The screen on my canon ixus 500 has become a scrambled mess of lines, despite recharging (rather old ) batteries. It won't take a 'real' photo, but only the scrambled image

Sue from the Highlands, November 2008

I have an old Canon IXUS 500 camera which I use for diving and quick holiday snaps - when I went to use it recently the camera seemed to take the photo ok, but the picture on the LED screen came out extremely distorted.

I had hoped that the LED screen was at fault, but when I went to download the photos, the downloaded photos were also distorted. Is this a common problem and does anyone have any idea as to how to cure it.
I think it could be an exposure problem. All help gratefully received

Rob Holt, November 2011

Your Canon has problem of bad ccd imager sensor I believe. Worth checking with Canon perhaps to ask but when mine went on my A70 I binned the camera and bought a Panasonic DMC-FX30EB-S Digital Camera - Silver (7.2MP, 3.6 x Optical) Antishake, 2.5" LCD with a lithium-ion battery. No more short battery life now either.

Chicks Fan, December 2008