We set off with 4 cameras plus 2 iphones with relatively good cameras. Within 3 days of eachother, exactly 3 of the 4 cameras have gone kaput in some way.
We had 2 Sony Cybershots – a TX-5 (Jordan’s) and a TX-10 (mine). On our last day on the Galapagos while swimming with eagle rays and hammer head sharks, my beloved TX-10 that Jordan bought me for my birthday 4 years ago stopped working. It’s a waterproof camera and I was bummed to find that some how water had gotten inside the battery compartment (especially since it has a rubberized seal). It won’t turn on for love or money, and I’ve tried burying it in rice just in case.
Next was my Nikon D7000. This is not a cheap camera. It’s my baby, my precious. It’s what I use to take fancy artsy shots when I’m willing to lug it around, and without my little Sony Cybershot, it became my primary camera. Until, that is, it stopped auto-focusing. Or rather, it started autofocusing so much it couldn’t make it’s mind up. Now it just continues trying a focus point and never succeeds. I was gutted because that left me with just the Go Pro (thank goodness my dad bought us a Go Pro!) but I decided to test the D7000 with other lenses and have determined that the lens is what’s borked, not the camera body. That’s changed from a $1000 problem to a $300 problem. Still a problem, but a lesser one.
And finally, today, Jordan’s Sony Cybershot started doing something weird where it would automatically shut off and the screen would start flickering. It resulted in him missing an epic shot of me hanging upside down on a zipline zooming through a cloud forest, so that’s extra tragic.
We’re down to a Go Pro and two iPhones. Tomorrow we’re going to a recommended repair shop to see what can be done – since we’re off to Cusco, then Machu Picchu the day after tomorrow and I really don’t want to be snapping these ancient ruins with an phone camera!