Appreciation post: My old digital camera's battery door gave out and finding a fix was a real journey

The little plastic latch on my old Canon PowerShot S95 finally snapped off last month. I figured I'd just order a new door online, but the exact part was long gone. I spent about two weeks checking auction sites and old tech forums, coming up empty. I finally found a guy in a camera repair group who showed me how to use a tiny bit of epoxy and a paperclip to make a new latch. It took me three tries over a weekend to get it to hold the battery in place. Anyone else had to get creative to keep an older gadget running?

3 comments

3 Comments

eva_garcia562mo ago

Oh man, that epoxy and paperclip fix is pure genius. It makes you wonder how much perfectly good tech gets thrown out just because of one tiny broken piece of plastic. I've started keeping old gadgets just for parts, like a drawer full of potential donor bodies. It's weirdly satisfying to Frankenstein something back to life instead of adding to the e-waste pile.

miller.jason1mo ago

Dang, has anyone else noticed how even the "replaced" parts in newer cameras are getting intentionally harder to swap out? They're using more adhesive and rivets instead of screws now... feels like manufacturers are designing stuff specifically so you can't fix it.

margaret_flores172mo ago

Actually, a lot of those old plastic parts are still out there. You just have to search for the camera model number plus "for parts" on auction sites. Found a whole busted S95 last year just for its door.