Just a month ago, I did my usual routine in my camera cabinet, which is checking all batteries for proper charge "just in case". All lithiums were fine and all non lithium (AA's) got recharged as usual. Proprietary batteries are tested with the corresponding camera. This time, my beloved WP was no exception and its battery was charged as the other lithiums.
Yesterday I repeated the routine but found the bettery in the WP dead as a brick. Removed it and set it to charge in its original Pentax charger. It took more than 4 hours to fully charge, which led me to believe something may be wrong in camera, since it was not used al all in the month ant it shouldn't have fully discharged the battery.
Anyway, I inserted charged battery and turned camera ON.... HORRORS!!!!!
The camera does turn on, but the LCD display shows only a huge black blob tha covers about 70% with some streaks that look like cracks on the screen but aren't.
The camera seems to be working. Zoom works (you can actualy see the little lens moving when zoom is activated) and tomorrow morning I will check if it still takes pictures, even though there is no way to change settings since everything is done through LCD display.
The little camera is about 10 years old. This is the first time (and probably the last one too!) that something fails. Its probably not even worth asking about a possible repair, nor do I believe the needed parts are available.
But my biggest concern here is about age-situation-failure of the LCD display. I know for sure the camera was fine a month ago. That it was not used at all and kept inside my camera cabinet, where no one dares to touch anything and its under cotrolled low humidity conditions. But even so, the LCD screen failed and the only thing I can think of is AGE (time) related. Like if the LCD reached the end of its life an there was no way to prevent this failure.
Since this technology is fairly new, I am concerned about certain parts in our gear, like those LCD displays, that haven't been around long enough to know they have a limited life span and all of a sudden, our beloved (an once expensive!) gear may turn into garbage.
Anyone here has experienced sudden unexpected failures from parts that seem not to wear and tear????