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Re: My 77is locked up

Posted: Sun Oct 02, 2011 9:56 am
by Mark K
Too bad I cannot reset my own camera though I have seen many successful reports, mostly in Chinese. I am sending my camera tomorrow to Sony to fix this, and most likely to gen an upgraded firmware 1.03. As early adopters of this firmware said, this upgrade only fixes a few problems leaving most others in unfixed.
I do not regret buying A77 for my Bali trip, only regret not bringing my EOS lenses with my 5D which has a 17+40L attached. Most of these Bali cultures are imprinted only in my heart.

Re: My 77is locked up

Posted: Sun Oct 02, 2011 7:16 pm
by bakubo
Mark K wrote:Too bad I cannot reset my own camera though I have seen many successful reports, mostly in Chinese. I am sending my camera tomorrow to Sony to fix this, and most likely to gen an upgraded firmware 1.03. As early adopters of this firmware said, this upgrade only fixes a few problems leaving most others in unfixed.
That is very bad news for you and others then. One thing about the rumors about a firmware update that will fix all these problems that I wonder about is that some people have the problems and some people don't. Usually firmware problems affect everyone. Maybe there is a yet unknown sequence of actions that trigger the problems and that explains why some people have the problem and some don't. Or, it may be defective hardware in some bodies. Anyway, another bad case of poor Sony QC. I hope you can get yours fixed very soon or a refund.
Mark K wrote: I do not regret buying A77 for my Bali trip, only regret not bringing my EOS lenses with my 5D which has a 17+40L attached. Most of these Bali cultures are imprinted only in my heart.
Oh, you are traveling now with your A77?! :( I can really understand how disappointed you are feeling with your unusable A77 while in Bali. That is really heartbreaking. I travel a lot and one of the big goals is the photography and I know how bad I would feel if during the trip my camera gear let me down.

In my film days I would normally carry 2 35mm SLR bodies. With digital when I use Sony I carry 2 DSLRs and when I carry Canon I just carry 1 DSLR. Part of that is because I have 2 Sony DSLRs and part of it is because both of them are defective and don't work 100% (but I do have more lenses, a flash, etc.) so I have good reason to doubt them. All of my Canon DSLRs have always been flawless but, of course, it is still a little risky to travel with only one body so I am a bit nervous about that. I haven't bought an extra Canon body though just so that it is available while traveling. One reason is that just about everywhere I go I can buy a new Canon body within a day or two of my existing one dying or getting lost/stolen. I have seen Canon DSLRs for sale in Egypt, Vietnam, etc. so if I had to I could pick up a 550D or 600D that would get me through the rest of the trip. With Sony that is almost never an option.

Re: My 77is locked up

Posted: Mon Oct 03, 2011 6:56 pm
by Mark K
I used to carry multiple bodies. I used one for slide and another for negative film. Stepping into digital age, I have dropped my option, especially when I am travelling for scuba diving. My gears weigh well above 25kg and this time they are already 32kg without tripod, underwater cameras, underwater housing and underwater video lighting. My hand carry luggage was 12 kg with only the a77 system and a iPad. I even dropped my newly bought x220.

Re: My 77is locked up

Posted: Tue Oct 04, 2011 4:27 am
by bakubo
Mark K wrote:I used to carry multiple bodies. I used one for slide and another for negative film. Stepping into digital age, I have dropped my option, especially when I am travelling for scuba diving. My gears weigh well above 25kg and this time they are already 32kg without tripod, underwater cameras, underwater housing and underwater video lighting. My hand carry luggage was 12 kg with only the a77 system and a iPad. I even dropped my newly bought x220.
Yes, trust me, I know about trying to keep the weight, size, and bulk down. :D When I travel I do it the backpack way and usually close to the ground so I have to carry everything in my medium size backpack:

Image

Anyway, it is very sad that you aren't getting photos in Bali. :(

Re: My 77is locked up

Posted: Wed Oct 05, 2011 10:06 am
by Mark K
Yes, I am back and I sent my A77 to Sony yesterday. They simply unlocked the camera and upgraded the firmware to 1.03. Everything is much faster now...

Re: My 77is locked up

Posted: Wed Oct 05, 2011 5:58 pm
by bakubo
Mark K wrote:Yes, I am back and I sent my A77 to Sony yesterday. They simply unlocked the camera and upgraded the firmware to 1.03. Everything is much faster now...
That is great news that it is up and running again! By the way, did you have a digicam with you in Bali? Were you able to get any photos?

Re: My 77is locked up

Posted: Thu Oct 06, 2011 3:08 am
by stevecim
Everything is much faster now..? can you give more details :)

Re: My 77is locked up

Posted: Thu Oct 06, 2011 7:28 pm
by Atgets_Apprentice
Mark K wrote:Yes, I am back and I sent my A77 to Sony yesterday. They simply unlocked the camera and upgraded the firmware to 1.03. Everything is much faster now...
You sent your camera to Sony one day and had it back, fixed, the next day? Where and how did you do this?

Re: My 77is locked up

Posted: Thu Oct 06, 2011 7:44 pm
by bakubo
Atgets_Apprentice wrote:
Mark K wrote:Yes, I am back and I sent my A77 to Sony yesterday. They simply unlocked the camera and upgraded the firmware to 1.03. Everything is much faster now...
You sent your camera to Sony one day and had it back, fixed, the next day? Where and how did you do this?
Yes, that is very fast service. IME (in my experience), sending a camera to Sony USA for service usually takes a minimum of about 2 weeks, but it can easily take longer too. Maybe the A77 rollout has been such a fiasco that they are in panic mode to try and get customers fixed up as fast as possible to minimize the bad publicity.

Re: My 77is locked up

Posted: Thu Oct 06, 2011 8:04 pm
by Lonnie Utah
Maybe since it takes them no more than 10 mins to "fix" the camera (upgrade the firmware), the turn around times are very short...

Re: My 77is locked up

Posted: Thu Oct 06, 2011 8:44 pm
by Atgets_Apprentice
Minimum turnaround for repairs in the UK is 7 days, including collection & delivery.

Re: My 77is locked up

Posted: Thu Oct 06, 2011 9:47 pm
by bakubo
Lonnie Utah wrote:Maybe since it takes them no more than 10 mins to "fix" the camera (upgrade the firmware), the turn around times are very short...
Yeah, 10 minutes is fast. Most of the time is typically spent in transit to the service center, being processed on arrival, waiting to get to a tech, processing the return, waiting for the shipper to pick up, and then the transit back to the owner. I think in almost all cases of service (except when parts are not available) it is all the non-repair time that is predominant. I have heard that some people who handcarry their camera to a service center get rewarded by being put at the head of the queue and getting work done while they wait. I think if Mark's experience is typical that Sony is working hard to salvage the A77 rollout though and giving A77 customers Triple Diamond Level service. That is really good for those owners.

Re: My 77is locked up

Posted: Fri Oct 07, 2011 12:36 am
by David Kilpatrick
The lockup solution using the AE lock button does not work, this is an error. The following lockup fix works:

JUST IN CASE IF your a77 is dead, you just need to
(1) Turn it off, then press the MENU + MOVIE + Playback buttons for ten seconds.
(2) Release it and wait for 30 seconds, after that turn it on. Continue to press the three buttons for 3 seconds.
If the ALPHA LOGO APPEARED Then the problem is solved.

(from robinC2005 on - http://s11.zetaboards.com/Alphamount_Si ... 7444129/1/)

How do I know? My A77 died during shooting stills at a concert by John Renbourn and Wizz Jones tonight (contemporaries of Bert Jansch, one of my definite guitar heroes as they both are, who passed away yesterday). I didn't have the fix info in my head so I was stuck. I tried the one posted in this thread, which does not work in the case of my camera. The fix given here worked first time and my timing and sequence probably was not perfect too. No Alpha logo appears, but my camera has never shown an Alpha logo on startup (unlike my NEX).

For what it's worth, after many days of using the camera without incident with the 16-80mm and 24mm CZ lenses I had chosen the 28-75mm SAM to take. I have an impression, from the behaviour of the screen when the lens release button was pressed, that this problem is connected to lens type and the SAM may have caused it. But I can't say for sure.

I was hoping my A77 would have the problem so I could check the possible solutions.

David

Re: My 77is locked up

Posted: Fri Oct 07, 2011 2:03 am
by stevecim
bit OT, David I've been thinking getting the 28-75mm SAM, how do you fine it's range on APS-C?

Re: My 77is locked up

Posted: Fri Oct 07, 2011 2:30 am
by David Kilpatrick
I've always had a 28-75mm on APS-C as well as full frame. I still have my Konica Minolta, not done the eBay yet. It's a really very good range for portrait work, 42-112mm could not really be bettered for weddings (which I do not do) or portraits.

David