My Lumix won't stick it's lens out. (by 2 users)

I recently had this problem after a trip to a sandy beach. The solution was to take the camera apart and blow out all the sand and dust.

To help you get it apart, take off all the obvious outside screws and then unhinge the back and front, with the hinge point being the top.

The back and screen can easily be removed by tugging on the cables where they fix into the circuit board. (Just push the large cable back in, for the smaller cable you need to use the little hinge on it (initially put the hinge towards the edge of the camera, insert the small cable, then fold the hinge back towards the centre of the camera.

Continue to take out small silver coloured screws with a jeweler's screwdriver. I was able to get to the elecromechanical optical train in this way. I did not have to remove the tiny black screws inside this unit. After thorough cleaning and blowing out dust/ sand etc. the camera was fairly easy to put back together.

Total time was about 90 minutes.

Note: there was no need to take off any of the buttons on the top, nor to take out the battery nor memory card.

Good luck.