I dropped my Nikon 4500, and the zoom function stopped working. I took out the screws, got the case off, pried off the zoom button and discovered a flimsy piece of plastic was broken off…I widdled down a tiny piece of a matchstick as a replacement, put the button and case back on…put the screws back in, and it works again. I hope to replace it eventually with something like the Ricoh GR-Digital or the Panasonic L-1…but at least I got it working without having to shell out money to a repairman.

You can fix most things yourself if you have a little courage and a lot of patience.