How to clean blocked Zoom and dirty Sensor of a compact digital camera

How to fix a maddening problem common to most compact cameras: the sticking zoom.

In this video shot in my gallery I show how to fix a maddening problem common to most point and shoot cameras: the sticking zoom. When the zoom either refuses to protrude at all or does so only to retract immediately with ‘lens error’ showing on the display, you feel that the camera has reached the end of its natural life as sending it away for repair will cost more than the value of the camera. The answer is the common or garden vacuum cleaner. Using this method will also help clean the sensor of most or all the dust that has been sucked in through the telescopic zoom lens as for some reason even expensive compact cameras have no sensor cleaner. All you need is a vacuum cleaner with a flexible tube, a plastic bottle, sticky tape and five minutes of your time. I have demonstrated this method scores of times without damaging the camera (a Lumix LX100) in any way. That said, you shouldn’t do this if your camera isn’t already manifesting these problems.