Nikon Coolpix Hi, im wondering if someone can help me so close to christmas. I last used my camera a week ago and it was fine. however when i went to use it last night the viewing screen just stayed black as though i was take a picture in the dark (yes the lens cover was open) i can take a picture but its just black. All the other functions are fine. My mum admitted to trying to show my sister some pictures on my camera but accidently went into image mode so she switched it off. However i have tried changing all the settings and resetting the camera and formatting the card but to no avail. Please help as i was without a camera last christmas! Nadine

With the power off, hold the camera in your palm and smack the front of the camera on your leg or arm. You might have to smack it a few time to get it to work. It has to do with the camera CDD lense (shuttle) being stuck. By smacking it around, it will free up the lense. Being extra gentle with it though. It worked for me. Hope this help.

My S1 had exactly the same problem. I tried smacking it around as suggested and it worked!!!!! I am SO happy to have my camera back, and for free. THANKS!

It took several attempts to free the stuck shutter in the lens but this did fix my camera!

My camera was under warranty for parts only but labor was $100 by Nikon i guessed better than throwing away should try to fix it, i am just done fixing mine, heres what i have to share: 1 you gotta open it up, it comes off pretty simply. the lens mechanism and the circuitry is totally separate. 2. take the lens mechanism, there are three tiny screws at the bottom going into the plastic. remove these. 3. remove the black protective tape and very gently try to separate the joined plastic parts. 4 it will open up, in three separate portions, in one of them near the aperture shutters (sliding irregular shaped thin plastic pieces) there will be arc shaped pathway for a shutter make sure that this open and you can see across to the other chamber, just slide it with a pin (it only slides one side) to one side and it locks and stays in a corner. You have to be gentle,patient and comfortable with openining and closing circuitry and small components. you would need a philips 0 and a tweezwer for this.

I got mine broken as well, no abuse or anything. I've tried to search everywhere for a solution, but I guess the best guess is that the CCD is broken, as I can still see the old pictures, menu text and so on and can take pictures, but the pictures are black. I've tried to reset, take out battery, memory card etc, but that doesnt work. I'll try to send it in for repair on the guarentee, as I've seen some cameras are repaired for free, http://www.imaging-resource.com/badccds.html#cause

Can't seem to find anything about the monitor setting other than this