I've had my DCR DVD 505 a few days and, last night, I tried it out for the first time. Things seemed to be going okay until I tested a wide-angle lens that came as an accessory in the package I purchased. After I took the add-on lens off the camera was out of focus. I'm wondering if the damage, whatever is out of sync, is permanent and have a short window of opportunity to return the camera. I read the manual notations about auto focus, and something about keeping the camera turned off for 10 hours or so for the automatic setting to be restored. Is this all it will take, or did the add-on lense somehow screw up the focus on the camera? Thanks for any advice you can offer.

Well, in adulthood - as in youth - we sometimes fall victim of not following common sense.

This morning, after waiting more than 12 hours to try the camera once again I turned it on, and, as I witnessed yesterday - the view was out of focus. What to do? Return the camera? Decisions, decisions. Or, better yet - why not just remove the small/thin piece of the add-on wide-angle lens that separated from the main body of the lens, and was responsible for the out-of-focus condition.

Yes, I'm embarassed that I didn't more carefully examine my camera before pushing the panic button. But, the exercise demonstrated to me once again that solutions to "problems" are often simple.

Thanks for listening to my question. The "incident" brought me to this website and forum and I'll be participating further (hopefully in a more meaningful way) in the weeks and months to come.

Hello BillM,

Thank you so much for sharing your learning experience using the wide angle lens. I glad to hear that the solution was simple and that you took the time to post back the remedy of the out of focus problem.

This is something that I am sure is going to happen to someone else and your post just might save them the worry or frustration of what to do.

Enjoy your new DVD505, I have had mine for several months and am loving it.

Joe

Thanks for the response. What I did wrong, which caused my problem with the camera's focus . . . is when I unscrewed the lens from the camera it came apart . . . in two pieces . . . and I didn't see that. The part which was left on the camera caused the focus to be out of synch. Only after I more carefully looked at the camera more than 12-hours later did I see the little bit of the lens half left on the camera sticking out. The oversight was indeed embarassing . . . but, better than not having the camera to use on my just finished 10-day trip to Mexico. My next learning step will be to edit the video, where needed . . . and, for that . . . I'll need some software suggestion (which question I'll search on this forum before posting the question). Thanks again.

Bill,

You picked a great time to spend 10 days in Mexico. I too am from Chicago and the temperatures we have been having are unreal. We haven't had a cold spell this bad for many years and I have become spoiled.

As far as editing your vacation videos many others have successfully used: Ulead VideoStudio 10 Plus, Womble, and Nero 7.
I have been using Nero 7 and have had great results following forum member Vidjunkie's walk through post found HERE. I have not tried the others as I already owned Nero but it has worked flawlessly for me every time.

Joe