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the lens on my canon sx 50 hs is stuck in the out position. I want to fix it myself.
Depending on what happened you may find this is not something you want to try to fix. If you dropped the camera then you have likely damaged some parts which will need to be replaced. Given the complexity and the special alignments needed you will not be able to bring this back to the same level of performance as it had when new. That is if you were able to replace the needed parts. If you spills something onto the lens barrel you might be able to clean it off and get the camera working again. But without knowing what was spilled and where you may find this a hard fix as well. OK, you’er going for it! What to do. First you’ll need to get the repair manual for the camera look online for it otherwise you’ll need to contact Canon. Next you’ll need a set of tools like IFIXIT sells (the large tool kit). A good desk with a good lamp and steady hands. Good Luck!
Tried running the paper around the lens and got it working! Thank you Philip!!!!
There are various reasons why the lens might have got stuck, perhaps the commonest being dust, dirt or sand getting in between the barrel sections. As it opens, the lens acts like a bellows and sucks air and any dust or dirt it might be carrying into the lens. Sometimes this can be cleared by slipping the corner of a piece of good quality paper between the barrel sections and running it round the barrel, checking the paper often for fraying, or applying a vacuum cleaner to suck out any dirt. I once succeeded (on another camera) by alternating those processes several times. Make sure the battery is fully charged to ensure the zoom motor is operating at full power. Gently pushing or pulling on the lens barrel (whichever way it seems to want to be going) as you turn the camera on may help. Other causes, apart from physical damage (which may well be apparent from a misaligned barrel) could be malfunction of any of the several motors, positions sensors and gears within the lens and would be likely to involve full lens disassembly to diagnose and repair, which is a fairly skilled undertaking.
I dropped mine recently and was left with the gnarly click and error message. I noticed the misalignment just now and used a knife and brute squeezing force on the barrel housing. I should have filmed the process cause i $@$* you not it works perfectly… And the eclipse is just hours away. What freaking luck!
