Digital cameras 101

[JenniferM82]

Hola! I got a vivitar 5385 last year, and it worked great, until it started taking black/blank photos. The screen is working- the vivitar logo comes up and I can go through the menu, but when I go to take a picture it just takes a blank one. It counts them and everything. I try to upload them and they are blank. Any idea what I did to my camera and how I can fix it? Could I have messed up a setting? I tried to restore to my default but it didn't do anything. Thanks in advance for your help! - jenny

[bdery]

Hi Jennifer and welcome!

I'm not familiar with your camera, but resetting everything to default should have done the trick if it was related to a camera setting. If your camera has a fully manual mode (which I doubt) you might want to stay clear of that as it might be the manual settings which cause this. If you're using Auto mode (or equivalent) and it's still happening, then to me it suggests a hardware problem.

I'm guessing your camera has a built-in shade to protect your lens when not in use; does it open when you turn on the camera? If you have a removeable lens cap, make sure it's removed to take pictures. If this doesn't work, maybe try to format your memory card, it might be corrupted. If these things don't work, then the best thing to do would be to contact Vivitar if the camera is still under warranty. If not, the price of a replacement might very well be the same as what you would pay for repairs.

Good luck! Keep us informed!