I bought an IS-3 on eBay several months ago and have been very pleased with it.
Recalling some comments on the list that some users consider the IS-1 lens
a little sharper, I bought one last week on eBay. It arrived yesterday, so
I checked it out last night. I would appreciate any comments on the problem
I found.
When I turned on the IS-1, everything seemed normal as far as noises and lens
movement compared to my IS-3. When I attempted to zoom, it wouldn't go past
50mm or so. I turned it off, wondering if there was a macro mode I had
inadvertenly
entered that limited it to 50mm or less. I turned the camera back on. This
time the lens would zoom normally. I pointed the lens at various objects at
various distances and tried to focus. It focused fine (but slowly as I was
aware it would). I popped up the flash but several seconds later put it back
down. (I didn't notice any charging sound, but I wasn't really listening for
one.) At some point I shot a pretend (filmless) picture. No problems. Then
I turned it off. The lens did not retract but stayed zoomed out to 135 or so.
There was some play in the lens. Over the course of several minutes I turned
the camera on & off several times. Using the zoom controls I was eventually
able to get the camera to retract to 35mm. It still didn't make the final
retraction
upon turning off the power as best I recall. Now when I turn it on, it makes
a whirring sound for 3 or 4 seconds and then goes dead. The sound stops and
the back panel goes out. While the whirring sound takes place, I can't zoom
the lens. There is no weak battery shown on the LCD (nor was there one there
previously). I loaded a fresh set of 123 batteries but got the same results.
I'm going to pick up another pair of batteries today & try them out in my local
camera store.
1. Assuming that batteries don't do the trick, any thoughts on the whir of
death?
2. Has anyone had such a problem repaired before? If so, do you recall the
approximate cost?
3. Has anyone been tracking IS-1 prices? If so, what's a fair price on a
working
IS-1? (I've alerted the seller as to the problem. Depending upon the answers
to my questions and what the seller has to say, we might agree on a partial
refund. I want to be sure I don't shoot myself in the foot if I do.)
I appreciate any comments or answers anyone has to contribute. If you've got
followup questions I can answer, I won't see them until I get home tonight (in
roughly 9-10 hours). I will post tonight to let you know if more new batteries
fixed the problem.
Thanks much.
Mike W.
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