I am the happy owner of a wonderful camera that takes beautiful pictures. We’ve had it for just over a year. And then, while on vacation, it stopped working. The lens wouldn’t retract into the casing, and an error message appeared on the LCD screen: E18. I’m not so happy anymore.

We could still view and download the images on the card, but the camera would not shoot pictures, and when turned off, the lens was stuck more than halfway out.

The sad thing was, of course, that the SD500 was out of warranty by a month and we didn’t buy the extended warranty when we purchased it. We’d had our previous camera, a Canon Powershot S110, for 4 years without any problems and trusted Canon to make good cameras.

A call to Canon Camera Support didn’t help that much, the cost of repair is $119 (with 40 days warranty on the repair) or I could get a refurbished model for $199 (with 6 months warranty). A new SD500 costs $250 at Amazon, and then I get a full year’s warranty! I think I saw it at Costco recently for $230, but then I’d have to pay taxes of course.

I feel mostly tempted to get a new camera and “start over” (we already own and love the underwater case for this camera), but should I get an extended warranty as well? A 2 year plan costs $30 and doesn’t get any good reviews. In any case, a cheap “warranty” in keeping my camera safe from dust and scratches would be a soft leather carrying case!