The friendly guy at Click Camera said he was having a lucky day. Mine was the
second camera that he fiddled with and magically repaired. I think the key was
removing the lens and wiping some dust that was disturbing the contacts or controls
for auto-focus. Anyway, it works fine now.
Later in the week I picked up a Canon PowerShot S5 IS camera that I had been
reading about. Among other things, it does video (which my Nikon doesn't), has
image stabilization and face detection, has a 12X zoom, and can take extreme
closeups. The movies are captured at 30 fps with a wind noise filter. You can even
take still pictures while you are capturing video.
It uses AA
batteries and supports
the new SDHC memory cards --
HC stands
for "high capacity"
so the cards can
hold 4 GB -- lots of video. This is not an SLR camera.
Here it is turned on with the lens extended.
A close-up of my steering wheel that I took as soon as I unpacked the camera in
the car.
You can see the dust particles.
Steering wheel.
I still need to carry a small camera in my pocket. For that I use a Sony Cyber-shot
DSC-W80.
Cameras
I have the extended warranty, but I wasn't looking forward to sending my Nikon camera for repairs. I happened to have it with me when I passed the store where I bought it, so I took it in to see what they could do.