E18 & I don't know what to do with this camera.

Hello there,
The E18 error is related to the LENS not able to retract fully. If it is still under warranty, I would advise you bring it to the nearest service center. This is to avoid further damages. Otherwise, you can try a few things below.
There are a couple of things you can do.
1. Turn it on and then off. Spray canned air around the lens.
If trick 1 will not work out, try this.
2. Make sure the battery is fully charged. Turn on the camera and then give it a couple of firm whacks on the side. Make sure nothing is blocking the lens and wait for it to fully retract.
Let me know how it goes.

Hello there,
The E18 error is related to the LENS not able to retract fully. If it is still under warranty, I would advise you bring it to the nearest service center. This is to avoid further damages. Otherwise, you can try a few things below.
There are a couple of things you can do.
1. Turn it on and then off. Spray canned air around the lens.
If trick 1 will not work out, try this.
2. Make sure the battery is fully charged. Turn on the camera and then give it a couple of firm whacks on the side. Make sure nothing is blocking the lens and wait for it to fully retract.
Let me know how it goes.

Canon Powershot's error E18 has to do with the lens:
If it appears on a black LCD with E18 written on the corner, it is mostly due to the lens getting stuck while trying to extend. The camera will beep a few times and the LCD will display a little E18 in the lower-left corner. The lens gets stuck in the extended position, and refuses to move either to focus the lens or to retract when powered off.
I am giving below a link which will help you with E18 problem.

http://www.e18error.com/repair.html

Hope this helps, let me know if you have a proble.

You can Try the following also;
Remove the batteries from the camera, wait a few minutes. Put a fully charged batteries back in and turn the camera on. if it doesnot work then,

2: Remove the batteries again, as also remove the memory card. Then install the newly charged batteries, when you turn it on it should come back to life.
3: Insert the cameras Audio/Video (AV) cable, and turn the camera on. Inserting this cable ensures that the camera's LCD screen remains off during the start process. Thus extra battery power is available to the camera's lens motor during start up. This extra power can be useful to overcome any grit or sand particles that may be jamming the lens.
4: Place the camera flat on its back on a table, pointed at the ceiling. Press and hold the shutter button down, and at the same time press the power-on button. The idea is that the camera will try to autofocus while the lens is extending, hopefully seating the lens barrel guide pins in their slots.

Try the above and let me if its any help.
Please do rate and thanks for using FixYa and Best fo luck to get you camera out of E18!

Canon Powershot's error E18 has to do with the lens:
If it appears on a black LCD with E18 written on the corner, it is mostly due to the lens getting stuck while trying to extend. The camera will beep a few times and the LCD will display a little E18 in the lower-left corner. The lens gets stuck in the extended position, and refuses to move either to focus the lens or to retract when powered off.
I am giving below a link which will help you with E18 problem.

http://www.e18error.com/repair.html

Hope this helps, let me know if you have a proble.
Please do rate and thanks for using FixYa and Best fo luck to get you camera out of E18!

Lens errors (E18 errors on Canons) 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

Hello there,
The E18 error is related to the LENS not able to retract fully. If it is still under warranty, I would advise you bring it to the nearest service center. This is to avoid further damages. Otherwise, you can try a few things below.
There are a couple of things you can do.
1. Turn it on and then off. Spray canned air around the lens.
If trick 1 will not work out, try this.
2. Make sure the battery is fully charged. Turn on the camera and then give it a couple of firm whacks on the side. Make sure nothing is blocking the lens and wait for it to fully retract.
Let me know how it goes.

The following blog outlines some repair options for an E18 lens error. They won't work for all cases, but they're worth a try if the camera's no longer under warranty:

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

Click here for help on repairing e18 error
good luck my friend!
Hope you will save 150$ for the repair..

Depening on the age of the camera and other factors it may be possible for  Canon to replace or repair it for a modest fee - or you may have to write it off and get another
Contact   Canon support

E18 is the error that comes when when the lens is stuck, so if the lens is stuck out, turn off the camera, carefully turn the lens until you hear a small clicking noise, then turn it on. I had the exact same problem, and that fixed it for me