal on Monday and they have repaired it a second time. The problem was the same problem as last time - CCD connections. I had to pay for mailing it to them both times (about $11), but they return it to me via Purolator Express. Camera is working just fine again.
December 3rd, 2009 at 1:05 am
Thanks for the update, Mike! That’s really good news!
December 8th, 2009 at 9:29 pm
Thanks for your information on the Canon PowerShot A75 CCD image sensor issue. I was getting ready to give up on this camera, when I decided to check out the Internet and came across your information. Absolutely refreshing when a company stands behind their product. Courteous service, free shipping (UPS there, FedEx back), free prompt repair (from phone call to customer service to camera returned to me — 2 weeks, 1 day). Only thing better would have been no issue in the first place, but I am now looking forward to many more years of quality use from this gem of a camera.
December 8th, 2009 at 9:40 pm
You’re very welcome, Ken! Thanks for sharing your good news with us!
December 12th, 2009 at 2:48 pm
Thank you for the post - I own a Canon A75 and have been seeing this problem since the last few weeks. Glad to hear that Canon will fix this (I was about to ditch my Canon loyalty).
December 12th, 2009 at 3:06 pm
I’m always very happy when one of my articles helps someone!
May 18th, 2010 at 12:44 am
I have the A75 and it has been messed for a couple years. It is driving me crazy. Tonight I thought I’d find something on the internet that would help me fix it. You helped me big time. Thank you so much!
June 8th, 2010 at 10:07 pm
Hi. Your note helped me too. I just put my A75 in UPS box today. I will try to remember to send a follow up when I hear back from Canon. You also saved me a lot of time. I had just started with changing the batteries and seeing same problem. I registered my camera with Canon, am at same address, yet I did not receive any notices from them about the problem. How is one supposed to find out about them? By randomly looking at the Canon website? Also, when they are fixing the problem, are they putting in a non malfunctioning part? THANK YOU! I am hopeful I don’t have to buy a new camera now.
January 28th, 2011 at 9:57 am
haha, old news but good to read. I hope it will not recall the canon G11 that I just bought.
May 2nd, 2011 at 2:07 pm
Thanks,
I have A75 which has had the same issue and I left in my cabinet. I will call Canon to fix it.
Thanks,
TN
Minnesota
May 11th, 2011 at 1:47 pm
I have a canon powershot A75 which i served me well. But i have up graded to a
newer canon camera.
So I gave my a75 to my husband a few weeks ago.
Now the LCD screen has just gone blank, no pink or purple just blank’
Even when you focus with you eye to take a photo,
It will flash as if it is taking a photo but it is not taking any photo’s
It will read everything on the card, and shows all the bits and bobs on the screen.
It even changes to different programs. i have renewed the batteries.
my husbanb may i touched something but i can’t find out what’
i would be grateful for any advice
thanks jean
May 11th, 2011 at 1:51 pm
If I were you, I would just contact Canon, as described above. After they examine your camera, they will notify you if whatever repair it may need is not covered under the recall described above, and if it is NOT covered by the recall, they will tell you what it would cost to repair it and give you the option to pay for the needed repair or not.
February 6th, 2012 at 4:57 pm
I just got a SD 4500IS and when i watch the Video or Pictures on my TV they are all in black and white.and the picture is fuzzy.