Error 99

My camera died.

I had taken a few pictures of Leah on her first birthday today (we're getting to that in a separate post) when suddenly the camera just froze.  Like a bad Windows screen, nothing worked anymore.  I couldn't take pictures, I couldn't view the content of the SD card, nothing.

The battery symbol had indicated low battery so I went ahead and charged the battery, not wasting too much thought on it.  But when the battery was charged and powered the camera up, I took one picture and the little menu screen on the back of the camera flashed irritably.  The flashing wouldn't stop even when I turned the camera off. So I ejected the battery and tried again - same result.  I tried again, then I had an "Error 99" message and the camera got warm.  It had never ever done that before and it sounds very bad to me.  Gahh!

I googled "Error 99" and got about three gazillion hits - and five and a half gazillion answers.  It's basically a generic error code that means nothing and everything. 

We're flying out in 10 days.  The next repair shop is 40 minutes away in Schweinfurt and I have the very bad feeling they would just tell me to send the camera to Canon.  Which would take forever even if they managed to fix the camera.  Of course, the shop might also be able to repair the camera, for not much money and within a day or two.  Sure.

But somehow, I see this result: The camera might/might not get repaired, but not before we leave and maybe not even before we come back.  I have to shoot a wedding the weekend we come back -- but I would need a camera for that.  Camera repairs are usually quite pricey. 

Sigh. I am mentally saying good-bye to the Rebel.  It's been good to me.

Then this afternoon, my MIL called and told us she and her husband (who is not well) are considering coming up to Virginia to see us when we're there.  That's great news and we're very happy about that.  But as I said, my father-in-law is not well, so she asked us if we could stay at the hotel while she and her husband stayed at my sister-in-laws.  Of course we said yes - what a question! I want her to be as comfortable as possible and I am very, very happy that my in-laws are coming to see us in Virginia at all.  It's a great stress factor on them.  I want to do everything I can to make this easy for them.

But... that's another $600+ for the hotel. (I know, Natalie, and thank you.  But we need to stay close and be available at all times, at least for the days when my in-laws are there.)  Doug is making good money when he's got work but he doesn't have another assignment lined up for the fall just yet.  Which makes us very hesitant about spending money.  A new camera is just not in the budget right now.

This is making me more miserable than I want to admit to myself.  Photography has become a big, important part of my life.  And now I'm without a camera - any camera.  My little Point-and-Shoot is broken ever since Alan took it apart two years ago.  We won't have any pictures of our vacation.  I will not be able to do the wedding.  (It's "only" my cousin's wedding, not a paid job - but they asked me to shoot it because they love my pictures.  I thought this might be a first step into a good direction.)

I'm very, very unhappy.

Comments

[Christine]

Claudia, I'm so sorry that what should have been a happy day (Happy Birthday Day) turned out to be miserable, in at least some ways. I hope you find a a way to get a new camera in time for your holiday.

[Bernard Guerrero]

That sucks. I'm assuming there's no phone-cam available? Have you considered a cheap one-use disposable? http://www.google.com/products/catalog?sourceid=navclient&rlz=1T4ADBS_enUS311US311&q=disposable+camera&um=1&ie=UTF-8&cid=17113388161537494392&ei=IIOASrGyPMbemQeBrcCzAg&sa=X&oi=product_catalog_result&ct=result&resnum=4#ps-sellers