Zoom Error

I had this problem with my Fujifilm E900 under warranty, and Fuji replaced the zoom mechanism. Nine months later, this past weekend, the same problem occurred. I appear to have solved it by gently but persistently wiggling the lens into a fully zoomed-out position, applying silicone spray to the lens barrel such that some of it dripped down into the space between the lens and the camera body and between the two parts of the lens barrel, and then repeatedly turning the camera on and off, wiggling the lens barrel, until it began to move freely again. Then I zoomed in and out until the silicone spray appeared to be dry. So far, I've tried zooming it in and out about 50 times in a row, with no problems.

The clue, to me, that this might work is that the spray initially seeme to make the problem worse. That meant it was getting to the gear mechanism. Once the solvent part of the spray dried, it all worked smoothly.

We had the same problem with a Fuji FinePix s3000 purchased almost three years ago. Its been a terrific camera and has worked perfectly until just last week when it came up with the "Zoom Error!" problem in the view finder. Since then we have not been able to take a single photo. We did not expose it to any extremes of heat or cold and we did not get it wet, so that would not explain the failure.

I very carefully took the camera apart with a jewler's screwdriver and found that it is quite complex inside. To get to the zoom mechanism you have to remove 3 layers of circuit boards. Upon inspecting the zoom mechanism and the minature gear box I could find nothing obviously wrong or broken. Incidentally, don't try what some people suggest for other Fuji cameras about manually pulling the zoom out because you'll probably just strip the gear box. The mechanism is driven by a small motor about the size of a thumb-nail. I guess its possible that this had failed, but since I was not sure of the voltage and I didn't want to disconnect it, I didn't test it to see if it worked.

I checked to see if there was any sand or grit in the mechanism but it all looked clean. When I put it back together the zoom mechanism extended and stayed there. The screen still showed "Zoom error".

The only solution I can see is to buy a new camera of some sort. It seems that many of the Fuji cameras suffer from this zoom error problem so maybe a change of brand is in order. I think Fuji need to redesign their zoom mechanism.