The cause of the commonly known lens cap fault does "not" apply to this model, and to my knowledge none of these GZ models have ever suffered from from it, so unless the image sensor has been damaged by the camcorder being continually allowed to sweep past the sun there just has to be some other reason involved, this being quite impossible to remote diagnose as so many variables can apply. PS: queries should always be made via "Post new message" at the top of every screen, as your posting was purely noticed by chance as its made under an old out of date original.