Digital cameras 101

[Jay]

We recently flew to the Carribean for a vacation.  I did some research about airport security and the digicam and film cameras I planned to take.  I packed the film cameras  in my carry-on, and my digicam, with a brand new card, was in its box in the middle of my checked suitcase.  When I unpacked this bag, I had a little paper in it from the TSA that this bag had been hand inspected.

After unpacking,  I realized my digicam was not working.  It acted like it was taking pictures-- "images" were recorded on the card and numbered, but they were all black.  It seems like the camera can't "see" anything.  I imagine my camera was dropped during the inspection of my luggage.  

Is there any hope for this camera, do you suppose?  After realizing the problem, we went directly to the only camera shop on the island and bought a better digicam than my original one, but I'd like to know if the broken one might be fixed.  It would be nice to take it to use at my business while keeping the newer one at home.

Any thoughts?

Appreciate it,

Jaye

[Jaye]

One more thing I forgot to add...after I came home from my trip, I tried my busted camera with another memory card, thinking maybe the new card I had bought for the trip was defective or that it had somehow been damaged by the airport screening.  The same thing happened, so the problem must be in the camera itself.  (Yes, I made sure the batteries were good and all that.   )

Any thoughts?

Thanks!

Jaye

[Mike54]

Hi Jay,

I'm not a camera mechanic but if the camera was working properly before the "hand inspection" and was not afterward I would be having words with a supervisor from the TSA.
If everything seems to be working fine except you're getting no viewable images (and I assume you've removed the lens cap  ) double check the settings on the camera. If someone were playing with the camera and closed down the aperture and ramped up the shutter speed it may not be seeing any light (long shot WAG ) Other thoughts include checking the status of the warranty.

Good Luck.

[Deb]

Hi there Jay, this may seem like a silly thing to mention but ... are you waiting until the image is fully written to your card before turning off the camera? If your card is slow, or you are writing large files, turning off the camera before it has completely written the file will result in the problem you're seeing as well. I tried this action on my digicam and found that if I don't wait, the result is a solid black "image" with image number, etc. recorded. Anyway, just a thought.  

I couldn't tell from your post if you had operated your camera prior to taking the trip. If so, and it worked properly then, then run don't walk to report the breakage.  

Cheers.