viewfinder

i don't have the best of luck with cameras, or rather, cameras don't have the best of luck with me.  (i think part of this is actually because i carry a camera with me everywhere, so the chances of something happening to it are much higher).  a few years ago, my sister bought me a nice camera that i used for a good couple of years until i dropped it face-first into the sand while on vacation.  after deciding my camera phone wouldn't cut it, i bought a new one that didn't even last me a full year before it fell out of its case, again face-first, onto the floor of a gelato shop that ended up messing up the sensor.  that brings me to the camera i have now, which is about a month and a half old.

yesterday afternoon, my husband spotted a hawk sitting atop a neighbor's house so i, of course, reacted by going back inside to retrieve my camera.  i turned it on and pressed the mode button to switch the scene setting, and the camera did nothing.  so i tried to zoom in and out, but it wouldn't do either.  next i attempted to take a picture but again, nothing.  none of the buttons were working!

i immediately assumed that it was because i had dropped it recently.  (yes, really).  it had slipped off the table the week before, but had appeared to emerge unscathed.  could it be a late effect, though?

i removed the battery, then the camera card, and when my husband suggested that i plug the camera in directly to my laptop, i did.  but once i connected it to my laptop, i couldn't even choose the mode i wanted the camera to go in, since none of the buttons did much of anything.  i resorted to the manual, skimming through the pages, then went online to troubleshoot.  i couldn't find anything about buttons freezing.

i was baffled.  my husband couldn't figure it out either.  it had just been working a couple of hours ago!

i could feel myself on the verge of panic, wondering if i had somehow broken my camera again without even knowing it.  i refused to believe it couldn't even survive for 8 weeks!  so i  decided, like all the times before, it had to be something i was doing and not what the camera wasn't doing.

the manual was pulled out again and after some trial and error, i realized that i must have bumped the 'intelligent auto' switch and somehow locked up the buttons.  a simple tap, and it was fixed.  thank goodness.

i guess luck was on my side this time.  or more appropriately, the power of logic.