Help, wife dropped my camera!

[Tunasteak]

While on Holiday in North Wales my wife managed to drop my A100 which was inside it's case (Sony shoulder bag) but now doesn't seem to work properly!! Argh! When the camera is switched on it makes a sound similar to when the sensor cleans itself but vibrates very noisily for a few seconds before normal use is available. It seems to work okay in every other way except when the camera is turned off; it doesn't sound as distinctive when it self cleans the sensor. The battery life seems to be shorter than before as well.

So, were is the best place to have the camera looked at? (I live in West Yorkshire) any suggestions??

Could it be the sensor cleaning mechanism which has been jarred or something like that??

Any replies welcome, many thanks for reading

Jon

[Glyn R]

Send it to Sony. Download a repair form. There is a freepost label on the form. the repair centre is in Wales.

http://www.sony.co.uk/view/ShowSiteSect ... =odw_en_GB

http://www.sony.co.uk/res/attachment/fi ... 431333.pdf

[Dr. Harout]

Never trust a camera to...

[Tunasteak]

Send it to Sony. Download a repair form. There is a freepost label on the form. the repair centre is in Wales.

http://www.sony.co.uk/view/ShowSiteSect ... =odw_en_GB

http://www.sony.co.uk/res/attachment/fi ... 431333.pdf

Thanks very much, BUT...... I bought the camera from the States, would that complicate matters do you think?

[David Kilpatrick]

It would not be a warranty repair anyway as you have dropped the camera and given it enough of a jolt to de-center the sensor carriage. The noise you hear is the camera working overtime to get your sensor into the right place on start-up and initialise SSS, which is probably not working properly now.

A Sony repair with a warranty period is probably the best solution, but not if it costs most than £269, for which you can get a new Alpha 200. My guess is that the repair will cost £120.

You could try an independent repair from Camera Workshop:
http://www.photoclubalpha.com/useful-an ... -workshop/

The info on Repairs and Servicing is on our page:
http://www.photoclubalpha.com/useful-an ... formation/

As far as I know JP Solutions are also doing Sony repairs.

David

[Tunasteak]

It would not be a warranty repair anyway as you have dropped the camera and given it enough of a jolt to de-center the sensor carriage. The noise you hear is the camera working overtime to get your sensor into the right place on start-up and initialise SSS, which is probably not working properly now.

A Sony repair with a warranty period is probably the best solution, but not if it costs most than £269, for which you can get a new Alpha 200. My guess is that the repair will cost £120.

You could try an independent repair from Camera Workshop:
http://www.photoclubalpha.com/useful-an ... -workshop/

The info on Repairs and Servicing is on our page:
http://www.photoclubalpha.com/useful-an ... formation/

As far as I know JP Solutions are also doing Sony repairs.

David

Thankyou very much David, what are the initialisation processes the camera goes through as a matter of interest?

Is the sensor likely to have to be replaced or is it out of alignment somehow??



Much obliged, Jon

Oh and by the way, it wasn't "I" who dropped the camera... it was her indoors, my mistake being to to put it on the dresser near her handbag which she grabbed and pulled the camera off with it falling some 5' onto a quarry tiled kitchen floor!!! Ouch

Let's say I was far from being amused.

[David Kilpatrick]

SSS is anti-shake and the buzzing sound you hear is the carriage being vibrated/moved on start up - setting up the system to zero (a sort of calibration). Normally it's a little zip sound and that's it. The prolonged sound indicates that it can't do the proper calibration and the entire carriage (which is floating, spring mounted, and holds the sensor assembly) has probably been jolted out of centre. It may be just a matter of restoring its position and setting up the screws which holds it, but they always charge at least £100 just to diagnose and open the camera, even if the repair consists of adjusting a few screws.

David

[Tunasteak]

Thanks again David for the reply. I have contacted JP solutions via email and will look out for some response next week hopefully. Otherwise I'll use Sony.

While I'm thinking about it, are the rubber Gel body protectors very effective in absorbing shock in your opinion?

[David Kilpatrick]

No, they can't prevent G-force type shock any more than a camera bag can. They can prevent physical damage like marks or cracks to the body plastic, but a dropped camera or one swung against a rock on a neckstrap (climbing over a drystone wall, I've done it once) will not be proofed against internal damage by having a silicon skin round the camera.

David

[Tunasteak]

Just for the information I received a reply from Johnsons Photopia and it went as follows;

Hello,

Unfortunately we do not repair Sony products as we are the repair agent for
Konica Minolta,Who Sony over see.Please phone Sony on 08702-408-060 for more
details.

Regards

Konica Support Team

So this answers the question as to whether they service and repair Sony cameras; ....no, they don't.

Thanks for the responses and help guys anyway, I'll try Sony, when I can spare the cash!

Jon

[David Kilpatrick]

JP do so many major makers - Ricoh, Mamiya, others - as the official repair dept that I'm surprised Sony does not actually use them behind the scenes, especially when the KM D7D and 5D are so similar to the later Alpha models and need many of the same diagnostic tools. I'll be looking to see if I can update our page to give better info on Sony repairs.

David

[Beakydave]

they always charge at least £100 just to diagnose and open the camera, even if the repair consists of adjusting a few screws.

David

email from JPS this morning - "If we provide an estimate and that estimate is refused, there will be a charge of £6.00+VAT. That's it."

[David Kilpatrick]

That's right - they don't open up the camera for estimates! The Club's camera check services, which costs something like £20 + VAT if I remember, involves putting the camera on a testbench and certifying all functions, cleaning and calibrating any externally accessible functions.

But once you get an estimate, it is very rare for any DSLR repair to be less than £80, most are over £200. I guess something like a missing screw or a replacement broken battery cover or card door must be less, but anything where they have to dismantle any part of the body is usually into three figures.

David

[wormy1]

Hello, I am new here, just registered to this forum yesterday .

I am from Malaysia and own an A100. I had the similar problem around 6 months ago where I acceidentally knock over my A100 from a 1 meter high table (landed on my feet, ). The camera showed exactly the same symptoms. In fact, besides the whining noise, I observed the image taken was slightly shifted downward. And after a couple of minutes, an "Over Heated" message popped up.

But I was lucky, it was within the warranty period and Sony got it repaired free of charge . It took 3 weeks to repair though.

Cheers

[Tunasteak]

Thanks for the response.