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My ~10 year old Canon PowerShot Digital ELPH S410 (IXUS 430) has been left in a drawer for the past 6 years.

I took it out recently to give to my young son as his first camera, but the pictures have a purple cast, with a purple bar accorss the top. Some of the pictures are almost completely distorted (examples below).

BTW the these photos were taken with AWB on. Hitting the camera sometimes seems to fix the distortion.

What has happend to the camera or sensor to cause this and is there a (cheap) fix.

enter image description here

enter image description here

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  • \$\begingroup\$ This was a great camera in it's heyday and I took thousands of great photos when I was travelling. Just a pity it can't last forever. \$\endgroup\$
    – Ken
    Commented Nov 20, 2014 at 14:24
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    \$\begingroup\$ If it turns out to be terminal, there is a Canon Loyalty Program where you can trade it in on a discounted replacement camera: fstoppers.com/business/… \$\endgroup\$
    – cmason
    Commented Nov 20, 2014 at 15:39
  • \$\begingroup\$ Firstly: my best guess would be that one or more of the capacitors has started to fail. Secondly: Instagram would pay a fortune for that effect. \$\endgroup\$
    – Bobulous
    Commented Nov 21, 2014 at 20:15

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My immediate thought is damaged sensor, but if hitting it helps, it is also possible a connection is loose or corroded and the bump makes the connection good again for a second. You might try taking the camera apart and reseat any connectors you can get your hands on. If that doesn't work, you could try to identify bad connections and reflow solder where appropriate, but that's a tricky and time consuming option that is probably better spent buying a simple, newer camera.

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