Canon SD600 Lens error

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. Or the battery ran down with the lens extended ... Here are some troubleshooting steps that you can try that may (or may not) correct it. They only seem to work for less than 40% of the lens errors, but if the camera is out of warranty (or repair cost approaches that of the camera), they're worth that try. Some of the later steps do involve some risk to the camera, so carefully weigh your options before deciding to conduct them:

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. Or the battery ran down with the lens extended ...

Here are some things that you can do to try to correct it. They only seem to work for less than 50% of the lens errors, but if the camera is out of warranty, they're worth a try.

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. Or the battery ran down with the lens extended ...

Here's some things that you can do to try to correct it. They only seem to work for less than 50% of the lens errors, but if the camera is out of warranty, they're worth a try:

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

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. Or the battery ran down with the lens extended ...

Here's some things that you can do to try to correct it. They only seem to work for less than 50% of the lens errors, but if the camera is out of warranty, they're worth a try:

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

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. Or the battery ran down with the lens extended ...

Here's some things that you can do to try to correct it. They only seem to work for less than 50% of the lens errors, but if the camera is out of warranty, they're worth a try:

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

The Canon series are fine camera's, but they seem to suffer from lens errors (check how many people suffered from this by googling lens error canon). 
The problem seems to come from sand/dust entering the body and jamming the lens gear. A handy person may be able to fix it, but I think Canon should have designed an enclosed lens gear so sand/dust can not enter. 

Camera's are commonly carried in pockets, so it is logical sand and dust can be expected. 

There are some issues with getting perfect focus in some situations.

If the camera was open (lens extracted) the camera lens may be damaged. If you can retract it (power off), then maybe it's just dirty. Can you zoom in or out?

Manually rotating sensor rotor inside camera and cleaning gear fixed the Canon "lens error" for me.  
I placed instructions with photo's here: http://www.avh.dds.nl/Fix-Canon-SD600-Lens-Error/

I followed the directions contained in http://www.avh.dds.nl/Fix-Canon-SD600-Lens-Error/ and by disassembling the camera and turning the rotor just a little bit (page 4 of the instructions), it freed up the lens and it is now working perfectly! The camera had been put down on the lens as the lens was retracting and I assume that jammed the retract mechanism. While the camera was open, I blew out whatever dust/dirt was there (didn't see much). The fix took me probably 20-30 minutes, and I am very pleased with myself!

My sister's camera was having the same trouble and after trying a few different things, i came across a solution that fixed her camera. Her error said "lense error, restart camera."

I held down the shutter button for a few seconds, then i held down the power button as well. I tried it once or twice and then it worked. I hope this helps!