E18 Error Report
The last three weeks (time since my previous post) have been more or less an extended insult. I don’t know if things are improving or not at the moment. It snowed throughout the month of April - right up to yesterday, when we got yet another 2 inches of slop. Throw in some agonizing and intermittent tooth pain for me. (Waiting on the root canal - in 2 weeks.)
But school lets out for the summer soon. So mid-May holds some promise.
My long range plan has been to get my students out in the field with the biology grad student who’s been working with us all year. But the weather has been…frustrating…I mentioned that, didn’t I? Next week we’re headed out on 2 all-day outdoor education missions. Today we toured the university power plant, saw examples of thermokarst in the “drunken forest” behind campus, and visited the migratory bird refuge, which was some sloppy wet walking. A good time was had by most.
I was taking pictures with my Canon S2 IS, and I noticed a little bit of vibration as the zoom lens retracted/extended. That lasted for about 2 on-off cycles before the whole works jammed (open) and the camera refused to work. A little message in the viewfinder said E18. That’s all it said.
Nothing happened to this camera that might have damaged it.
In a futile bid for a quick fix to this weird problem, I replaced the batteries. No such luck. I carried my broken camera around all day alternately seeing good photo subjects, and cursing Canon for its fussy equipment that costs as much to repair as to replace.
After school let out I took it to the camera shop to see what they had to say. The guy behind the counter took about 15 minutes with me, and he managed to get the lens to retract - once. I took a picture and it jammed again. He told me that we should think of this stuff as “disposable.” And he tried to interest me in another Canon product.
When I got home this evening, I searched “Canon” E18, and I found plenty. I left a comment on this complaint collection site, after I saw how common the problem was. There’s even a class action lawsuit, apparently. Interestingly, a site search at Cannon turns up zero results for EI8. Yet there’s even a web domain called e18error.com with a slew of error reports and some useless suggestions for fixing the problem. Even more reports of this mess at the Jungle Zone.
Maybe this wouldn’t be so bad if Canon would stand behind its product. But this amazing customer service fiasco puts that pipe dream to rest. I won’t be getting another Canon. It stinks that this stuff is built to break.
Most of what’s been dogging me lately is bound to improve. I need some suggestions for a new camera with good zoom and macro capability. And, yeah, it should be tough enough.
Barbara S wrote,
Hi. I love my Nikon D80. It has 10.2 pixels. I have several lenses including an 80-400 mm which was great when I went to Katmai to watch the bears. If you go with Nikon, it would mean getting all new lenses but I have found them far more superior than Canon lenses. Mine has survived many hikes in various weather conditions. Hope this helps…
Link | May 2nd, 2008 at 6:09 am
Doug Noon wrote,
Taking it to photograph the bears at Katmai is a solid endorsement. Thanks.
Link | May 2nd, 2008 at 6:32 am
Scott Laleman wrote,
I had the same thing happen with my PowerShot A70, but the camera was almost 3 years old at the time, and I’d taken close to 4000 pictures with it, so it was a good excuse to upgrade. But I feel your pain.
I actually did end up purchasing another Canon for my wife last year. For being a point and shoot, I really like the ability to set everything manually like you can with a more expensive SLR.
Of course, when I upgraded, I went with the SLR. =-)
Link | May 2nd, 2008 at 10:45 am
Ryan wrote,
I had the good fortune of buying SIX of the canon’s for my photography class (cheap, full manual controls) … they dropped like flies. I think I have two left. E18’s for the lot of ‘em. They waited for the warranty to expire of course.
Note also that the Canon Rebel has a known issue with the memory card … taking it out and putting it back in will result in bent pins. They’ve fixed it once for me … but now it’s out of warranty.
For the prices currently I’d go with the SLR, and the Nikons are nice. Just FYI (I don’t know your knowledge level on this), SLRs do not show the image on screen when you are composing your shot … you must look through the view-finder (there’s a mirror in the way). So, if you really like holding the camera out in front of you, don’t expect to be able to! It will show the image on playback.
Link | May 2nd, 2008 at 10:40 pm
Doug Noon wrote,
Thanks, Ryan. And you have my sympathy, as well. I always use the view-finder when I take pictures. The Nikon is sounding pretty good.
Link | May 3rd, 2008 at 6:06 am
Jack wrote,
Today my friend come with powershoot 80 and same problem..
This is due mechanic failure in lens..but in this case there are some solution..
1.Use much stronger battery least 2600 mAh
AND CLOSE LCD monitor while starting up the camera!!!!!!
This will reduce power consument at start up but it will work only if this lens problem are not so big..(like in this case)
Link | June 6th, 2008 at 12:36 am