I bought a Sony Handycam (Model DCR-HC40E) 3 years back from Delhi, India. After using it for a week, I confronted with a problem. The LCD screen of my handycam stopped working, though I was able to take shots using the View Finder.

I am a resident of Jamshedpur, India and when I contacted the Sony Service Center in Jamshedpur, they took my camera and sent it to Ranchi Sony Service Center for the repair. I got back the camera after 1 week and they didn’t charge me anything as it was under the warranty period. The LCD Screen started working and all this while I was happy with the usage of the camera. I would also like to mention here that am very careful and particular about the maintenance of my handycam.

I am on a vacation in Singapore and my camera was working PERFECT the first 2 days and let me took a lot of shots (still as well as video). One morning out of the blue, when I switched on the camera, I faced with the exact same problem (LCD screen blank/not working, even though the battery was fully charged). And when I tried to switch into the View Finder mode, it displayed me an error E61:10 and zoom, autofocus all stopped working. The picture is blurr and I cannot see anything basically.

I was not able to find any information pertaining to error E61:10 from your Sony website, and when I did a Google search I was amazed to see a lot of people faced the same problem and the solution they gave on the following sites surprised me:

http://www.pechorin.com/m/2004/01/22/Error_Codes_Assistance-208526-3.html
http://www.camerahacker.com/Forums/DisplayComments.php?file=Video%20Camera/Sony/Error_code_E.61.11_on_SONY_DCR-HC90.html
http://www.pechorin.com/m/2004/01/22/Error_Codes_Assistance-208526-27.html )

The solution given on all these sites were to SMACK the CAMERA!!! See the sample text below:

Now the fix you will not believe, nor did I at first, but requires you to power off the unit completely and "Smack it" a few times fairly hard. Now you may do this at your risk, but I swear it fixed mine and all the other people listed at the above web site. I thought it was a joke - but it works!

Try turning the camera on and give it a big whack on a hard surface.Turn off and see . 3-4 for times should work. A stuck lense problem. I am NOT ready to do this on my precious possession and that’s why am writing this mail to you, so that I get to know what does the error E61:10 means and how to get my camera back to running and functioning mode.

I have very high regards for all Sony products and I am sincerely hope my trust on ur brand is not lost.