I cant believe i found this thread, this saved me big bucks in repair costs. I have a Sony W1 and i got this error and after that a black screen saying to turn off the camera and on again. Did that 100 times, nothing worked. Then i read you guys dropping it and banging it and whatnot and i thought you guys were crazy! But amazingly, after banging it into the palm of my hand a couple of times, the lens retracted normally and the camera is working flawlessly now!!

Thank you for your advice I use my camera Sony Handicome from 1998 Recently I drop it accidentally and it began to show E:61:00 error I went to one of offical service centers of SONY but they sent me to another. Another told that only opening and diagnostic would cost 40 USD and if I decide to repair the cost would be very high because all spare parts should be ordered and will come from abroad. I decide to search Google for understanding what "SONY E:61:00 ERROR" meant and found this site...At the first I was shocked when I found out your solution to drop it but anyway I with pain in heart decide to do it. So I drop it accurately twice and I was so surprised when discover that it become normally work after it. I think we should advice to SONY to add this method in their device operation manuals. THANK YOU ONE MORE TIME ALL!!! Mushegh Armenia

I had the same problem. Took it to oficial service and said tha they needed to change the lens. US$ 300 in Argentina. No way I was gonna pay that, so I did the dropping thing 1.5 ft on a wooden surface and it started working. Don't laugh about this but it took me like 5 times to get it work perfectly and I think the more effective way it's making it crash on the display side. THX.

Visit this site and apply the solution two or three times and after you will take your pictures http://www.fewin.com/sony/sony.htm Symptoms : · After pressing the power button in capture mode, the lens would extend and a slight humming from what appeared to be the auto focus motor could be heard for about 5 seconds. When the motor stopped humming, the camera would beep and display E:61:00 in the LCD Screen. · Camera would extend the lens but not be able to focus on anything past 8 inches or so. · Zoom in and out did not work. · Playback mode and the Setup mode was not affected. Solution : This may sound crazy and this has not happened since I did this but here is what I did to get rid of that error message. I have not had that problem since but here was my steps: · Turn the camera off · Hold the camera face down over a hard surface (Like you are going to take of your desk) with only about half an inch above the surface. · Turn the camera on · Let the lens extend into the hard surface, don’t let it extend all the way. Mine retracted slightly and then tried to extend again (let it extend the second time). · Lift the camera away from the hard surface and notice that the error message is gone. · Take pictures of your favorite things. Theory : I suspect there is a turn style screw that has a minimum and a maximum point that it should not go past during operation. For some unknown reason, I think this error message means that I am less than the minimum set point. This would explain the motor humming (spinning) trying to push the auto focus motor into this acceptable range. By not letting the camera fully extend, it basically forced it back into a good position in that range. This could explain why I have read others being able to fix an error message of E:61:10. The simple solution to fix that error message was to the let the lens fully extend and give the lens a good whack. Possibly this error message for this means, that the auto focus motor was past the maximum set point. The whack forced it back into a good position in that range.

Wow!! I thought you all were stupid and no way was I going to drop this camera (even if it was already broke). I have the P-150 and getting the same freakin error. Has happened twice before and eventually it went away. Sony wanted $240 to even look at it. Um...no. So after holding the lens to a table, blowing on it, tapping on it nd all that other stuff, I finally decided to drop it. Held it about 3 feet above my carpet. Took 3 drops and now it works. Crazy!! Thanks to everyone.

Marca ese error en cuanto prendes las camara al parecer es que no puede ajustar el foco del sonsor del Zoom pero no encuentro la manera de resetearlo

i am from the philippines bought a BRAND NEW SONY P200 7.2 megapixel in hong kong with freakin salesman who is bargaining small time digicam hehe the "modus operandi" of those salesman but anyway i just got it got for 3 days and went to the beach for some hot summer vacation fortunately while doing some snap shots at the beach this freakin error came up " SONY E:61:00 ERROR " i was so disappointed and i was freakin panicking because my warranty will be at Hong Kong and it would take time to get back there...and im sure the sales man will just ignore it...damdam and i started doing the google search and found this site... i saw the 2 feet drop solution, tapping it with your hands and the putting the lens downward on your desk. but i was shock when other guys said to drop it 2 feet and i dont want to do that because it is a BRAND NEW digicam and dont want to put some scratches on it. while doing a research i run to my car to get the camera the first time this happens i cannot close my lens its all stock.... i tried the cold reboot OFF and ON then remove batteries change batteries too and remove memory stick and reset button near the battery compartment. so i force the lens to close it by pressing the power OFF and turn it clockwise at the same time which closes the lens and have to keep it to avoid more damage. now for the first step before trying the 2 feet drop... before turning ON the camera i TAP the back of the camera where the LCD is located real hard with my palm...and blow the side of the lens real hard...because it is stated from one of the solution...and turn ON the camera and VIOLA!!! IT WORKED!!! but wait...the lcd is foggy and i can only see clouds on the lcd with the scene...and i tried to wait for 5 minutes...and the thing is the moist from my mouth when i blow it real hard went to the lens and covered it with moist...rrr now it is working fine....moral do not blow the lens just TAP IT REAL HARD 2-3 times at the back of the lens...if you want to blow it just blow it gently to remove the small particles inside... sony im sorry you wont get any money repairs from me hehehe THANK YOU ALL!!! glenn mark sarmiento philippines SONY P200 7.2 mp

lol instead of banging mine, i figure i should crack it open. i opened it all up and messed around wit it. it also gave me a huge shock. it scared me hahaha it kinda hurt. but after just messing around wit the lense and stuff i put it back together thinking it was hopeless and now the error is gone. also my zoom was very slow and now its normal YAY;)

i had the E:61:00 error with my DSC-T1; dropped it several times onto my wooden table from about 2 feet. it worked!

OK...So after reading people DROPPING their cameras to fix the problem, I did it. I dropped mine from 2 feet off of a Pergo laminate floor and bingo...I don't have to buy another camera or get it repair. Whomever started this...thanks.