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I got sand in my nikon coolpix L3 digital camera by dropping it while it was on at the beach. in the begining it would make a weird sound whenever i turned it off and not close the lens all the way. if i lightly pushed on it, it would close all the way. but then i went to push the lens lightly to turn it off once and it wouldnt close. so now my camera is stuck between off and on and making a really weird continuous noise. (btw- the noise is the same noise that has sounded whenever my hand was cought in the lens when i went to turn it off before i dropped it.) is there a way to fix this?
Sand, water, salt water, dirt and dust can damage the lens to the point of no return, so to speak. It may not have been dropped if you had used the wrist strap, how ever it is now in damaged condition. The lens needs to be taken apart to completely clean out the sand. This is a very tedious and is a job for a professional with experience. The parts are extremely small and have close tolerances, thus any dirt or sand can cause grinding or damage to the internal parts of the lens mechanism. If you ever get a chance to see the gears and the gear teeth, you would understand why just a few grains of sand can jam these small parts. One grain of sand can stop a lens gear from working and possibly cause a broken gear. The parts are so small that in order to see the grains of sand which cause the problem, it may be necessary to use a magnifier lens.
To even make things worse, there is grease usually on the gears. The grease will hold any sand and cause it to stick in place. Cleaning these gears is not very easy. I have done it, and returned the camera to working condition, but not an easy job.
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Any sand in a compact camera is bad news - repair will be expensive. In your situation, I would continue to use the camera while it still works, and give serious thought to a replacement.
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 ...
Unfortunately, many cameras that fall prey to this can only be corrected by professional repair. But, here are some things that you can do that may correct it. They only seem to work for less than 40% of the lens errors, but if the camera is out of warranty, they're worth a try.
The movie should be transferred automatically when you transfer the images from the sd card. There should be a folder where the pics are transferred, usually through a program called Picture Project. Look for an icon with the Quicktime logo on it or a movie logo. That should be it.
The very smallest piece of sand will jam any digital camera lens. You should be extremely careful to never allow sand to get anywhere near any digital camera. The gears are very small, thus the smallest piece of debris will do a lot of damage. To remove all the sand in the gear train is a time consuming effort. It has to be completely taken apart to do it right. You will need a good magnifing lens as well. That may also affect the ccd and alignment. Sometimes it it worth it.
The lens is having a problem in the track. That can be similar and possibly the same as lens error. that could be caused by dirt or sand inside the camera. What happens is that the dirt or sand can get on the track which has oil or other lubricant and will cause problems with focus and other lens errors.
See my posts on these problems.
You may try to pull the lens as it starts and then push it as you turn it off. This may also cause more damage, but can be worth a try.
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