Products are chosen independently by our editors. Purchases made through our links may earn us a commission.
*
October 4, 2005 -* Fujifilm has issued service advisories to owners of their FinePix A303, F410, F700, or FinePix S2 Pro models who purchased their camera in America, stating that some defective CCDs may cause captured images to have a purple cast or multi-colored distortions, or even show up as entirely black. Fuji says that these color defects may be visible on the LCD during shooting or playback on all but the S2 Pro.
In the service advisory to owners of the S2, Fujifilm says, "During a certain period in the production process, there was a lack of uniformity in the quality of the CCD. It was determined that this problem may happen due to a combination of CCD quality and usage/storage conditions or age deterioration. However, the problem affects a limited number of units and may not occur in all cameras."
Fujifilm has offered to repair affected cameras free of charge, irregardless of whether they are still under a one-year warranty, though Fuji will not repair any additional unrelated damage free of charge.
Affected S2 Pros will have serial numbers falling within this range:
31A127****~31A143****
32A000****~32A039****
33A000****~33A007****
34A000****~34A004****
The other three cameras are likely to exhibit defective CCDs within this range:
FinePix A303: 3JA4********~3JA5********
FinePix F410: 32A1********
32A6********~32A7********
32A9********
FinePix F700: 33A0********
34A1********
Damaged units should be packaged carefully with the owner’s name, address, phone number, and a general description of the problem, and shipped to:
Fuji Photo Film U.S.A., Inc.
1100 King George Post Rd.
Edison, NJ 08837
Attn: Camera Repair Dept./CCD Advisory
The original advisories can be found on the Fujifilm site at: