Sony Support/Service - My opinion

[Greg Beetham]

Barry I got the impression the whole thing was a bit vague surrounding whether the job was ordained/authorized as a warranty repair and explicit instructions were issued by Sony about where you were to send the camera too, everything might be quite ok of course but it's just the impression I got reading your posts.
Greg

[classiccameras]

Hi Guys.
We have all been a bit critical of the JPeg quality on Sony SLT cameras, quite rightly so, and Barry made some relevant points about this. As for myself, the Jpegs I get on my A37 at ISO 400 and lower are to my eyes pretty good. However, what camera in your opinion exhibits high quality Jpegs. My personal view is the Fuji X series cameras followed by Olympus 4thirds, [not Micro 4thirds].
Any body got any views.
Pete

[bfitzgerald]

I don't suspect anything iffy as I know the service centre is an official Sony repair centre and they asked me to send it there. I was very specific about the problems and even put a CD in there showing the issues.

What exactly happened (bar the post office tracking number confirming it arrived the next day) after that is a bit of a mystery I have no idea I assume it's at the repair centre, but I cannot be sure of that either (can they handle repairs like this?)
The real problem is a lack of communication from the repair facility (surely not much to ask they keep you informed) and Sony themselves don't seem to know much either. So it's those 2 having customer communication issues, and issues among themselves.

I'm pretty baffled really this is one of the largest electronics makers in the world the entire repair process seems "vague" and ill thought out from start to finish. They have everything they need, camera, CD showing issues (raw and jpeg), cover letter with my full details address, phone/mobile, email and an explanation of the issues, copy of purchase receipt as per requested. Can't see what else I can do really

[Greg Beetham]

Barry I don't know what the repair centre can do about the green band thingy, they would have to dismantle the whole camera to replace the sensor on the offchance that that might fix the problem and still not fix it for that unique problem anyway. Every A57, or even every DSLR might produce the same problem under the same conditions for all we know, it might be something that is unfixable. Even if they did replace the sensor they might then introduce other problems due to pulling it too bits and putting it back together again, such as AF problems might start happening etc.
Greg

[bfitzgerald]

I could not reproduce the problem on the 2x Km5d's I had at all even with the same shots. So I have to assume it's a dud sensor. I would not have thought that it would be economical to replace the sensor but I've no idea on that.

I've also not read anything else about this "green line" so I have to assume I was just unlucky on that one.
I'll see if anything hits the email inbox today, but I would expect something.

I can't really live with the green line issue if I have to take a photo with strong back-lighting it's going to ruin a shot

[Greg Beetham]

Okeydokey I see your point Barry I was forgetting about the KM5D crosscheck (no surprise there with my memory), now I’m thinking it would be a great idea to beg, borrow or steal another A57 and repeat the photos with that and see what you end up with.
Greg

[bfitzgerald]

I'll survive..
5d's still work ok

[Greg Beetham]

Barry don’t you know you aren’t supposed to take photos as good as that with 6MP? You’ve got to have at least 16 if not 24MP…geeez
Greg

[classiccameras]

I'm impressed, what settings did you use.
This picture has answered my questions regarding my search for a KM5D, it just goes to show that high pixel counts are not always needed.

[Atgets_Apprentice]

Excellent image, Barry!

[Dr. Harout]

+1

[bfitzgerald]

Usual settings A priority 17-35mm Tamron. This is your "go sign" for awesome light this is how the lighting was just to the left of that shot



Heavy clouds with sun bursting through at intervals. Simply a case of waiting for the wave to get dramatic enough, sun came out a decent bit... hits the crest of the waves and bingo you're in business.

At ISO 200 even stopped down I had enough shutter speed to freeze the action. Lighting like this is ideal for scenic shooting that overcast sun coming through look, add some fairly hefty wind and sea motion (it was pretty wild out there) and off you go. When you see light like that above grab your camera it's as good as it gets for drama and scenic work.

I won't lie I could have used any camera for that shot, no doubt I'd get a better print off a FF body with 24mp. On the other hand I've never really had an issue with "just 6mp" not for my print needs.

[Birma]

Very nice picture with the wave Barry. Hope your A57 makes it back soon.

[Greg Beetham]

Yes that was good light Barry, when we get dark low clouds here there is usually another four layers of cloud or more above the bottom layer so it's rare to get sun shining through the bottom layer so strongly.
Btw I have done some printing tests of photos of the same subject using the 6 and 10MP cameras a while ago on the same photo printer and I couldn't see any difference at A4 size glossy photo paper, so I most certainly doubt there would ever be any difference at snapshot size between a 6 and a 24MP camera, except the 24MP might actually be worse if the reduction algorithm didn't work as good as it should.
Greg

[bfitzgerald]

Quick update..well no news at all nothing from Sony so I fired off another (non angry) email asking to be informed about the status of the camera. Will see if I get anything back. Not great really has to be said I'd have expected a quicker turnaround from Sony, and as for providing normal information (ie we got the camera/or repair status) it's really an epic fail from the customer's perspective.

As a paying customer it's pretty lousy really. I bet if my name was Me Ra Koh, I'd have had a Gold plated camera case delivered, with tickets to some swanky restaurant and a bag of Zeiss lenses thrown in to "ease the pain" At the moment I just want the camera back these delays are really quite annoying and unnecessary if support/repair services were adequate. Sony don't seem to have a clue about the camera or what the situation is or where the camera actually is. I surely hope I never have to make use of their warranty repair services again. They're starting to make Nikon/Pentax look good, and that's damn worrying.