The photo on the left is the last photo I took with my just over one year-old Panasonic Lumix DMC-ZS5. The photo on the right is the first photo taken with my brand new Panasonic Lumix DMC-ZS15.
If you look in the Seattle picture, the Space Needle and the building to its right look a little hazy while the new 200′ waterfront Ferris Wheel and it surroundings are sharp and bright. Every shot I took of the Seattle skyline on the ferry ride that day had the same dark hazy area on it in the same area.
The next to the last day on vacation when I was taking pictures I noticed that blade-like the lens cover wasn’t retracting all the way. The only way to fully open it was to give one of the blades a helping push with a finger. Once home and I saw the last day’s photos I thought I must have left a smudge on the lens from manually opening up the lens cover. I pulled out the camera and looked at the lens cover and there was something sticky looking on the bottom half. When you the camera around in a back pocket or you are near kids or s’mores there is no telling what might come in contact with your camera.
I took the camera to work to try and clean it off. Lens cleaner and a cloth would not get the sticky stuff off so I got some mild solvent we use for cleaning circuit boards to spray on the metal shutter blades that make up the lens “cap.”
The solvent melted the shutter blades and sealed them shut like I used super glue on the edges. I quickly tried to pry then apart thinking that if I could get them open all the way, the camera might still be useable. Well I only got them part way open before they totally melded together. As a bonus, the solvent did clean off any smudges that might have been on the lens, but it did that at the expense also removing any lens coating.
Needless to say I felt like Herb Tarlek, “I swear to God Big Guy, I thought turkeys could fly!” I swear to God Donna, I thought those blades were metal.