Digital Camera Focus Technician

“Hey Chuck,” I said. “Can I borrow The Company digital camera?”

“Sure,” he answered. “It's around here somewhere, only it's badly out of focus. I took some … well … interesting shots … that didn't come out well.” I raised my eyebrows but didn't feel it was worth asking what Chuck meant by intersting shots. “Here it is,” he said, opening a desk drawer and handing me the camera.

So I take the camera and proceed to take a few test shots. Yes, the digital camera indeed needed to be refocused.

The camera itself is one of those fixed-focus cameras where the end user (me) has no chance in Lower Sheol of fixing it. Well, that didn't stop me. I grabbed the closest screwdriver and popped that baby open. The actual lens assembly could be refocused with a screwdriver, but the operation involved removing a circuit board, removing the lens assembly, adjusting it, reinstalling the lens and circuit board, taking a test shot and seeing how bad it was. Took about twenty minutes of fiddling to get it good enough.

Once I got it, I started taking all sorts of pictures. Of the office and several self-portraits, most of which weren't very good or just plain silly. But I did manage to refocus a digital camera.