Are the HVL-F36AM Flash and the A330 camera a good combo?

[Greg Beetham]

Henry this is how my 3600HSD battery compartment looks unlatched, if yours looks different please post a photo.
Greg
ps. From there I just open it, it's a tiny bit stiff momentarily but it still opens quite easily once you're past the first stiffish part.

A100 KM18-200

[bakubo]

Superficially my door looks the same, but apparently you have either a later redesigned version or an earlier version before Sony screwed it up...or your's got through Sony QC and they sent you a defective one. With the state of Sony QC, in my experience, the last is easy to believe. Just about everyone else it seems, unfortunately, got the bad one. You are really lucky so I suggest you hold on to the one you got.

[UrsaMajor]

Superficially my door looks the same, but apparently you have either a later redesigned version or an earlier version before Sony screwed it up...or your's got through Sony QC and they sent you a defective one. With the state of Sony QC, in my experience, the last is easy to believe. Just about everyone else it seems, unfortunately, got the bad one. You are really lucky so I suggest you hold on to the one you got.

From my problems with the battery door on the HVL-36AM, it appears to me that the area that is causing the difficulty is the part of the door that is not visible in the picture - the "hinge" area on the edge of the door that is opposite to the angle from which this picture was taken. It always feels to me like there is a need to get tabs on the door lined up with openings on the body, and vice versa.

Unfortunately, no such parts are visible when I am struggling with getting the door open, and I never remember to take a close look at it when there are no batteries in the flash and I might be able to get a close look at that area with a dental mirror or similar tool. I really should do it right now while I am thinking about it, but I have something more important to do as soon as I finish this comment.

With best wishes,
- Tom -

[Greg Beetham]

Okey dokey Henry, Tom, you both can get the door into the same position as mine by simply sliding the cover down...right? now just get your thumb on the edge of the door and OPEN it, is there a problem with doing that? or am I not 'getting' it somehow, I'm starting to get a bit confused with possibly different versions of the door. Keep in mind I bought my F56 after Sony took over and it's door is slighty less stiff to operate than the Minolta one on the 3600HSD unit, so I don't know if that registers as an improvement or a modified version or not, but I'd hazard a guess that most of the KM manufactured units would be pretty much the same...ie. stiffish to operate.
Greg

[UrsaMajor]

Okey dokey Henry, Tom, you both can get the door into the same position as mine by simply sliding the cover down...right? now just get your thumb on the edge of the door and OPEN it, is there a problem with doing that? or am I not 'getting' it somehow, I'm starting to get a bit confused with possibly different versions of the door. Keep in mind I bought my F56 after Sony took over and it's door is slighty less stiff to operate than the Minolta one on the 3600HSD unit, so I don't know if that registers as an improvement or a modified version or not, but I'd hazard a guess that most of the KM manufactured units would be pretty much the same...ie. stiffish to operate.

Hello Greg,

Thanks for the tip. I see what you are doing, and that basic concept certainly does make it MUCH easier for me to open the battery door - although it still can be a minor challenge much of the time. If I am very lucky and press just right, I can get the door to open using just my thumb, by pushing the thumbnail into the slot of the "hinge" so I can push down in that gap while also pushing the door away from its "hinge".

I still have a problem more than half of the time with easily opening the door using that technique. However, I have come up with a minor variation of your technique that works easily all the time. I slide the cover down to the position shown in your picture. Then I slip the edge of a plastic credit card into the gap at the hinge line. I press down on the plastic card to force it deeper into the gap, thus pushing part of the hinge down with the card, and I simultaneously use the flat of the card to push the door away from the hinge line. This combination of actions allows the door to move past the resistance that has always been the problem, and the door now opens easily.

It is speculation on my part, but I suspect that your flash has a tolerance stack-up of the components that results in less distance to push down at the hinge line to clear that resistance point.

Thanks again for the tip.

With best wishes,
- Tom -

[Greg Beetham]

Hi Tom, yes I investigated what the resistance point was, and as far as I can see it's the curve of the hinge binding on the tops of the top three batteries, and yes you a perfectly correct that you can override that resistance with a forefinger-nail inserted into the external hingeline at the same time as pushing up with the thumb..works very well. During my investigation I tried just putting two batteries in the center and seeing if that made much difference (a little), also just one battery in various positions, top (still binds), second top (binds but not quite as much), second bottom (similar), bottom (opens easily), next I had a close look at the hinge construction and the thing is reasonably thick, actually, plus the length of it made me think that if it's polycarbonate it will most likely take quite a lot of force to actually break it....thing is, it could even be spring steel anyway, in which case any force we put on it is irrelevant.
In the end I said, the hell with it, stop babying it and just open it regardless....I've been doing just that ever since...
Greg

[Greg Beetham]

I have since put a small but strong magnet on the hinge and it appears that it not steel (no attraction), also the door has 'ABS' embossed on it, so it looks likely that the whole door is made out of that type of plastic.

Greg