Build quality

[artington]

Over time I've noticed a lot of complaints here about Sony reliability and I imagine other dedicated forums have much the same for their own particular brand (except Leica). There will always be outliers that people will naturally be vocal about. Fair enough, it's very irritating when something goes wrong. Even more so when the issue appears to be congenital as in the oil drop issue with early (and possibly current?) Nikon D600s or poor IQ/ AF with early Canon 7Ds and 1DMk3s.

I suspect that in general, however, problems are much less frequent than people think, a supposition backed up by a very interesting blog on the subject by Roger Cicala of LensRentals.com which is linked below

http://www.lensrentals.com/blog/2013/08 ... -2012-2013

There is also a widespread belief that higher end cameras, such as Canon's 1D series or Nikons D4, are inherently more bomb and weather-proof than their less exalted stablemates. This may not necessarily be the case. A very interesting article in this week's AP (10/8) by Bob Newman, Professor of Computer Science at Wolverhampton University, suggests that plastic composite bodies may actually be better able to stand wear, tear and light water ingress than metal bodied cameras because they can be fabricated to closer tolerances with CAD. This is, for me, an unintuitive conclusion but having read the article I suspect he may be right. It is certainly interesting to read his comment on warranties, their vagueness and also lack of distinction between high and low end bodies.

[Birma]

Very interesting Artington. They do very interesting articles at LensRentals - a refreshingly balanced view of things

I was most surprised by the Samyang (etc.) lens. They are cheap for a reason it would seem. Still worth considering of course.

[pakodominguez]

I read it this AM. Interesting that all 70-200 lenses, regardless the brand, seams fragile. I think users' abuse might take in count also. Samyang and Tamron seams fragile also.

I have the lovely Tamron 70-200 f2.8 SP and I love it. I only had two problems with it: the tripod collar, that got replaced without cost a couple of years ago. And shooting in cold weather: I was at the Brooklyn Botanical Park few winters ago (the greenhouse is my favorite place, having tropical environment while is freezing outside...) at about -17 Celsius, and the aperture blades didn't function at all. I went back to the greenhouse and after a couple of minutes, the lens worked fine. I had the Beercan; the Minolta 35-200 Xi and a Sony 70-200 SSM at the same time because I was doing some comparative shoots, and none of them had the same issue, only the Tamron -Yes, the Tamron 70-200 is optically great, but there is a reason it is a 800$ lens, instead of the 1800$ of the Sony.

[bakubo]

Over time I've noticed a lot of complaints here about Sony reliability and I imagine other dedicated forums have much the same for their own particular brand (except Leica). There will always be outliers that people will naturally be vocal about. Fair enough, it's very irritating when something goes wrong. Even more so when the issue appears to be congenital as in the oil drop issue with early (and possibly current?) Nikon D600s or poor IQ/ AF with early Canon 7Ds and 1DMk3s.

And the infamous, often reported Sony A700 control wheel problem.

There is also a widespread belief that higher end cameras, such as Canon's 1D series or Nikons D4, are inherently more bomb and weather-proof than their less exalted stablemates. This may not necessarily be the case. A very interesting article in this week's AP (10/8) by Bob Newman, Professor of Computer Science at Wolverhampton University, suggests that plastic composite bodies may actually be better able to stand wear, tear and light water ingress than metal bodied cameras because they can be fabricated to closer tolerances with CAD. This is, for me, an unintuitive conclusion but having read the article I suspect he may be right. It is certainly interesting to read his comment on warranties, their vagueness and also lack of distinction between high and low end bodies.

I have made this point about good quality plastic such as used as the covering (metal underneath) for the Canon 60D several times before. I generally like them because they also handle minor bumps and scrapes better than metal bodies.

[bakubo]

When did Sony start doing this?

One thing I’ve started seeing that I really don’t like: some companies (Sony particularly) have started charging a nonrefundable repair estimate fee. If you send your lens in with a scratched element and decide after seeing the $600 replacement cost that you’ll just live with it, it can cost you $135 to get your lens back. This is something you want to check before you send an item in for repair (unless you know it’s so totally broken you’d throw it away if it can’t be fixed).

One reason I really don’t like this is simple: even a non-working lens or camera is worth something sold for parts (check eBay – some things go for more than half the new price when sold as ‘not working, for parts only’). If anything, the company should be paying you for keeping your ‘not repairable’ item. I guarantee you they aren’t throwing it away.

The other reason I don’t like it is it’s cheating. If you call and ask the replacement costs for a 16-350mm Bazooma front element, they usually tell you we have to look at before we can give you a quote, even though it’s a flat-rate fee. So basically they’re saying, “it will cost you $135 for us to tell you how much the charge is.” I can understand needing to see the lens before deciding the fee for more complex things, of course.

[bfitzgerald]

Reliability is just one part of the story, there are sometimes flaws in products and QC issues.
IMO QC problems are much more common than you think.

5 Nikon DSLR's with poor AF accuracy and back focus, 3 service attempts failed to fix any cameras, 2 Pentax models one with a defective SR mechanism and one with a design flaw in the AF module.
I exchanged an A200 twice because of dirt in the viewfinder, the KM5d had FBF. And the A57 well I don't need to repeat that.

I'm not talking about niggles now, I'm talking about problems during manufacture or design oversights.
Saying that I've not had a Sony pack up on me (yet) and I've not had control dial issues either, but the A700 evidently did have problems, and I read some A77 users saying the rubber busted on their control dials.

On the other side I've not had many lens problems at all across makers.

"I suspect that in general, however, problems are much less frequent than people think"

Couldn't agree less I'm very cautious now and that's why I didn't get a D600 last year, problems with AF reported and oil/dirt on the sensor..yet this still seems to be a problem! I've learnt my lesson if you start reading quite a few complaints about a product, chances are that there are problems/issues.

[bakubo]

"We are stuck with technology when what we really want is just stuff that works." - Douglas Adams