Photoclubalpha

My A700 has recently developed a serious fault causing it to not respond to pressing menu, playback, ISO, WB, exp compensation and several other buttons although it will shoot once the fault manifests itself and autofocus is enabled at that time. I have firmware v3 and the fault was also present on v2. It is a Far East model bought through a internet shop in London. The fault develops after a few minutes shooting and is intermittent and does not respond to menu reset. It has not been dropped or otherwise abused. The other problem I have noticed for awhile is the intermittent fuction of the spot meter button, which I use a lot. I have Sony SAL1680, Tamron 70 300 lenses and an old preset Pentacon 300mm f4 which I use with an adaptor. The fault is manifest with both main lenses. I don't use the Pentacon much as I need my *2 converter and it has too much CA. Has anyone else come across this fault which renders the camera more or less unuseable?

Moorefam

Answering my own question after some help, it appears that the shutter release button was not releasing fully at times but remaining 1/2 way down. This condition exactly mimics the fault. Looking at the button I could see that it was sticking in this way at times. This could be caused by a build up on dirt or dead skin and insufficient clearance around the button. Cleaning and much manipulation of the button appears to have cured the problem. I would possibly expect other users to experience this problem after some use of the camera.

Moorefam

Thanks for keeping us informed.

I have had this problem yesterday, just as described. At times it righted itself and then came back. Does Sony have any answers?

My 5D developed the sticky shutter button fault last year - repaired under extended warranty and no problems since. Not sure 2 reports are enough to constitute a manufacturing problem though...

moorefam wrote:Answering my own question after some help, it appears that the shutter release button was not releasing fully at times but remaining 1/2 way down. This condition exactly mimics the fault. Looking at the button I could see that it was sticking in this way at times. This could be caused by a build up on dirt or dead skin and insufficient clearance around the button. Cleaning and much manipulation of the button appears to have cured the problem. I would possibly expect other users to experience this problem after some use of the camera.

Moorefam

I have just experienced this on a A100. The fault was announced by the sudden inability to use menu or playback controls. The fact that the attached lens, my Minolta 80-200mm HS APO G, hunted when moved away from head drew my attention to the shutter release button which looked slightly tilted, more so than normal, and would not respond to the light touch.

Switching the camera off and manipulating the button restored normality - but for how long I wonder.