Canon SD110 broken CCD

Well, after five years, my Canon SD110 has finally shown its age. I cannot take any more pictures with it. Everything about the camera is still functioning fine except for what I believe is the CCD. The menu works, the LCD works, the shutter works, the flash works, the zoom lens works. All the buttons and knobs work. This camera is built solid, with a metallic frame. The camera just cannot take pictures.

This afternoon, I took out the camera. I remembered seeing distortion of images in the LCD a couple of months ago. I thought it was just the LCD so I did not care much, but I got curious. My niece used my camera to take some pictures. I never transfered the pictures out of the camera until today. I wondered whether it was the LCD or maybe worse, the CCD. To my dismay, some pictures she took turned out fine, but some not. It was not the LCD.

Before transfering the pictures out, I thought I would take one picture as for a brief five minutes, the LCD looked somewhat clear -- there was still a purplish band at the top of the LCD. I knew it was not vignetting as I have never seen it with the built-in lens.


The purple band is there. There is a horizontal line running across the image at about half way down. There is also a vertical smudgy line in the image.

That was the last picture I could take with the camera. Now, every picture I take is completly dark.


I checked with Canon's website. There is an advisory for the SD110 and several other Canon point-and-shoot cameras, about the CCD. In a hot and humid environment it is possible for some bonded electronics to come separate. Canon will repair it for free, even if the warranty has expired. I will send my camera in and will see what they say. I hope they can repair it as I like this camera a lot, and repair it fast because I need it for interior camping in a couple of weeks.