My daughter's camera will not turn on. When the power button is pushed the green light flashes on top and the screen shows a message of "lens error". The lens cover is open and the whole lens is zoomed out and will not go back in. Is this expensive to fix or would it be best to buy another camera?

sounds like grit in the lens mechanism..... but is it worth enough to get it serviced?

Make sure that the batteries in the camera are good and turn it on. Is there a light that comes on to let you know that the camera has power and is ready when you press the power button? Does that light come on and what color is it?

If the light ends up green, then you know the batteries are good and the camera is functioning properly and is ready to take a picture. If this is the case, then after you turn it on - look on the back of the camera for the focus zoom in and out buttons. Sometimes they look like a switch that you can rock right or left. Press the switch and look through the lens. Does press the switch or arrows in either direction clear up your view and allow you to see anything? Are you looking through the lens hole or are you using a small screen to view on the back of the camera? If you are looking at a screen on the back of the camera and that screen is black - it means that you dont have the exterior view option turned on in the cameras settings. Sometimes there is a button labeled "view" on the back of the camera to alternate from the exterior view screen on the back of the camera and using the lens hole view at the top. Press that key to make the view screen turn on. If this option is not turned on yet, press the menu key on the camera and use the arrow keys to scroll through the option choices until you find the image preview choices and turn this option on. Then save this choice and close the menu features to see if it comes on.

If you are not getting a power indicator light when you turn the camera on, then replace the batteries. If the light comes on and its something other then green and steady - (like red and flashing) check your camera manual to see what this indicator means. Some cameras show a red light that is flashing when you turn them on to indicate that the memory card is full. Some camera have a red light that is steady to indicate that the battiers are almost out of power and they will show a picture on the digital to indicate how much power you have left before they shut down. Each model camera is different according to the options it came with.

I quote the solution posted for another expert about this same problem...
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My daughter has a Samsung S850, and returned from a weekend trip last night. She pressed the "Power" button and the blue light next to the button came on, as did the screen. The camera then gave a "buzzy beep" three times and shut-down. She decided the batteries were low and replaced them with ordinary AAA alkaline batteries, nothing special, and got the same result.

This morning I checked the voltage on the new and old batteries with a volt-ohm meter and found the old ones were low but the new ones were good.

I read this site and saw a comment that the camera worked after the lens was worked a little bit.

Upon a close look at the lens, I could see tiny grains of sand around the outside of the glass, so I got a wooden toothpick and gently worked the sand out with plenty of tapping on a solid surface to drop them from the area. I also worked the tip of a clean toothpick under what appears to be a soft rubber sealing ring on the outer surface of the glass.

After all this, when the "Power" button was pushed, the lens moved out and the screen lighted, and all the camera now seems to be working.

I should add that shortly after my daughter bought the camera, she lost some kind of metal or plastic ring from around the lens, and that left the "works" around the lens open to view: I can see two tiny screws the lens that are probably ordinarily covered.

Is the lens supposed to be covered by a curtain when power is off? From what I see, the lens is always uncovered. Maybe that lost ring held something else!
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Its possible that it needs repaired by samsung; You can follow the below link for tech support - http://www.samsung.com/uk/info/contactus.html

Hope this helps; send us you test comments.

I had the exact same problem. What I found out was that certain types of batteries have more power to power the camera and make sure the batteries are brand new because they might have been sitting in your cabinet or where ever and run out of power and not be able to open the lens or turn the power on, and the manual (disk) that came with the camera says not to take the batteries out if the camera's on and if your lens isn't opening properly it's because your batteries are low on power. Well I hope I helped. Bye.

You may have gotten a light debris in the lens. Just the littlest amount will cause the lens to jam. Try a can of compressed air and blowing it out.

get a butter knife or any thin object like that and use it to push out the lens and turning it on at the same time  you will hear a clicking noise which is normal  once completely out, use your hand with a gentle but firm presure move it form left to right 
and then hopefully it should work after that 
x

Lens errors are fairly common. Usually it's sand or grit interfering with the lens extension mechanism. Or the camera's been dropped with the lens extended. Or the camera has been powered on, but the lens had been blocked preventing its extension.

Here's some things that you can do to try to correct it. They only seem to work for about 50% of lens errors, but they're worth a try:

http://camerarepair.blogspot.com/2007/12/fixing-lens-error-on-digital-camera.html

cameras beep when it has a problem. most likely the lens get stuck or lens gear failed or motor drive gear to lens, or allot of other problems like it doesnt reconize the optical sensor.

look online for the beep codes and problems.

ty
hope I helped

ok, get to the event where you get this to happen "...then turn it back on the monitor does come on normally...", but just after power-up, press the F8 key to go to safe mode. If nothing visible, press ENTER anyway...get to safe mode yet?

Possible that the Lens Mechanism is out of sync. If its still within warranty just bring it in and have it serviced. If not I may be able to help you out but it requires dismantling the camera,..

If any one knows a quicker and easier way maybe they can post it here But as far as experience goes thats what happened with mine,

Hope this helps