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Q: A700 - worth 385€ for repair/adjustment/grid screen?

Posted: Thu May 19, 2011 12:03 pm
by springm
My A700 now has 50.000 frames, a jumping rear wheel (sometimes switches no step, sometimes 10 or continuous, rarely only one), an almost blocked power switch due to a lemonade incident and an AF in need of adjustment. On the wish list is a grid screen.
The estimate of costs from our German service yields 385,- € which made me sigh *really* deep and reconsider my decision to get it overhauled - 385,- is more than half the price of a new A55, but still only a fraction of the price for a new A850, for which I would have all the lenses from 17mm to 3000mm.

What do you guys think? Sit, mourn, save and wait for a A77? Repent and pay and get back the A700 in a state that would allow another 50.000 frames? Forget the A700, get an A55 and continue with that?

Any advice will be appreciated!

Markus

Re: Q: A700 - worth 385€ for repair/adjustment/grid screen?

Posted: Thu May 19, 2011 1:48 pm
by David Kilpatrick
Wait for A77 I think.

David

Re: Q: A700 - worth 385€ for repair/adjustment/grid screen?

Posted: Thu May 19, 2011 3:16 pm
by pakodominguez
do you need a camera like, right now? for your summer holidays? in that case, get the best you can (that is available now)... I don't know in Germany, but here in the USA the A580 have a 50$ discount these days (you can see a note on the front page of photoclubalpha.com)
if you can wait, then the A77/A7XX will be a good choice, I guess

Re: Q: A700 - worth 385€ for repair/adjustment/grid screen?

Posted: Thu May 19, 2011 5:22 pm
by bossel
Used A700 sell for around 400 Euros these days, if you can get one with 10000 clicks, that might be better than having yours repaired?

Re: Q: A700 - worth 385€ for repair/adjustment/grid screen?

Posted: Thu May 19, 2011 5:56 pm
by bakubo
springm wrote:My A700 now has 50.000 frames, a jumping rear wheel (sometimes switches no step, sometimes 10 or continuous, rarely only one), an almost blocked power switch due to a lemonade incident and an AF in need of adjustment.
Markus, I see that you are in Germany. Okay, apparently that is one more country that the A700 control dials were not designed to be used in. My A700 has had the same problem and it started after only about 3500 photos. I have tried all the "fixes" (contact cleaner, vacuum cleaner), and also sent it in for Sony to fix. All to no avail. I was told by one or two people on a forum that Sony didn't design the A700 to be used in Hawaii. Well, since it also doesn't work in California, Oregon, Washington, Nevada, Utah, Arizona, Idaho, Wyoming, Montana, Colorado, New Mexico, Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, Florida, British Columbia, Japan, Egypt, Jordan, Israel, and Vietnam then I guess Sony didn't design it to be used in those places either. :)

I still have it and still use it from time to time since I have some lenses for it that I don't have for the Canon 60D that I use most of the time now. Still love the A700's IBIS. Except for the control dial problem it still works well and looks almost new.
springm wrote: What do you guys think? Sit, mourn, save and wait for a A77? Repent and pay and get back the A700 in a state that would allow another 50.000 frames? Forget the A700, get an A55 and continue with that?

Any advice will be appreciated!
I wouldn't spend the money to have your A700 fixed. My guess is that after you get it fixed it will still have problems. When I got my A700 fixed by Sony the control dial problem returned in about a month. Supposedly, the A77 is to be announced this summer. No one knows if that is true though and even if it is no one knows when you will actually be able to buy one. Probably best case is 4-5 months from now. Can you wait that long? Can you get by with your rickety old A700 until then? If you can't wait then you might consider an A55/A33 or something like the A580.

Re: Q: A700 - worth 385€ for repair/adjustment/grid screen?

Posted: Thu May 19, 2011 10:19 pm
by springm
Thanks to all for the advice. It looks like I will take back my camera without repairs, live with the quirks - probably use my LX3 meanwhile, it is amazingly good especially for its size - and have a close look at the A77 when it appears. The point really is that the price for the repair equals the price for a used camera: I just checked the German forum on that. And it still is a well used and technologically old camera then. Economically it won't make much sense, and too much sentimentality I can't afford.

Re: Q: A700 - worth 385€ for repair/adjustment/grid screen?

Posted: Thu May 19, 2011 11:23 pm
by bakubo
springm wrote:Thanks to all for the advice. It looks like I will take back my camera without repairs, live with the quirks - probably use my LX3 meanwhile, it is amazingly good especially for its size - and have a close look at the A77 when it appears. The point really is that the price for the repair equals the price for a used camera: I just checked the German forum on that. And it still is a well used and technologically old camera then. Economically it won't make much sense, and too much sentimentality I can't afford.
Unfortunately, with electronic devices it is usually true that it doesn't make sense to repair them because the repair price is such a high percentage of the value of the device. It usually just makes more sense to buy a new device -- especially since the new device often has been improved and sometimes the price is lower too than the earlier device cost when new.

Re: Q: A700 - worth 385€ for repair/adjustment/grid screen?

Posted: Fri May 20, 2011 6:58 am
by springm
bakubo wrote:Unfortunately, with electronic devices it is usually true that it doesn't make sense to repair them because the repair price is such a high percentage of the value of the device. It usually just makes more sense to buy a new device -- especially since the new device often has been improved and sometimes the price is lower too than the earlier device cost when new.
Bakubo, this is only too true. Progress is fast, and in all probability the A77 will bring vast improvements over the A700 (Besides, for the assumed 24MP and the video modes I don't care). Still, I don't feel at ease with it, looking at the amount of rare metals and other oecologically problematic parts/processes that I've to throw away after a relatively short amount of time. Sustainable this is not...

Re: Q: A700 - worth 385€ for repair/adjustment/grid screen?

Posted: Fri May 20, 2011 9:32 am
by Birma
Hi Markus - sorry to hear about your A700 problems. Hope you Sony don't keep you wiaiting too long for a suitable replacement.

You make a good point about what we have to throw away. Last year I changed mobile phones, completely new make. When I collected all of the stuff that went with the old phone it filled a carrier bag! There was the phone, spare batteries, wall charger, usb charge wires, carry case, car dashboard attachment for the car, charge for the car, separate gps unit, car charger for the separate gps unit, etc. etc. I tend to keep my phones for around three years, so who would now want this 3 year old technology? The carrier bag is still in my garage - I can't bear to just put all of that stuff in the trash!

Re: Q: A700 - worth 385€ for repair/adjustment/grid screen?

Posted: Fri May 20, 2011 9:49 am
by springm
bakubo wrote:... that Sony didn't design the A700 to be used in Hawaii. Well, since it also doesn't work in California, Oregon, Washington, Nevada, Utah, Arizona, Idaho, Wyoming, Montana, Colorado, New Mexico, Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, Florida, British Columbia, Japan, Egypt, Jordan, Israel, and Vietnam then I guess Sony didn't design it to be used in those places either. :)
This is a really annoying fact: these wheels seem to be defective by design. Other than Minolta with the dreaded error 58 Sony doesn't want to acknowledge this and offer a free repair. The German Sony user forum tried to approach the company, but to no avail. Well, this certainly doesn't pay out in the long run, as Bakubo for sure isn't the only one that turned away. And it helps to increase the issue of problematic waste for which Birma just gave a graphic example.

If it were not for the really fine 16-80 and the 70-300G, I would not feel too much inclination to stick with Sony for the next camera. In the end it's a tool, and with my experience I will probably be able to adapt to a different brand as well, same as I do now with my LX3.

Re: Q: A700 - worth 385€ for repair/adjustment/grid screen?

Posted: Fri May 20, 2011 3:08 pm
by Lonnie Utah
http://www.sonyalpharumors.com/sr4-sony ... -kit-lens/

I'd wait. Looks like the replacement is almost here, for a cracking good price....

Re: Q: A700 - worth 385€ for repair/adjustment/grid screen?

Posted: Fri May 20, 2011 5:37 pm
by bakubo
springm wrote:Bakubo, this is only too true. Progress is fast, and in all probability the A77 will bring vast improvements over the A700 (Besides, for the assumed 24MP and the video modes I don't care). Still, I don't feel at ease with it, looking at the amount of rare metals and other oecologically problematic parts/processes that I've to throw away after a relatively short amount of time. Sustainable this is not...
Since 2000 I have owned 13 digital cameras (7 of them were DSLRs, 1 was the Minolta D7i, and the rest were digicams). I haven't thrown any of them away. I sold 2 of the DSLRs and the D7i. The digicams are usually not worth trying to sell so I still have them. So far, I have owned 3 Canon DSLRs, 2 KM DSLRs, and 2 Sony DSLRs. Only the Canon DSLRs and the Minolta D7i were fault-free so that I could resell. I went through 2 KM 7D bodies. The first one had a serious QC problem out of the box and KM couldn't fix so they replaced it with a new one. The second one was sent in 5 times to be fixed for a day one problem, but they couldn't fix it so Sony finally took it back and refunded my full purchase price. I have already mentioned my A700. :(

It is a bit of a conundrum what to do with old electronic stuff, especially if it still works. If possible I try to sell or give it away. It hurts to just throw something like that away. I don't recall ever throwing something that worked away. I try to give it away or sell it. In the case of your A700 you might be able to sell it for a low price to be used for parts. It will make you feel better than dropping it in the trash. Also, the battery, charger, rubber eyepiece, etc. have some value that you could sell off.

Re: Q: A700 - worth 385€ for repair/adjustment/grid screen?

Posted: Sat May 21, 2011 11:35 pm
by coen van dijk
Hi Markus,

So your camera needs cleaning and AF adjustment. If you are a bit handy you can do it yourself and allmost every old fashioned camera shop can do that... If the dial assembly is too faulthy, they or a independent camera repair shop can install a new one. Did you try to find one?

The AF adjustment is describes in SONY DSLR forum at dpreview somewhere...

Here in The Netherlands all Sony DSLR repairs are done with service partners and you can contact them yourself for out of warranty repairs. In Germany the same could apply...

Even googling "sony dslr reparatur" gave a few repair shops in Germany for me as a Dutch citizen.

Re: Q: A700 - worth 385€ for repair/adjustment/grid screen?

Posted: Sun May 22, 2011 7:21 am
by springm
Coen, the price I mentioned came from an independent camera workshop that was recommended in the German Sony user forum. The biggest part of that amount is due for the spare part and working time to repair the back wheel, which does not operate properly and leads to missed frames when you are in a hurry. This is the point where Sony's non-recognition of something obviously defective-by-design is annoying and expensive.
Of course cleaning I do myself, and re-calibrate the AF I did as well, but was not really content with the result.

In the end, based also on the opinions in this thread, I decided to get the camera back without any works done. I will live for a while with the quirks and then see if the A77 will fit my needs.

Re: Q: A700 - worth 385€ for repair/adjustment/grid screen?

Posted: Sun May 22, 2011 1:26 pm
by Dr. Harout
springm wrote:... I will live for a while with the quirks and then see if the A77 will fit my needs.
I think it will fit your needs, Markus, as it will fit mine. :wink: