Sony said Friday it found a defect in some of its popular Cyber-shot compact digital cameras and offered to repair affected cameras free of charge.

The liquid crystal display screens of eight camera models might not display images correctly, images could be distorted or cameras might not take photos at all, Sony Corp. said in a statement.

Affected are eight Cyber-shot models sold between September 2003 and January 2005 in Japan and in a similar period globally, according to Sony spokesman Chisato Kitsukawa.

Sony will repair for free only cameras that show signs of the problems, Kitsukawa said. He refused to say how many cameras might be affected.

IB Times