Easily Fix Jammed Camera Lens

So you just turned on your nice digital camera and the lens is stuck shut.

If you dropped or otherwise damaged your camera, these instructions may or may not work.
Depending on your camera style, this method may or may not work.
If you're lucky, there is just a grain of sand or dirt stuck in the lens.

I came up with this quick and easy method over a year ago when the lens jammed on my girlfriends Nikon S210 - the camera is still working perfectly!

I am not responsible if you damage your camera while attempting to follow these simple instructions!

Step 1 Step One

Tools:

Scotch Tape.
Camera.

Tear off a piece of scotch tape about three inches long.

Comments

[lennyb]

good idea. gonna try it myself next time it comes up.
mostly when digital camera lenses fail to open its because of a broken {or jammed}tooth on one of the small plastic gears inside.
this repair will not make the situation above any worse.
when it catches again if its able to home the lens properly then it will work for a while until it strikes the same bad patch again.
usually the repair guys will replace the entire mechanism and in some cases the whole camera.
good idea.

[drooval]

 Yep - from what I've heard, the cost of repair is often more than the camera is worth, and more than half of what it would cost to buy a new camera.
I would guess that if a camera is worth less than $200 it's not worth paying to fix.

[Scott_Tx]

I had my old Fuji jam on me way back but it skipped some gears trying to close. I never could get it to work. Being an instructables type person I took it apart anyways. It was a complete loss.

[drooval]

Yeah... I've never had luck repairing miniature mechanisms like that. I'm no Swiss watchmaker! I don't think the professionals will even attempt it - they simply replace the entire part (which often would cost more than the camera is worth). I've learned to never take this type of thing apart except as a last resort!