Problem with Olympus C-8080

[Cjb]

Hi Folks,
Looking for some help here, i recently purchased the C-8080, very pleased with the camera. Then, about a week ago, when out taking a few landscape pic's, it froze up, Lens half extended, no lcd display, no viewfinder display, nothing worked ! repeated pressing of the power button had no effect. I then removed the battery (which was fully charged) for a few minutes and replaced it, no response at all, so I removed the battery again, packed up, and went home. That evening, I tried again, I found that by pressing and holding the power button for about 10 sec's, the camera came back to life, all the pic's were still there on the xD card, but the time and date in the camera memory needed resetting. I continued using the camera with the same xD card for about another 50 shots, all were viewable on the lcd screen at the time of taking, but when I attempted to view them on my pc, I could only find the pictures taken before the freeze up, no trace of the subsequent 50. Any comments, or theories out there ??

Cjb

[Steve]

CJB,

Welcome to ukexpert.

You seem to be saying that a camera you recently purchased is not working properly.

Normally that means only one thing, talking to the dealer who sold it to you, and that is what I suggest you do.

They should be able to sort it for you, probably by replacing the camera if it is very new as it seems from what you say.

Olympus and their warranty services are of course on the Olympus Web site, and their returns pages etc seem to be here: http://www.olympus.co.uk/consumer/208_1636.htm

I doubt if it will help you if folks here guess what may be wrong... as if you buy a new camera and it locks up and fails to work there is only normally one course of action...and that's to take it back to the dealer for help and advice and possible replacement.

The Olympus site seems to say to do that also..ie to go back to those who sold it to you for help and advice.

You could of course try simple stuff like trying another card, ensuring the camera is fully charged, etc etc... but if it is acting broken and it is new then most folks would want it replaced or looked at.

I hope the thoughts are helpful...even if a little obvious.

Steve

[Cjb]

Hi Steve,
Thanks for the prompt reply and warm welcome to ukexpert. As you suggest, I intend returning the camera to the suppliers, and have already contacted them. I was intrigued by the problem, and wondered if any of the ukexpert community had encountered it, I was also wondering if anybody might be able to shed some light on my 50 missing photo's, which as I said, were initially viewable on the camera (up to the point where I connected the camera to the pc), but then could not be found on the pc. Finally, when I disconnected the camera from the pc, the pictures had also disappeared from the camera.
Chris.

[Steve]

Chris,

From the way you talk of returning the camera I'm guessing you didn't buy from somewhere that will actually advise you and look at the camera and card for you - that would have been the ideal wouldn't it - to have a good camera shop/agent or whatever look at it all for you...including the card. I tend to buy important cameras from the makers direct or from good camera shops, so I have good people to talk to if something fails.

What do Olympus say?

The link I gave gives their freephone support number, and obviously they see the faults that develop in their cameras more than anyone else will. They may be able to make suggestions re the card/photos. If you haven't talked to them yet maybe that is an idea.

This sort of thing last happened to me when I changed batteries on my FZ20 camera, the card no longer showed all the photos taken before that. I finally salvaged them by getting off what I could using the camera to PC lead -and then looking at the card in a card reader... where I found I could get the others off. I then reformatted the card using the camera, as it had obviously become corrupted due to a power glitch of some sort...probably the power going off while it was saving.

Someone else may have ideas for you.... but Olympus and their dealers must be the best people to advise you, and I really would talk to them.

Steve