unbelievable, i tried banging against my desk from about 30cm up many times, finally it worked again!!!!!!

i got this error too, tried resettting everything. Removed and reinstall battery, memory card. Many many times Then i got sick of it and followed the other guy's advice and whack it a few times with my hand (while the camera was off) then all of a sudden it works. I suspect some focusing mechanism is getting jammed inside. Hope it works 4 u

WOW! I got the E:61 error and googled it to find help. Knocking the camera on a table (dropping it seemed a bit too drastic for a first try) got rid of the message! Thanks! Now I can take my new years pics! Happy 2007!

So I figured y'all were insane to whack your cameras to get it to work. I have a P200, purchased 1.5 yrs ago. I LOVE this digicam and was soooo sad that it came up first with a 61:00 error and then just said "turn camera off and on again". I tapped it, I blew into it, I prayed to digi-cam gods ... nothing worked. Then I dropped it. Now it works. Who knows if this will be a fix that will last or not but its better than nothing. It seriously distrubs me that so many people have had this issue and Sony doesn't seem to care or change its manufacturing practices. Have you all reported your issue to Sony? If they don't know how many people have the error, they won't change anything. Please consider reporting it.

Well, I have already purchased a new camera since I could not get rid of the error message. Unfortunately, I left my new camera at a friend's house and I need a camera tomorrow, so . . . . back to troubleshooting the Sony. I came across this page and thought you all must be crazy but in a last ditch effort, I tickled the lense - nothing happened. Banged it while it was open - still nothing, so I was beginning to think this all was a joke, but then I tapped it quite firmly with my palm with the lense closed and when I powered it on - NO MORE ERROR MESSAGE!! Thank you!! Now I will be able to capture pictures tomorrow of my children and their great-grandparents!! I love message-boards!

I'll join the many others here in saying that this, shockingly, worked. I have the F-707. It gave me the E:61:00 message. I bummed out, figuring an expensive repair was coming (never mind the fact that I leave in 2 days to travel from Indiana to California to have Thanksgiving with my wife's parents and to visit some sites in San Fran such as Alcatraz and, thus, really need a camera). I Googled the message code, found this thread, and just took and whacked the barrel against my palm a couple of times. I started out gently, that didn't work. I did it pretty hard, but not so hard as to tear it up, and I didn't DROP it, but I gave it a good whack a couple times, on the barrel, on each side, and it works!€€ Now, will this be a longterm solution or is it a sign that my beloved camera is going to soon clonk out for good? I dunno, but for now, I am happy to report it is doing fine. I turned the camera off and on several times and have taken a couple of practice shots...and, so far, so good.

This is kind of against the theme of the message board, but I called Sony about my problem, and they said they would fix it for free. My DSC-P150 broke and would not be fixed by any of the techniques listed on the site. So, for $6 shipping, they replaced my lens and got it back to me within a week. Sure, the C/S guy tried to charge me $139, but I just kept talking to him for a while and asked to talk to his boss, and we had a deal in not time.

worked for me!!! hit it on the table fairly hard a couple times and now it works dcr-pc109 sony handycam

Hi, I had the same problem (E:61:00) with my Sony PC330E camcorder. I tryed banging and stuff and it didn't work. Finally when I did the following sequence, it worked (I don't know if all steps are really necessary, but that's what I did): 1. Pressed the reset button of the camcorder. 2. Jiggled with the zoom button (w/t) while pointing the camcorder upwards and whacking it. 3. Stopped when the zoom started to act funny, and turned the camcorder off and then back on. 4. IT WORKS!!!!!

SONY CYBERSHOT DS-W5 Went to use above mentioned camera and greeted with E:61 flashing on screen and camera unable to focus. After talking to my friend who works in local camera shop, he claims it is very common Sony error. Sony says it has now been fixed. He says it has NOT. He said at first sight it appears to be a mechanical/spring problem with the lens, but can also be software related. One official Sony response is "......it's because the camera has not been used for a long time!" Here are the E type error messages you may get around this: E 61 00 Unable to adjust focus. Inspect lens block focus reset sensor E 61 10 Zoom operation fault. Inspect the lens block zoom reset sensor E 62 00 Steadyshot function not working. Inspect pitch angular velocity sensor E 62 01 Steadyshot function not working. Inspect yaw angular velocity sens THE CHEAP QUICK FIXES THAT HAVE WORKED 1. Hold the camera lens down above a hard surface. In "taking picture mode", press button to extend the motor lens.....so that the lens just can NOT quite fully extend. You may hear a small click as the lens meets the hard surface and trys to extend further. This should cure it OR 2. Turn off camera. Tap lens lightly a few times. OR 3. Turn off camera. Hit whole camera against hand (and say "don't do that, again or you will be in trouble") Check. If not fixed try SLIGHTLY harder whacks OR 4. Last resort fix. Turn off. Drop on to hardwood floor from about 4 inches. Increase height slightly each time until fixed or camera near breaking point 5. Bin it and get another, perhaps not a Sony! It's a throw away society. Digital stuff is cheap/changing rapidly. 6. Turn off camera. Hire a helicopter. Fly to maximum height. Drop camera out of window. Land helicopter. Go home. Give up taking pictures. THE OFFICIAL FIX(S) 1.Try a software RESET. Most cameras have a small recessed button somewhere or you can access a reset from within the set-up mode. 2.Also try Turning off the camera. Remove the battery or disconnect any AC power for 2 mins. Reconnect power and turn on. No Good? If it has just occured out of the blue (ie you havn't broken it) Then take it back/write to Sony and complain! Its a known fault and possible design error. They may do it for free.