Canon Camera Customer and Repair Service: A Good, Reputable Experience

Bad News

It had been such a good camera, the Canon A95. Top of the early 2005 point-and-shoot lineup, it had a very convenient highly-adjustable rotating viewfinder—common on camcorders, but very rare on still-image cameras, 5.0 megapixel resolution, and a good range of capabilities and mostly-useful features and settings for its time. Only 4 years into its life, one day in 2009 there was serious visual distortion visible in the viewfinder. It wasn’t the viewfinder screen: the problem was on taken picture files as well. The problem was a failure in the CCD image sensor.

Hope

There had been some press coverage on this issue at the time. The article i saw was in the 27 October 2005 Wall Street Journal, entitled Faulty Chip Mars Many Camera Models (link to PAYWALLED online version), mentioning a problematic Sony CCD chip and silent recalls across many camera brands, including Canon.

But it was 2009, and the 2005 article mentioned that some makers’ extended warranty repair windows would be time-limited. Would Canon honor the repair?

Joy!

They did. Not only did they repair the camera at no cost to me, they paid shipping both ways, supplying me with a prepaid UPS shipping label and easy instructions for repacking and several options for shipping it out. Beyond just repairing the CCD sensor, they did overall cleaning and possibly other maintenance/fine-tuning.

The camera i received back worked as-new, at no cost to me and very little lost time of usage whilst it was being shipped and repaired.

Longevity

15 years later, in 2024 (as i type this), this camera continues to work and serve well. Many of the photos on this website—past, present, and surely some in the future—have been taken by this camera. As convenient as it sometimes is to utilize the much more modern built-in cameras on my fairly recent (as of when this article was originally written) iPhone, various Apple format issues and Photos app bugs make working with those pictures a major pain. Even with a wholesale lack of image stabilization in the Canon A95, it is still often easier and faster to use and get the images website- or email-ready.

The only issue which has cropped up—which may or may not have anything to do with the repair—is that the rotary Zoom In/Zoom Out switch is very intermittent. Beyond zoom, this same switch serves other functions in other modes. Maybe someday i’ll look into opening up the camera and cleaning the contacts on whatever connectors are involved with that switch.

Good Impression

Product support/customer service doesn’t get much better than this. Cynics might say this is the least Canon or any other manufacturer could do when faced with a widespread major component failure like this. Maybe so, but most of us know of many other companies/individuals who do not care at all and only do what they are forced to do by law and/or massive public outcry. Canon did the ethical, correct thing. This speaks well of the company and its principles. If or when i’m in the market for a digital camera, based upon this experience, in terms of brands, Canon is where i’m likely to start… and likely to end up purchasing.