Show Technology Who's Boss

I dropped my little Canon Elph. Whoops. My kids were tap dancing at the Children's Museum, bummer. Even worse, I started getting a "Lens Error, Restart Camera" notice, and the lens wouldn't open.

So before shelling out for a new camera (which I would actually love to upgrade anyway), I surfed a bit. Seems I'm not the first person to encounter this problem. I tried to troubleshoot by charging and reloading the battery, removing the memory card, and even trying to push the lens barrels into better alignment. No luck.

Then I came across a website about this problem, that basically said, you need to pound it on a counter a few times. With hundreds of success stories! I got up the nerve to put a fabric napkin on the kitchen counter, face the lens side of the camera down, and gave it three hefty whacks. No kidding, that little camera opened up like a daisy, it might have curtsied if it knew how! I had to laugh out loud, so much for delicate technology.