Kindly refrain from snapping steamy, passionate piccies of your partner with certain older Sony Cyber-shot digital cameras, the consumer electronics giant has asked buyers this week. It turns out the cameras' LCDs may run into trouble in warm, humid environments.

According to Sony, the problem may affect more than 1m cameras - each one of eight types - sold between September 2003 and January 2005. The culprit is condensation, which could make its way into the display, preventing it from showing what the camera's lens is seeing. It might also prevent the camera from taking pictures at all, Sony said.

The models affected? The DSC-F88, DSC-M1, DSC-T1, DSC-T11, DSC-T3, DSC-T33, DSC-U40 and DSC-U50.

The company will fix problem free of charge on a case by case basis, and it expects only 4,000 cameras to require repair. It doesn't affect the fixes to impact its earnings, which is handy given the hit it's already taking to cover PlayStation 3 delays and specification changes, not to mention the worldwide lithium-ion battery recall prompted by the summer's spate of laptop fires. ®