My sick little Kodak

Something's wrong with my little V550 from Kodak. It's been a real trouper during our entire honeymoon, traveling with me on the beach in the hot sun, getting sprayed by the salty surf, enduring the never-ending sandy grit that assaults its lens and view screen, and being tossed unceremoniously in my beach bag almost daily. But last night I decided to take it with us to our dinner at the Sea House restaurant here at the hotel. It's a restaurant that is EXTREMELY expensive, by the way, but we didn't get to go on the Sugar Cane Train or the Kauai Boat Tour, so it all balances out in the end. But I digress....

Anyhow, I had my V550 at the table and was going to discretely take a shot of Pete eating his Crab and Tiki Steak dinner (yum) when the camera refused to turn on. Oh, the lights and the jingle would start, and the lens would begin to pop out, but then the lens would immediately retreat within its camera body shell and everything would shut down. I tried several times to get it started up, to no avail. And I had fully charged it, so that wasn't the problem. 

When we got back to our hotel room I put the V550 back on its charger and tried starting it again, and nothing. The lens would mock me and pop up briefly, as if to say, "Ha! You thought I would work THIS time, eh? Sucker!" and then immediately disappear. I tried taking the battery out and blowing on it. Nothing. I tried plugging the camera directly into the wall with the AC cord. Nothing. I even fiddled with the settings (some of which it still lets me access). Nothing. What's strange is it seems to want to activate, but can't quite turn itself on all the way.

So now I'm very sad. While I adore my Sony Alpha 100 SLR and it's the star of my little traveling photography show, my V550 is the undercover worker bee. It's the behind-the-scenes, hiding-in-a-purse-kind-of-camera that I prefer to have with me in situations like the one last night: eating at restaurants, shopping in stores, laying on the beach, events at work, etc. I'm certainly not dragging my Alpha out on the beach to take pictures, and risk the chance of getting sand or water in its inner workings. But I'm still very, very saddened and perplexed by this sudden turn of events. 

When we get home I'm going to see if I can have the V550 checked out and fixed relatively inexpensively. If not, I know what I'll be putting on my list for my birthday wishes in a few weeks....