"Lens Error, please restart camera", Or, No More Canon
Buyer beware for Canon Ultra-Compact digital cameras...
My wife and I, plus a good friend had three 
They were fantastic "point-and-shoot" ultra compact digital cameras. They produced really good photographs, had plenty of settings to play with, and were really simple to use. The battery life was amazing (I had more than 350 photos on one charge) and, I am told, they looked good. Now, all three have died with a fatal "Lens Error, please restart camera" error!
This is clearly a common fault, as proven by a simple web search. Canon deny a faulty design and always seem to avoid free repairs under their warranty, at least in the UK, by claiming that the camera contains dust or sand particles. In the UK, repairs cost £109+VAT+postage. There is no certainty that the problem won't occur again within a few months, so that price is too high to justify the repair over a new replacement. Effectively, a Canon warranty is a worthless warranty.
Complex electronics like this will often have small problems, but Canon's attitude on this matter is a disgrace. So, after buying only ever Canon digital cameras, I can't recommend that anyone buys one now despite good usability and brilliant picture quality.
My wife and I also have, between us, two Canon photo printers. These work well, but are now too expensive to run. It is cheaper to get the photos professionally printed (for 5"x8" or similar sizes), or to use my dead-cheap but solid Lexmark printer instead (for A4 or similar sizes).
I guess Canon's customer care have just lost them a formerly loyal customer.
Now I have to decide on my next digital camera...
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