DIY Repair of the command dial of the Fuji S9000/S9500 and Fuji S9100/S9600
 (Europe: S9500 and S9600. USA: S9000 and S9100)

update: August 17th 2009
I receive(d) lots of e-mails from all around the world in the past few years thanking me for this tutorial. Actually, a guy called Daniel sent me the link to the Chinese
site this tutorial originates from: http://forum.xitek.com/showarchives.php?threadid=386689

Okay, this "how to..." is about a known defect that occurs in a lot of Fuji S9000/S9500's and Fuji S9100/S9600's. The reason that it's rewarding to fix the
camera yourself is simple: it's quick (sending it to the manufacturer will result in having 1 to 2 months no camera) and it's better (because the defect part will be
replaced with a copy of that same part, that can break a second time - at least this is reported by other owners).

So, let's explain to you the simple way of fixing your cam. This "how to" is based on Chinese pictures, but since I could not find the website anymore, I decided
to do it myself. Here are other ways to fix your cam (which might be better), but most require more tools and time to fix. For the method I describe you have to be handy, but it's
not very hard to do.

Let's get to work:

Picture 01 (below): These are the tools you need (1: small screwdriver set, 2: a wooden toothpick and 3: a knife).

Picture 02: remove the screws (twice).

Picture 03: Open the cam. Use a swiss knife, but be carefull to not damage anything. On the picture you can see where the cam opens.

Picture 04: Remove these 4 screws.

Picture 05: This is the command dial, seen from inside. This is the location where a little black, plastic rod broke from its dial wheel.

Picture 06: Now it's time for the most important and most diffcult part. You have to make a substitute for the broken piece (on the right side). The good news is:
a wooden toothstick is quite suitable for this. Take your swiss knife and do some carpentry. Here's what I made of it (on the left side).

Picture 07: Now you can slide the wooden creation into the dial. You have to shorten the legs of the stick probably some to make it fit nice and easy.
Try to make (by scraping with your knife very little off different sections of the side) a hexagonal (6-corner-shaped) top to fit the selection wheel
(where the top of the stick must be slided into).

Well, put it all together now and enjoy your camera again!

Good luck,

Steffen Dirkx (The Netherlands)
You can contact me by visiting my website http:///www.sdirkx.nl