Well, that's just brilliant.

Have you ever gotten something back that's meant to be fixed and yet is still as bad as it was before, after you've waited for ages to get it back and hoped the entire time that it'd be better than ever?

Well, that's just happened to me.

And it's all to do with the DSLR I received from Tal at the end of January.*

Around the middle of March, I finally got time to send my new camera of awesomeness back to the camera company to deal with problems I'd been experiencing with the sensor since I got it (unfortunately, even though it generally is a great camera). I had hoped to have the camera back before I headed off to New Zealand. This hope came from reading their support website, which said their turn-around on repairs is 15 days.

I still hadn't heard from them by the time I left for New Zealand,** although my Dad did while I was away. They weren't going to do any repairs under warranty and also found scratches on the focusing screen - I have no idea how they could have ended up there because I had been obsessively careful with the camera.

Anyway. I approved repairs a couple of days after this when I got home on April 20. Sure, I ended up having to pay more than $100 for this to get done, but I wanted my camera back. So the repairs were done and the camera was posted back to me.

It arrived on Thursday. I spent today taking a whole lot of photos to test it out and just because it was so good to have the camera back. Things looked like they were fixed, I was feeling ecstatic because I adore photography and feel like I see the world in new ways through my cameras.

And then I loaded the photos onto my computer.

Oh.

Oh no. You have got to be kidding me.

There's spots - spots in places different to the ones I'd sent the camera away to be removed of - on the images. Quite noticeable. And I'd used two different lenses and the spots still showed up in the images, so it wasn't something to do with the lens. It was the sensor. Still.

To say that I feel cut up about it is pretty much an understatement. So I wrote to the company and will be calling them on Monday and hopefully will be able to get a satisfactory answer from them. I don't really want to give up using this brand of camera. My little old point-and-shoot has handled taking tens of thousands of photos. I've spent lots on DSLR stuff. I bought another of their point-and-shoot cameras for the New Zealand holiday.

But this on top of everything else is just depressing. I just want my camera to work, and work well.


*Tal, I still love the camera, so don't worry! Just not so fond of what's happened *sigh*

**I had bought another point-and-shoot before going away just because I was worried that the DSLR wouldn't be back in time and my old point-and-shoot is giving up the ghost. So that was lucky.