I've had my FZ28 less than 6 months; have been enjoying it until today. Snapped a bunch of photos - lots of zooming in and out.

Noticed two bars still on the battery pack. Thought, good, can still go take pictures

Turned it on half an hour later snapped a few more photos at a different location.

Turned it off for about 10 min to move locations.

Noticed the lens did not go all the way in when I turned it off. Went to turn it on....NOTHING! Absolutely nothing!!

Thought, MAYBE the battery ran out of juice. Yet the indicator did not come on to warn me as it always did....took it home to charge....it was "charged" in less than an hour (figured it DID have more juice still in it)....

Put it in the camera....nothing

How can this be? How can it just be completely dead?

I am SOOOO bummed. A camera and battery pak less than 6 months old and it's crapped out. From what I read, warranty isn't going to cover "wear and tear"....although how can it be dead from wear and tear when I"ve taken maybe 400 pictures in this time frame.

Anyone have ANY ideas?

Now, I'm really confused.

Stubborn as I am I went back to my camera to fiddle with it.

Took the battery out and the memory card. Put the battery back without the memory card. Turned it on and it came on....

I put the memory card back on and it turns the camera off????? It's a 1 GB memory card with about 50 regular pictures; no video, just photos. I've used this memory card for two months with no problems and always delete the photos after uploading.

I noticed I have all three bars indicating my battery is fully charged.

I put in a new memory card and the camera will turn on.

I really hope someone can give me some knowledge of what could be happening.

It seems that that memory card is the problem....but why??

In the meantime, I can't get my photos off my card and those photos can't be re shot - is there another way to get the photos off that memory card?

A new card works, huh? The existing card may be drawing too much current for some reason (or it's got some type of compatibility issue with the camera). I'd clean the contacts on it and make sure they are nice and shiny (in case it's not making a good enough electrical connection).

As for recovering your the images from it, try Photorec (free). You'll want to use a card reader. The only problem is that if the card has some type of internal short, it could potentially damage your PC. You don't normally see that type of problem, though.

If you want to try recovering the images, I'd suggest that you download and install this software for the operating system you're using (Windows, Mac, Linux). It's free. You'll see a download menu choice on the left side of the main page. Then, just click on the desired operating system to download it.

http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/PhotoRec

Use a card reader and select your memory card from the list of media it finds (hard drives, memory cards, etc.), and give it a place to save the photos to on your hard disk when you are asked Where to Save Recovered Files (it defaults to saving recovered files in subfolders under Photorec, where the software is installed on your hard drive, but you can change it to something else if desired).

Note that this product does not retain the original file names (but, you may not care about that), since it ignores the file allocation table entirely.

Don't worry about changing any of the other options. Just leave everything else at the defaults (Partition type, file types to recover, etc.) and it will try to recover any files that haven't been overwritten yet (and don't try to do anything like take more photos or you may overwrite some of them).

Here's a page showing you how to use this software:

http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/PhotoRec_Step_By_Step

After you recover your images (and make sure you can see the larger images, not just the thumbnails), I'd make sure you format the card again before using it. Here's a utility you may want to try using a card reader since your camera can't work with it yet. You'll see a download link at the bottom of the page.

http://panasonic.jp/support/global/c...formatter.html

If you can get it to work, I'd reformat it using the camera's menu choice for format before using it again. I do that every time I reuse a card (format it again using the camera's menu choice for format versus a PC). That way, the card always starts out with a fresh FAT (File Allocation Table), just the way the camera expects it, since the camera is performing the format.

Putting the card in a card reader to see if you can get the pictures off that way?

Memory cards do go bad from time to time, which is why I to pull the pictures off them as soon as possible. If you can get the pictures off, try reformatting the card afterwards.

There are some utilities out there that are supposed to be able to recover files off of SD cards. Google is your friend.

Memory cards go bad w/o warnings (unfortunately). One minute they work the next they are dead and it does not matter whether they are new or old. So, my suggestion is to not use the faulty card because it is obviously making the camera act in a bizarre way. If the 50+ images you have in it are must haves, then use a card reader and any software that recovers files from memory cards (there are plenty of free ones out there). As Jim said, the card could be drawing too much power from the camera or it just can not be read correctly and the camera gets messed up. The good thing is, they are cheap so look at the glass as being half full!

im soooo happy i found this forum
i purchased the fz28 about 4 months ago and one day the camera didn't want to go on... have 3 different batteries...all to the same result..
thought it was the charger..purchased new charger..same result..
not to searching through this forum...did i find the same problem with the fz28..
it will not turn on with a bad card... so i switched the card out and POOFF!
it turns on...thanks
didn't ever think a bad card would stop the camera from functioning...

thanks NEW G