Website Reveals Consumers Must Be Proactive to Obtain Covered Repairs

ATLANTA, Nov. 1 /PRNewswire/ -- While the saga of the faulty CCD image sensors in the digital cameras, camcorders and PDA units of seven major manufacturers continues to grow, resolution - at least for the diligent and determined consumer - may well be at hand. According to an update published today at www.imaging-resource.com (TM), the digital camera enthusiast website that broke the story two weeks ago, manufacturers will repair those products affected by the sensor problem even if the warranty has expired, but it is up to the consumer to pursue and request the repair.

"At last count, we tallied 178 models -- from Canon, Fujifilm, Konica Minolta, Nikon, Olympus, Ricoh and Sony -- affected by defective sensors, though we cannot be certain how many of each model are or may yet prove to be defective," states Imaging-Resource.Com Publisher Dave Etchells.

According to today's Imaging-Resource update (http://www.imaging-resource.com/badccds.html), the CCD failure is characterized by affected cameras capturing no image or capturing severely distorted images with purple and green color casts. The update also lists every known model affected; an array of clear and concise answers to questions about the problem; links to the "sensored seven's" websites and customer service departments, and their instructions for obtaining the covered repairs.

"We noticed a pattern of service advisories coming from competing camera companies for what was virtually the identical problem, investigated and ultimately 'connected the dots' to find that the common culprits in most cases were defective CCD imaging sensors manufactured by Sony for use in some of their own products and supplied to other manufacturers for use in their digital camera and camcorder models," explains Etchells. "This common cross- brand pollination led to the potential epidemic of product failures we now face."

"The industry has honored its ethical commitment to digital camera consumers and we are assured that current models are not affected. Nonetheless, Imaging-Resource.com will update this story for as long as necessary; will continue to provide consumers with unbiased, brand neutral evaluations of digital imaging products and will remain a credible, knowledgeable and diligent ombudsman for digital camera consumers that our readers have come to rely on."