What to do with broken camera?

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snowy

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I have a number of broken P&S cameras which I'm led to believe are unrepairable and was wondering what to do with them. I've noticed several people putting wanted ads in the classifieds for broken cameras so someone's clearly found a use, but what is it?

Mine include a Ricoh GR1s, a Leica Minilux and Contax TVS, so are the lenses usable on other systems somehow?
 
I think most are purchased for parts, with the hopes of repairing either that camera or another camera. Some people do repair work - either commercially or for themselves. Or are trying to learn how to repair these cameras and would rather start working on a dead one than one that works.

(I fall into the 'trying to learn about repair' camp myself though I haven't gone much beyond work on mostly mechanical cameras. I haven't touched one of the high end point and shoots yet so I can't say much about them yet)
 
What Brian said...

I have bought cameras that were "As is" or "Parts" or "Not Working"..
Some were used for parts to fix another or to make one prettier...
Some of them were made usable again...sometimes you will read in an ad or when you examine a camera you know it's quirks or design flaws and you know if you do this and or that it will be just fine...I've done that too...
One time, while traveling, I bought three cameras (all the same) from the junk box at a camera store...got them back to my room and proceeded to see what I could see...
Ended up with one working little P&S...paid a few bucks for an evenings entertainment and got something out of it...
 
Put them on ebay as "spares or repairs" with a low start price. Often these go for more than a dealer's price for a good one...

Regards, David
 
i give my broken P&S film cameras away locally via my local Freecycle group. There's always someone who will want them for repairing, tinkering, collecting, or whatever :).
 
Well, believe it or not, some of the P&S cameras can be put back in working condition again, simply because some of the internal contacts or even the battery chamber contacts need to be thoroughly cleaned. One thing that I did was to go down to Lowes and pick up a spray can of contact cleaner, then use it to clean out the battery chamber, spray a little amount around the off/on switch and move the switch [or button] back and forth as well as any other sliding switches. I've actually revived several Olympus Stylus, Canon MLs, as well as other P&S cameras. One Canon ML sat in a box in my garage for about two years because it gave up the ghost, I thought. By spraying the battery chamber, the off/on rotating switch on the back, around the shutter button, moving the various buttons back and forth, placed in some new AA batteries, turned it on and immediately the AF images began appearing in the viewfinder. I still use that camera and it works like a charm. The same thing has happened with a couple of my Olympus cameras. It certainly worth a try plus the cost of spray contact cleaner is only around $3.00. You can also pick up spray contact cleaner at Radio Shack, but that's around $9.00.
 
You people have no imagination.

Take one to a party. After you and everyone have had a drink or two, begin dropping it on the floor, maybe even in the pool, then continue acting like you are taking photos with it. Assure everyone that modern cameras are really tough and people worry more about them than they should. If it breaks into multiple pieces, put them all in your pocket. Comment that you will put it back together tomorrow.

Then at the next party with the same people, comment that you are having camera problems. Ask someone if you can use theirs for a while.
 
Thanks for the suggestions, although I'm not convinced I'll be trying Bob's ideas :)

The faults on these are all non-repairable according to the manufacturers (the Minilux has the dreaded ER02 fault for example), so maybe I'll just pull some of them apart and see what I can do. If the worst happens, I guess I could always try to stick the lenses into something that'll attach to a m4/3 mount and use them on my Panasonic GF1...
 
Well, the Ricoh and the Contax can still be repaired, at least in Japan anyway. Ricoh are very good about servicing.
There are still a number of places that offer repairs on P&S cameras.
 
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