When I turn the camera on the lens opens OK but the lens covers do not open fully. I can push the upper eyebrow open but it droops down again part-way and appears to be disconnected from its mechanism. On turn-off the covers close fully.

do you have the lens cover open? do you get any error code or warning message? do this: make sure you have fully charged battery. close the lens cover.make sure cam is off.open lens cover by sliding it down until click is heard.if no go.close lens cover.make sure cam is off.remove the battery from cam for at least 15secs.reinsert battery.open lens cover until you hear the click.if no go try this. can you see the operational buttons and icons on the screen? if you do try to initialize the camera. touch HOME ->settings (looks like a toolbox icon) -> Main Settings (touch OK) -> [Initialize] -> [OK]. if it doesn't work service might be required.thanks :)

Sure it is, and repair isn't that hard. See this link for tips on repair of sticky automatic lens covers. Recommend reading the reader's comments section of the link for additional tips. Especially pay attention to the vacuum cleaner tip.

This blog post outlines repair procedures for stuck lens covers. A couple of Canon cameras are given as examples. Hope it helps.

You must power up before the lens cover can be opened. Regards, Joe

easy fix. yo turn it on and then very lightly tap the lens cover or push it out. then you should clean the lens because the dirt or dust on the lens is stopping the lens cover.

Hi. I had exactly the same problem with my Sony Cyber-Shot DSC-W7. The problem started after while lense was fully open, the battery became 100% empty. I did not have access to new batteries and did not have my charger with me so I put the camera on my car seat and went home. After charging the batteries, I turned the camera Off and the lense retracted 100%. Later on I tried to transfer some pictures to my PC. After connecting the camera to my PC with the dial in the P position and lense fully open I turned the dial to play in order to transfer photos. After transferring the pictures, I turned the camera off and disconnected from the computer.

I turn the camera on to take new pictures next day, The lense would go up, and and turn with lense fully open. It would never close. The screen was black with a message "Turn the camera on and off again". I tried 30 times or more and the same thing would happen again.

Here is what I did to fix my camera and it has been working normally since then.

1- I cleaned around the outside of the lense with lent free cloth

2- I used dust OFF to get raid of the remaining small dust particles from around the lense.

3- While turning the camera off, I pushed (down, up and turn) the lense in (NOT TOO Hard) by my hand. If you push the lense too hard, you may damage the mechanicall moving parts of the lense.

4- After a few tries, the lense retracted 90% +. I then pushed the lense a little harder all the way in, the way it normall retracts. The lense cover also closed 100%.

5- I turned the Camera on and off a few times. It was opening and closing exactly the way it used to. My Cybershot has been working okay since then.

I read a lot and here is what cause my lense to malfunction.

While lense was fully open and battery died, some small particles got on the lense and prevented lense from fully opening or closing.

In summery: two things could have caused your camera lense to malfunction.

1- if you had dropped your camera hard, some mechanical parts may have got damaged or dislocated. In this case you have to open the lense and replace the damaged part, clean and put it back on the camera. This is too risky for most ordinary people. You would most likely make it WORST.

2- If you did not drop it, most likly, some how some small dust particles got on the outside of the lense and they prevent the lense or the lense cover from fully opening and closing. If this is your case, please follow exactly what I did and your camera would be back to normal.

GOOD LUCK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

You may have the same problem that i had. It does involve taking the camera apart. Not overly difficult - just fiddly.
Let me know and i'll talk you thro' it

If the lens barrel isn't fully extending on power up, that will prevent the lens cover shutters from springing open. There is a stationary prong that pushes the cover closed when the barrel is retracted.

Does the camera work otherwise? Take pictures thru the half open lens?

I recently had the lens cover stick partly open.  There are 4 segments to the lens cover, and if we number them from the top, number 2 was not closing.
I gently flicked the segments a few times, in case there was a grain of dirt causing it to stick (although the camera has never been in a dirty or dusty environment).  This caused the lens cover to close fully each time, but now it would not open fully, segment 1 would not open, although it would stay open if moved by finger.
Anyway, after a bit of fiddling, I got it working properly again.  The way that the lens cover appears to work is that only segments 2 and 3 are pushed open or shut by springs, segments 1 and 4 are pushed open and shut by tiny tabs that catch on segments 2 and 3.  If the segments somehow get pushed out of alignment, then they either bind (causing the cover not to shut), or they get disconnected (causing the cover not to open fully.
Now I am not sure exactly what I did to get the mechanism form the stuck open state to the not opening state, but from there the way to fix it is to:
-With the lens open...
- Hold segment 2 in the closed position with firm finger pressure (which will tend to push it towards the lens).
- Push segment 1 towards the open position until you can see that it has cleared the edge of segment 2.
- Lift segment 2 way from the lens so that it will rub past segment 1 as you...
- Move segment 1 to the open position.
- Repeat if necessary to get the technique right.

I can't provide any guarantees, and I am not about to repeat the excercise on my camera, but it was a lot easier than sending it off for repair.

Hello Tomkimball, the solution for your problem is in replacing the lens barrier. Part number is 178727811. Best regards, Arpad