Button doesn't respond

[mvanrheenen]

Hi guys,

Since a few months, the +/- EV button on my a580 doesn't respond all that well. I use the button a lot when shooting and have noticed a decline in respons. Sometimes I need to push the button long and after a few pushes it finally responds by showing the EV menu.

Has anyone here have an idea about what could be wrong and what I can do to repair this? I don't want to send it in for repairs because that'll cost premium here.

Any thoughts and suggestions are appreciated.

Mark

[Greg Beetham]

Mark as far as I can find out the carbon contactor is worn or there is high resistance (gunk) on the surface that connects the contact to complete the circuit. I’m guessing the buttons on a camera are similar to the ones on a remote control http://www.wikihow.com/Repair-a-Remote-Control but I don’t know about the so called remote-control repair kit with the carbon paint and the acetone, one of the electronic places might sell them maybe.
In any case you would have to remove the outer case of the camera to get access to the underside of the button and that’s not a job for the fainthearted.
I saw on a link that one person glued aluminum on the bottom of the button and claimed that it works very well, he used aluminum foil and a matching wad punch size to punch out a disc and glued that onto the underside of the button.
I’d say one would have to use a glue that wouldn’t let the aluminum disc become separated and go for a wander around inside the camera shorting things out.
I think its worthwhile checking with Sony first to see how much it would cost to fix a button that doesn’t work properly and make a decision of what to do based on that.
Greg

[mvanrheenen]

Hi Greg,

Thank you for the suggestions, but I'm not willing to remove the outer casing of a camera myself. Chances are pretty high I'd do more damage than good and I'm not willing to risk that.

Mark

[bfitzgerald]

Some people use switch cleaner (the spray) you could try a rocket blower to see if you can shift any dirt.
I'd be tempted to try the cleaner you can pick them up fairly cheaply

[mvanrheenen]

Hi Barry, I should have a can of that stuff somewhere. I'll give it a try. Thanks for the suggestion.

[mvanrheenen]

Hi guys,

Last week I sent my a580 to a Sony certified repairshop. Today I got an e-mail that they found that the circuit and/or button back cover for the EV button is malfunctioning. They'll replace the "switch block, control RS865", whatever that is. Costs for research, repairs and transport are €141,42.

I've contacted them to go through with the repairs. The part needs to be ordered. Hopefully that won't take too long.

I'll update this topic when I kniw more.

Mark