My FZ50 is no longer working properly.

The problem began suddenly: now the images in the viewfinder (both the eyepiece viewfinder and the LCD screen which each have their own separate LCD) have a blue cast to them, and appear to be overexposed by about two, perhaps even three full stops, i.e., too light, lacking contrast and color saturation.

The recorded pictures seem to be OK, although the paranoia caused by the viewfinder problems have almost convinced me that there is a slight bluish cast there as well, but if so it is much less than in the viewfinder[s].

Always in the past the images in the viewfinder have matched up very well with the recorded pictures.

I have been through every one of the 50 or so user adjustable settings in the camera's menu structure and none of them can account for the problem which began suddenly, between one picture and the next.

Ideas? Suggestions?

tanstaafl.

After some research and consultation with camera repair facilities, the consensus of opinion is that "It's broke, would be cheaper to buy a new one than to fix it."

As it turns out, this is not the case. A new one will run in the $400-$500 range, and Panasonic has a fixed-fee, flat-rate price structure in place for repairing all DMC series Panasonic digital cameras.

For $161.50 (which includes return shipping costs) they will fix whatever is wrong with a DMC camera, provided that the failure was not caused by moisture, impact, or mis-use.

So, on Monday my 12x-zoom baby gets shipped off to Illinois where they promise to make it as good as new.

tanstaafl.