I can try it out, but I won't be using it for now. I plan to put a couple of lenses on it and take a few photos from the lanai and indoors to just see if it appears to be operating properly, but I must wait even longer before I can take it out and use it for photography. I contacted the Sony repair center in Laredo, Texas and they will send me a new LCD protector. Once again, Sony steps up to the plate. I give them that. Sending it to Hawaii I am sure it will be a week to 10 days before I get it though. I have been without it for 2.5 weeks already.

Waiting for your comments, Henry. Hope everything is fixed.

I just did. Didn't notice that thread earlier.

Thanks for posting that! I meant to come back to this thread and post it so that they are linked. I forgot to though.

The LCD protector that Sony sent me arrived late this afternoon. It doesn't feel like it attaches quite as tightly as the old one so I hope it doesn't fall off like others have reported. The one I had before never fell off in the 16 months I had on the A700.

On dpreview there are some new people reporting the control wheel problem on their A700 and Sony denies ever hearing about this problem before.

Sony will deny ever having heard of any problem, for legal reasons. Apart from anything else, no Sony employee is allowed to make any statement without the wording being approved by a weeky committee meeting which includes the legal dept to agree the exact wording.

David

Sony responding with "no comment" or "I cannot respond to that question" is one thing. Lying is quite another, IMO. They could also not admit anything, but just fix the camera. His is out of warranty though so they may not do it even though it is a well known part or design problem. They told him they have not heard of the problem, that he probably damaged it himself, and that he would have to pay $450 to fix it. Here is the post:

http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1037&message=33199729

I hope someone at Sony helps him out, but it is out of warranty. Normally being out of warranty would pretty much be the end of it, but this is a well known A700 problem and it hit me and many others before the 1 year warranty ended. It seems that in this situation Sony has more responsibility. I am glad that Sony took care of me, I hope they do for him also.

OK, this is a big thread and I haven't read it all but i thought i would put this in. I was looking at Kurtmunger.com site today and his latest article is sure interesting. he had the wheel problem and contacted Sony for an estimate since his A700 is out of warranty. He was told it would cost $458 to fix and would have a 90 day warranty. Scary stuff I think. Hope my A700 holds up.

BJ

Someone has reported the same control wheel problem in the A900 too:

http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1037&message=34421528

Also in that thread it looks like Sony is replacing the wheels with diferent parts now. From the description i'd say they are the same wheels that are in the grip I have which is diferent than the wheels on the A700 body.

I got my A700 repaired by Sony last year and they replaced a whole bunch of parts. Without the previous parts to compare it is hard to know whether the new ones are different. At the time I was hoping they were new, redesigned or better QC, parts. I can say that my control wheels sure seem to be identical to the old ones, but who knows? I can also say that the control wheel problem has popped up a few times since it was "fixed" but only rarely.

I noticed the diference right away on the grip. there slicghtly harder to turn, well harder might be a bit harsh. the click stops are more definite and the shape of the outside rim is a little diferent.

Now it is reported that the A550 has the control wheel problem too:

http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1037&message=34462430

Here is an update.

Since my original post about this problem here and on dpreview others have also posted with the same problem. As many of you know I was finally able to send my A700 in to Sony in June 2009 to have the control wheel problem fixed. They replaced many parts. By about August 2009, only about 2 months later, the problem started to return. It has gotten worse over time, just as it did when the original problem started, and now happens most of the time. Using the control wheel to adjust aperture, shutter speed, etc. results in erratic behavior. One click which should change the aperture or shutter speed by 1/3 stop may change it by 2 or 3 or 4 stops. Scrolling through photos often causes big jumps.

As usual, I am not in a position where I can easily send it in again to Sony to be "fixed". Even if I was they would most likely want to charge me $400-500 and I am not going to pay that for a camera that may very well only be worth that much or less. I just hope it lasts until there is an A7xx. Will I want to take another chance on Sony then?

Anyone who is interested can read through this long thread to see the history of this problem.