My SX 100 camera says change batteries

Please try to charge the batteries. Don't use AA manganese (Zinc-Carbon) or NiCd rechargeable batteries. Even alkaline batteries, don't have the same capacity as the NiMH rechargeable batteries.
Considering the price of a new camera with the same possibilities, you could buy one for I think around $300. Diagnose in a repair shop could be between 50 an 100. If you could buy a lens it could cost anything between 10 and 400 dollar and to put it in could cost between 50 and 100 dollars.
My advice, if the batteries don't change a thing after charging, buy a new camera. The last 5 or 6 years the technology has improved immense. and the price of the camera's have dropped. (will drop even more after the holy days.

Probably this old chat may help you to resolve your problem.
From site:
http://www.digitalcamera-hq.com/products/kodak-easyshare-c663

Kodak EasyShare C663 Specifications

• 6 megapixels
• 3x optical zoom / 5x digital zoom
• autofocus
• auto exposure
• JPEG file format
• ISO 100-400
• 2 AA batteries
• movie mode w/sound
• 2.5" LCD screen
• Part Number:C663
• Release Date:Jan 12, 2006

chrissy66 (12/10/2007)reply to this comment (by James DeRuvo - 12/12/2007)Sounds to me like your lens may have come out of alignment. Was it dropped recently? Since your camera is still under warranty, the best thing you can do is have Kodak should fix it. If your camera is out of warranty, or if Kodak refuses to repair it for free, the one thing you can try is to try resetting the camera.

Kodak is also of the opinion that lens errors also occur when you use batteries not recommended by Kodak.

I recently chatted with a kodak specialist about this issue and he recommends changing your batteries to NiMh rechargeable batteries. These are the batteries that the camera is designed to use and using other types - like alkalines, can often cause the lens error to occur. If that doesn't work, then the camera indeed does need repair.

Rechargeable Ni-MH Batteries (AA Size): These Ni-MH AA batteries last up to twice as long as alkaline batteries when used in your Digital Camera - and you can recharge them up to 1000 times in our rapid charger.

Oxy-Alkaline Digital Camera Battery (AA Size).



CRV3 Lithium Batteries: A non-rechargeable battery designed specifically for today's feature-rich cameras. This battery is the obvious choice for speed performance, and long life. It delivers faster flash recycle times and lasts up to 10% longer than our previous design!



Ni-MH Rechargeable Battery Pack: Provides exceptional capacity with its 2.5 hour fast charge cycle time; can be recharged up to 1000 times in the EasyShare Camera Dock or EasyShare Rapid Charger,

If it's really almost new, why don't you take advantage of the warranty?

The best batteries for digital cameras are the Sanyo eneloop NiMH rechargeables. You can find them on eBay. I would try these before tossing the camera.

My Canon SX100 IS doesn't power on. I tried using several batteries and also cleaned the metal battery contact but nothing works. Any advice ?

You may just have two bad batteries, or maybe your charger is bad.

You should have a DC power adapter with the camera, plug that in and see if the camera works longer with it.

You should also have an adapter to use CR02 batteries with the camera. You can buy three of the CR02 batteries at the drugstore (they are NOT rechargeable) and see if the camera works.

If any of these things work, you have bad batterie.

If they don't work, then there is likely some kind of short in the camera and you will need to send it to a service `center or your local camera shop. You might also just take it there and see if they have a known good D70 battery they could try for you.

i had that problem with another camera i toggled with the lens it went in and works like a charm. Dont be to gentile it will go in

the lens is broken and will need to be replaced, there are many camera shops on line that fix digital cameras...just pick one and get a quote.

Not sure what camera you have, but some cameras require a very steady power supply voltage. Also not sure how old your rechargeable batteries are either, but batteries (alkaline and rechargeable decay over time. With the rechargeable ones, the more you use it, the less it can charge to full capacity over time. For example, if your rechargeable battery is supposed to charge up to 1.5V, over a period of a year with constant recharges, you can test with a volt meter and see that it never really goes back up to 1.5V, but more like 1.48V, 1.45V or maybe even 1.4V.

Depending on the camera or other item you use rechargeable batteries on, it can adapt to low voltages with special circuitry inside (but only to a certain limit, when a battery is old, it is old).

You can try buying a new set of rechargeable batteries and use it few times and see if this fixes the issue. If not, your camera may be faulty and just draining the battery (not too likely, but it happens).

Check out this site for some useful info.

http://www.steves-digicams.com/nimh_batteries.html

Rechargable batteries actually do not recharge the 100 times advertised. After maybe 10 times they are reduced in capacity noticably. For instance, new alkaline batteries will last me maybe 60 pictures, however the rechargables are only good for about 5. To test this try taking out the batteries, and put back in before you wish to try them, also turn off the flash if it is not needed.(flash uses a lot of power)