I wonder if that was one of the cameras in the recall from years ago. A bunch of cameras had their displays fail from a issue with the manufacturing of them by sony. Most vendors extended the warranties because of this. Cannon might have just still been taking them. Either way it is still a nice gesture on their part.

I have always found canon to go above and beyond. On a repair of a camera I asked if they wanted a CD to show the bad pictures. 99.999% of the companies out there would respond "Don't be stupid - did we ask you for a CD? Just send us the camera, minus the battery, memory card and strap."

NOT CANON! They said "Sure - anything that I thought would help." They then turned it around 1 business day and included a complete report of what they tested, what they found, and what they did.

FANTASTIC CUSTOMER SUPPORT.

Canon Powershot SD110 was recalled by Canon. I wrote about it on my blog May 2008.

[www.tian.cc]

Here is a list of other models recalled by Canon:

Affected products:
- Camcorders: ZR60, ZR65 MC, ZR70 MC, ZR80, ZR85, ZR90, ELURA 40 MC, ELURA 50
- Digital Cameras A60, A70, A75, A300, A310, S230, SD100, SD110, A40(*), A80(*), A85(*), A95(*), S1 IS(*), S60(*), S200(*), S330(*), S400(*), S410(*), S500(*)

@Tian:

Interesting. I never heard about the recall.

I own an A300 that's out of commission with the same problem and headed in to Canon for repair this week.

I carried my canon with me EVERYWHERE for a couple of years and, totally my fault, killed it a couple of times (once I dropped it and then stepped on it cracking the screen!)...sent it to 'em and they fixed it even after the warranty period with no questions and no hassle.

That's pretty awesome. I emailed Remington about a hair straightener that had broken. They didn't even ask for a receipt, nor did they ask me to send the old one in. They just shipped me a newer one free of charge.

I emailed Canon about buying a replacement battery charger (that I LOST on a trip, and I didn't hide that fact). They just asked for my address and I got a new one in the mail, no charge, in a couple of days.

This kind of service will buy you more brand loyalty then any amount of marketing dollars. Now when anyone ever asks me what kind of camera is good, I always recommend Canon.

Blah. I had one of these. I wish I knew, something went wrong and I couldn't get a picture (the icons would show up, but nothing from the lens). I sold it on ebay though and got an PS 1100 IS. Worth every penny.

@Tian: Oh balls. I could have gotten mine fixed/replaced. Oh well.

I never thought I'd be writing anything nice about HP's customer service: I had a lemon DV9000 laptop, with a three-year HP CarePack warranty that set me back an extra $200. It had every problem common to that series: the left hinge split open, the DVD-RW drive popped open for no reason, and the motherboards (the factory board and two replacements) were prone to overheating and death.
The first four times it died, they repaired it.
Last month, when the third motherboard died, I started the process by asking them to replace the 2½ year old laptop. I didn't really expect one... but I'm posting this from the brand new DV7t-2000 notebook HP gave me.

I guess it never hurts to ask (and to document the repairs, and to be polite to the Case Managers, and to buy the factory extended warranty on expensive laptops, and to feed your kitties twice a day...)

@cosby:

EXACTLY the SD110 was included in the 'no image or distorted image on LCD' recall from 10/31/2006. So this wasn't so much above and beyond as it was repairing under recall. Still a nice outcome for the customer.

I have been looking for a digital camera for about two months now and after hearing these reviews about cannon, I would definitely buy one from them no matter the cost difference.

Seems like a lot of companies could learn a lesson from Canon. They make great stuff, but I had no idea they stood behind it like this. Wow. Way to go Canon!

I just bought my mom a Canon digital camera for Mother's Day. I knew nothing about their customer service, but not I'm even happier with my decision.

Definitely buy Canon. Great reliable products and awesome support.

/God I sound like a shill. :)

My old bucket AE-1 has been my one and only love for more than 10 years.

sigh.. love Canon. So hard.

I recently switched to digital from film and switched to Canon from Nikon at the same time (obsoleting my Nikkor lens collection). I wasn't all that sure I made the right move, until today (and my 450D/XSi is still working fine).

Canon is a terrific brand with outstanding customer service, but in my experiences I've found that Nikon is just as good. Even better, their cameras tend to be much cheaper than any similar model produced by Canon, yet the results are just as good (provided you know what you're doing).

@FDCPAGuy:
That recall was for a poorly manufactured CCD. The LCD is fine, and you can still navigate menus, just no image. I had to send in my camera a couple years ago for that same issue. Canon make nice cameras and nice printers, and I prefer to get them when I'm purchasing new ones.

@Tian:
Yup, my camera is the PowerShot A75, and Canon repairs it for free, even out of warranty, because it was recalled. I also did know about the recall. In my case, I got the camera back, and I had to pay shipping, luckily Canon repair center is from car reach so that was not needed.

@Mknzybsofh: The best thing is that the cost difference isn't that much.

I've had a similar good experience with Canon. I sent them a camera that I had dropped. It was still within the warranty period, but I made it clear to them that I had dropped it on the sidewalk. They fixed it, cleaned, and tested it, and then returned it to me all for no charge. They were fast about it and communicated well, too. Totally awesome.

I'm a Canon man here. Nikons have a slight edge on lenses but I find Canons better put together. I might even take a top-of-the-line Canon over a Lieca, but don't hold me to that. And yes, the AE-1 and A-1. Man those were and are good cameras and they were far ahead of their time (automatic shutter speed and lens settings!!). I miss film. I am no luddite but I am lucky enough to have a darkroom and it is a lot more fun than Photoshop.

Canon optics were always as good as, if not better than, Nikon. I still have and use a Canon A-1, two F-1's and a Rebel EOS digital and a bunch of Canon lenses. I've been lucky in that they've never needed repair, just an occasional cleaning and lube. Great equipment.

Interesting. I've got an old Canon elph that broke last year-- I figured I'd ebay it for pocket change, but I'll inquire with Canon. My next camera is going to be one of theirs anyway, but it'd be super-handy to have an extra!

I just want to chime in and say that Canon has been absolutely fabulous to me in regards to repairs as well. I have a SD500 camera, for which I have two underwater housings which are not cheap. I put my SD500 into a cheap belt-case that I bought at Best Buy, and the snap on the belt loop pressed on the screen and cracked it. Completely, unquestionably, absolutely my fault. My camera was out of warranty, and I got an estimate for repair from the Canon website. It was under $200, and worth the investment as buying a new camera would mean replacing my underwater housings. I signed up for the repair and gave my credit card number in advance. When I got the email notice that the repair was finished it was with a note that the repair was done free of charge. Canon makes good cameras, but their repair department is absolutely the best. Canon stands by their products, and far too few companies do that these days.

@cosby:

NICE! I had no idea about this. My A300 failed a few years ago with the bad CCD streaky image, finally not capturing one at all. Called tonight for a shipping label. I can't believe Canon's still supporting these faulty models!

Canon is great unless you're trying to get one of their mail in rebates out of them.

Then they (or whoever they contract it out to) is a nightmare.

But they're great on product repair.

@cosby: ech, i wish car companies would do this too :/
i bought a used '00 Honda Accord from the Honda dealership, had the transmission fail after i put an additional 6,000 miles on it - cae was already at 160k when i bought it.
took it in to honda, they said "yep, there was a warranty extension on the transition for the (either '99-'00 or '00-'01) Accords and Civics, but that only lasts you through 150k miles. sorry, but if you give us $4k, we'll give you a new transmission"
don't want to rant (just deleted a huge rant about my bad experience with honda) but more companies should follow through with the warranties on an extended basis.

@Tian: Friggin' sweet! Thanks for the list, I own an S60 and recently the display has gone all Matrix-y and blurring vertically and purple. If they're able to replace it due to the recall then I'll definitely put the Canon T1i at the top of my list when I get a dSLR this summer!

@gStein: Well shame on you for purchasing a used vehicle and not having it checked by a mechanic of your choice.

LG did this for a monitor for my boyfriend.

Paid for the shipping and everything... I told him to call them on the off chance it was still under warranty, or to have them fix it and just pay for it, since the problem was semi-simple and the repair would've been cheaper than a whole new monitor.

To our surprise, the Rep (not even a supervisor or anything) just said "we'll send a box and take care of it, on us". They called later and said they didn't have the parts, and would we like a refund or a larger size, nicer monitor.

I was very impressed, and he upgraded a few inches and to better quality.

@m4ximusprim3: I got all my rebates back for my dSLR equipment

heres another canon story: My parents live near the repair depot. The repair depot provides services through a front office kind of thing, cleaning and realigning lenses, sensor cleaning etc etc, without you having to mail it in. My dad took a digital video camera in because the screen was displaying weird snow.

The guy took a look at it and said "come back in 2 hours". My dad came back and the guy said the camera had a bent chassis which should have never left the factory, and gave my dad a new camera. No paperwork or anything. My dad was so surprised, he asked how the guy knew he didnt do it. The rep replied that if it underwent enough damage at my dads hands to bend the chassis, there'd be a lot more broken then the chassis, so it had to have happened in the factory. My dad became a canon customer for life (and me, too).

Yeah, not so much. I bought TWO Canon SD1000's last year (one for me, one for the girlfriend). BOTH have failed TWICE now, same thing both times (lens will not retract), BOTH have been sent in for warranty service...

Latest escapade, and they're wanting to charge me $100 to fix a camera that's continually broken in the same fashion. Smells to me like manufacturer defect? I mean these things live in protective cases, only come out when it's picture time...

Wish canon would take care of me with two cameras that share the same malfunction TWICE in a one-year time period.

Fsck Canon; their DSLRs are not tops anymore, and I'll be getting Nikons to replace my POS Canon paper weights.

@oldgraygeek: I also have a dv9000 and my DVD drive pops open all the time! I don't have any of those other problems (my dad's identical laptop did, though, but they repaired it) but evidently there's not enough wrong with mine to warrant a repair out of warranty. Oh well, I bought it refurbed for a good price, I don't mind it wanting to open up a little.

@Dafrety:

You sold a broken camera on ebay?

All is not golden with Canon. I bougt a brand new, then-expensive Ixus and was able to take about a dozen photos before it failed. I took it to Canon (in Bangkok, Thailand, even though I bought the camera in South Korea) and they told me the camera had gotten wet, that there was no warranty coverage, and I'd have to buy a new one. Wet? Not to my knowledge. I have since bought two new cameras and five printers, NONE of them Canons.

It's too bad Apple doesn't have a similar policy. My iPhone's WiFi stopped working - Apple's solution: Purchase a new phone.

For every good experience, there is a bad one. I attempted to get a warranty repair for less then year old camera. The camera was taking blurry pictures. Canon refused a warranty repair due to no proof of purchase(I know, my bad, but the model was only introduced to market two years ago). Paid for repair, only to again have the lens go completly kaput during a vacation to Europe. Dealing with them has been pleasant, but I just wish they would fix the problem.

I have had horrible customer service experiences with Canon and will never buy there product again based on repairs to one camera. It had the screen failure but it wasn't a recalled model, so I had to spend $100+ to replace it. Exactly one year and a few days later it failed. Guess what, that will be $100+ for us to look at it again says Canon. It may cost more to fix it. So when I bought a DSLR I purchased Nikon.

Canon has very good overall service, but they don't always fix everything for free.

Last year I sent in my SD950 IS for an in warranty repair that was handled quickly and painlessly only to have the camera fail in the same way this past weekend. When I called up Canon, I discovered that their warranty on their own work is only good for 90 days.

If I want the camera fixed I'll have to send it in and pay about $130 for the repair. It's still cheaper than buying a new camera, but it is a little annoying given that their repair didn't last the full year.

I'm still a fan of their cameras, but I thought I'd chime in so that folks don't get an unreasonable expectation of what they can or will do. They will occasionally give you a freebie, but you might also need to pay for repairs even in situations that aren't your fault.

@Mknzybsofh: Every single camera my company owns is a Canon exactly because of the story above and I find the image quality to be superlative. Spend the extra cash with confidence.

awesome! i have a sd400 that the display is flickering and I get a purple hue on my pics. Im gonna call them up.

Thanks!

Wish I knew this a few months ago - my 2003 Optura 20 camcorder died for no apparent reason (no power-on), a quick search of the intarweb showed that yes, it was a problem, but most people just got a new camera. So I sighed heavily and gave up on it, sending it to the e-waste bin and getting another, crappier Mini-DV camcorder for $150. If I knew that Canon MAY have fixed it for free, I would have totally tried that, I was just worried that they would charge me a $100 "diagnostic fee" just to look at it (as is common practice in most repair shops).

I wonder how many cameras went into landfills due to fear of the $100 hit to open it up. Sigh.

I love Canon's customer service. I bought a Canon for my first camera, which they fixed when the lens was jammed. I ended up buying an SLR from them a few months later. I plan on buying from them again in the future.

Canon treated me very well last year. I had a point-and-shoot that stopped working (turns out the leads to the battery connections were improperly soldered and failed).

The camera was out of warranty by 5 months, but Canon had no problem fixing it for free. Also, I was going on vacation in a week and wanted my camera for the trip.

I dropped it off at a local canon building and I had it back in 3 days.

Service with a smile, I will buy canon again.

@ajlei: Mine drove me NUTS. The slightest flex on the case, even resting my palm on it to type, would close the contacts that popped the drive open.
There's a fix here:
[forum.notebookreview.com]

I haven't tried the fix: I convinced HP to replace mine on one of its trips back for other problems... they put in a different model drive that had no issues.

I put Canon, North Face, and Shure in the category of companies with extraordinary customer service.