Last year we went to Marineland in Niagara Falls, a birthday treat for my wants-to-be-a-marine-biologist 10yo. I was taking tons of pictures. Then when he was lined up to pet and feed the belugas, I dropped my camera.

No mud, but hard pavement, and yes it was on, with the lens fully extended.

It landed right on the lens part, and something bent. It would no longer retract or extend, it was just stuck. The teeny lens covers were cracked off too. When you tried to take a picture, it would try to focus and you just heard the thing grinding because it couldn't move.

I tried re-bending things but never was able to fix it. We got no more pictures the rest of the trip. But, at least the pictures we had already taken were fine. A little-known advantage of digital cameras perhaps? If it had been a "regular" camera, it probably would have popped open, exposing the film, or bent the film case, or something like that.

Hmm, I think I should make a blog post about our trips — we went again a month later and got some great pics with our new camera!!!

I would try to see if you could get a really cheap used point-and-shoot on eBay or something, then put the rest of the $200 into savings for a DSLR. You take so many beautiful pictures, I'm surprised you don't have a DSLR! Although – have you checked with the manufacturer to see if they'll repair it? That might be even cheaper.

P.S. I have internet again! I can read blogs again! I'll be putting up a blog about my adventures here in Europe soon.