Z-5 anti shake problem

[dukephoto]

My Z-5 seems to have developed a problem. The anti shake indicator is red, instead of it's usual green. I checked and it was set to display and exposure. I tried new batteries, since when the batteries are low, the anti shake turns itself off to conserve power. No luck. I tried tuurning it off and then back on, again no luck.

I'm hoping it's not dead, it's long out of warranty (5 days before the warranty expired, the image sensor went dead, but was replaced by Sony under warranty- talk about timing!!).

I'm afraid the cost of repair will be too high for what the camera is worth. Anyone know the approximate repair cost on this one?

dukephoto

[David Kilpatrick]

The Sony replacement sensor should carry a new warranty - that may be expired, but first you should contact Sony again, and explain the situation. You may be eligible for a free repair again as the anti-shake assembly and the sensor are one unit.

David

[Armen Gharib]

Hi

I have had 3 KM Dimage Z6 and in the past and 2 of them have had problems with Antishake and were deffective. As I understood
KM had different kinds of defects concerning the AS. When my first KM arrived from I observed that the left corner of the display was black which was evident on the images. Simultaneously with this camera was ranning with some noise, after that I guessed that there is problem with CCD position against the lens and witrh AS sytem. I am an engineer and I decided to disassemble the camera. After dissembling I observed that the CCD isn't located vertically to the lens and I tried to correct the position. After assembling black corners disappeared but the noise and AS problem didn't disappeared. I disassembled once again and fixed the CCD (CCD is controlled by springs and magnetic field as I realized, and I put some pieces of paper on the sides of CCD to keep it fixed, it turns out that I switched off the As but I couldn't do anything more, because I was in Armenia and the warranty was for USA). I sold this with the defect and bought the another one, this had only the problem of black corners to my favor (and at that moment I disliked the KM electronic system although I was a great fun of Minolta lenses). This was 3 years ago when in Armenia Z6 was one of the best cameras.

[David Kilpatrick]

The Z6 was almost certainly not a KM own product, my guess is that it was made for them by one of Sony's subscontractors. It was a budget camera for its specifications. I am very surprised you were able to make any repairs to it on your own, they are such small mechanisms inside.

David

[Dr. Harout]

David, you shouldn't be surprised, that's quite common here.
And, oh, by the way, Armen is at the same time a musician like you, and he's good with the duduk.

[Armen Gharib]

David, I have been engaged in medical engineering for some period of time, and what I practiced and experienced how careful I should deal with such kinds of mechanisms. Frankly speaking I have dissembled and assembled KM Dimage Z6 7 times and once I teared one of the wires which I soldered , theoretically it is not possible not to damage anything if you are not expert. But everything require a risk, and I have this risk . Beside the Z6 I have repaired (if it can be repair ) some other small cameras too, where there was a problem with capacitors and so on. Oooo David, do you really like duduk?? I think I can acquaint you with our best Masters of duduk makers and players if you desire.

[David Kilpatrick]

Yup, I like duduk, Harout has already traded me a couple of locally made G Duduks (I think, my playing is so bad that working out the pitch was not easy!).

David

[Armen Gharib]

David, if you want listen some interesting, clear and prof. demos of duduk music you should go to http://www.armduduk.com" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; and listen to them, they are woderful records.
This site is under construction now and it will be ready ASAP. Armen Grigoryan is my master and close friend, he is member of UNESCO and I assure you he is one of the best (if not the best) in the world, now I am producing him and I want to organize some concerts in the near future and I hope that we will succeed.
If you have any questions concerning the duduk playing or making process or if you need to a real professional duduk and ghamish (reed) let me know and I will be glad to help you!
When I was a starter and first time took the duduk for playing I failed, because for making a sound there are 3 important things that you should take into account.
1. You should very frequently have a look to the reed, it should be opened only a tiny bit, if it is open wider than required large amount of blowing will be need, and if it is simply closed or opened less than required it will also take a lot of power from you. You should find the optimal opening for your reed, because reeds are very different.
2. Second thing is that you should put your fingers on the hols properly. There were times that I was looking for what's the problem and why I can't make the duduk sound. After shifting my fingers and putting them exactly on the holes I could make some sound. This is the most important thing. You can correct it by only playing some gammas which you can find on the http://www.araratfolk.com" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; for the various duduks. By the way Master Karen is also my close friend.
You should put 3 fingers per hand (6 hands totally) for the beginning. For the first 3 fingers in the higher octave you should use first tips of your fingers and for the second 3 fingers you should use the adjacent tips (near the hand).
3. 3-rd thing is that you should blow by fully inflating or swelling your cheeks. Only in this way you can obtain the real sound of duduk!

If you want I could send you scanned versions of some musics for beginners!

[David Kilpatrick]

Thanks Armen - have listened and watched all M. Grigoryan's pieces, and evenn tried to play a couple of them (trouble is, my duduks do not want to be in tune with anything and it takes ages getting the pressure on the reed to pitch it right). I think the reed is the most vital part of the instrument.

The duduk is a bit like the Alpha 900 compared to a clarinet being the D3X - good, plain, simple, back to basics and rather noisy if you don't know how to use it!

I see that playing with just three fingers on each hand is used when the bass notes are not needed. That is much easier. This is completely off-topic but I'll try to make a nice photo of the two duduks I got from Dr Harout's local market. They are not as photogenic as the zurma. I also see that a large oud is played in Armenia, about the same size as my Moroccan oud which I picked up during the press trip to launch the Nikon D200. Everyone thought I was quite mad carrying a large fragile instrument back to Scotland with two connecting flights. I also met an African who played a kind of hand-plucked santur, which he called an 'elkan', quite amazing sound.

I collect these instruments not just because I love music, but also because I love wood. I can't see a fallen tree without wondering what the wood would be like. Now that all our graveyards are full, and people have to be cremated, there is a cemetery started near us in the country where people can be buried and a tree planted right there, straight above them. There are no gravestones but one day there will be a wood, and all the trees will have in them part of the people buried there. Maybe in 100 years time someone will make instruments from the trees. Maybe I should visit the place and see what it looks like now.

David

[Armen Gharib]

David, could you please measure the upper diameter (where reed is put) and back diameter of your duduk and inform me, because if the diameter of duduk is smaller than it needs than playing needs a huge efforts. I will take one good ghamish (reed) for you from one of our best ghamish makers (Master Arman or Master Sergey) and Dr. Harout and I will send it to you, not to torture you so much . You always should remember that you need only a bit blowing not a lot for properly playing the duduk, it is a matter of technique, and it is not hard at all, you should always follow to your fingers and chickens as I already mentioned.
What about the 6 fingers I should mention that there are a lot of Armenian musics that one can play only using these 6 frings, and for the start I strongly advise you not to use your 8 frings.
By the way I also like wood. My friend Master Karen have made a flute from apricot wood, and one can amazed listening the sound made by this flute, it is amazing and nobody has done it yet, we will post this flute with it's sound in his website in a fortnight.

Kindest regards
Armen

[David Kilpatrick]

Armen, I will send you a pm with the info about the duduks. They are not difficult to play, much easier than the Xaphoon which I sell:

http://www.troubadour.uk.com/?page_id=15" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

The Xaphoon also uses eight finger holes, but a 2.5 tenor sax reed and requires a lot of blowing to make it work. Gary Friedman, the Alpha e-book author, is the main agent for Xaphoon and I sell them in the UK. Twelve more arrive today, I don't buy them in large quantities as it works out cheaper to post a box of twelve each time. The coloured Xaphoons are not as bright as my photos make them look. I just opened up two stops on the studio table (my studio table has two flash heads underneath the perspex and one above) and the dark coloured plastic became brilliant RGB!



Photographed on the D7D with 28-105mm Sigma lens, which is my studio lens - it doesn't produce too bad light reflections with these bright white backgrounds.

David

[bfitzgerald]

Whilst we are on music..

I case anyone missed them

http://www.youtube.com/user/daviddkilpatrick" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Maybe we can get some David Kilpatrick- Jimi Hendrix videos up!