Seven major digital camera manufacturers have kept quiet about a defective chip that can render their expensive cameras useless, replacing some cameras that have failed but doing nothing to repair defective cameras before they fail.
The chip is prone to fail in hot and humid environments. When that happens, the camera will display black or distorted color images, both in the viewfinder and in any print or digital display. There is no way to recover photos lost because of the defect.
The defect affects cameras, camcorders and hand-held computers sold during the past three years by Sony, Canon, Konica Minolta, Ricoh, Fuji, Nikon and Olympus. Sony says it stopped manufacturing the chip in March 2004, but concedes that some cameras containing it may still be sitting unsold on dealers' shelves.
A class action suit has been filed against Canon in New York and actions against the other companies are likely, according to attorneys familiar with the situation.
The companies say they will repair the cameras if the chips fail and have listed the affected models on their Web sites. But they have refused to issue a broad recall, saying that not all of the chips will fail.
There is nothing an individual consumer can do, short of filing a lawsuit, to require the manufacturer to replace a chip that has not yet failed.
"Lots of Kodak moments will be lost forever because the companies refuse to replace what they know to be a defective product," said Richard Doherty, a Chicago lawyer who is representing plaintiffs in the Canon case.
The camera companies were reluctant to issue a public recall because they feared it would have a negative impact on sales during the busy holiday season, industry sources said. The stonewall tactic the companies have chosen resembles the "silent recalls" auto manufacturers sometimes use to avoid the publicity and expense of broad recalls.
The defective chip was reportedly manufactured by Sony and sold to the other manufacturers. The incident reveals how similar supposedly distinct brands of consumer electronics gear often are.
The companies put notices about the problem on their Web sites last year but it wasn't until a photography enthusiast's Web site tied up the loose ends that it became apparent that it was a common problem.
Here is a partial list of camera models containing the defective chip:
Fujifilm:
FinePix A303
FinePix F410 Zoom
FinePix F700
FinePix S2 Pro
Konica Minolta:
(affected models were released prior to the merger
with
Konica, and hence carry only the Minolta brand name)
DiMAGE A1
DiMAGE 7i
DiMAGE 7Hi
DiMAGE Xi
DiMAGE Xt
DiMAGE X20
DiMAGE S414
DiMAGE F300
Nikon:
Coolpix SQ
Coolpix 3100
Coolpix 5700
Ricoh:
Caplio RR30
Caplio 300G
Caplio G3
Caplio G3 model M
Caplio G3 model S
Caplio ProG3
Caplio G4
Caplio G4 wide
Caplio 400G wide
Caplio RX
Olympus:
Camedia C-5050 Zoom
Camedia C-730 Ultra Zoom
