I'm sorry if I didn't make it more clear from the outset what the point of
all this was. A friend asked me to look at his digital camera. The camera
would power up with a "zoom error" message on the display. We looked for
simple solutions like sand or dirt in the zoom mechanism but since the
lens
seemed to be zooming in and out freely, I decided to try and dismantle the
camera. The reason for removing the flexible cables is so that I can
remove
the lens mechanism (whose cables are attached to the pc board) and see if
there is some other obvious reason. The cost of the camera was less than
$165 so it's really not worth sending it away for repair.

Thanks for your reply.

And thank you for clarifying the situation.