Susan,
> OK, now I am really concerned about the reliability of my Aria. I took > the batteries out and the display faded out and when I put the > batteries back in the camera worked fine. But now I'm concerned it > could happen again. Will Contax fix this? Frank, please let me know > how things work out with your Aria.
You may simply have dirty/loose battery contacts. Make sure they are clean (on both sides of the batteries) by wiping them off with a cotton cloth and some alcohol (or better yet, Radio Shack contact cleaner), as well as the contact on the battery compartment cover. It's more difficult to get at the battery contact inside the camera, but that can be done with a q-tip and alcohol (try to leave no q-tip debris though), or a pencil and a cotton cloth (w/ alcohol on the cloth)...but if you're uncomfortable doing this, you may want to find someone who is a bit more savvy at doing "delicate" work. I can't explain how to see if the battery contacts are possibly loose in an email...but I'd try the cleaning first and see if that eliminates the problem.
I have never had this happen with my Aria, but you're not the first to report it. It may simply be an issue with the hardware in the camera getting into a funny state...for one of any number of reasons (most likely IMO is the dirty/loose battery contact issue), and may not be a problem that Contax can "solve" by doing anything more than I've suggested...except the loose part.
Regards,
Austin