Anti shake system

[Richard T]

My trusty A 100 has developed an intermittant fault with it's anti shake. After some use eg on a long walk & on switching on there is a vibration which sometimes stops & leaves all OK and sometimes disables the anti shake.
Has anyone experienced this and if so is it a big (£££'s) problem to repair ?
I've e-mailed Sony Support but had no reply.
I'm a Photoclub Alpha new person so don't know if this is an appropriate topic - all advice welcome.
Thanks
RT

[David Kilpatrick]

Hi, hope we can help. The error you are getting is a failure to initialise the AS. The first thing to look at the state of your battery (your long walk gives me a pretty good clue that this is the problem). Any battery originally supplied with the A100 is now probably 3 years old and may, depending on use, be suffering a bit. This can effect high load output, which is what happens when you switch an A100 on - the lens initialises at the same time as the AS system and the CPU, and overall you get a very heavy drain on the battery. The AS is the first component to show problems but lenses may also behave oddly.

If you have two batteries, you can easily find out whether one battery is causing the effect and the other is OK (that would give you a clear diagnosis). If you don't have two batteries, buy a new type (NP-FM500H) not the old type for the A100 only, as this is a better battery and compatible with newer models. But first of all give your existing battery a good workout by running the power well down in a short period (reviewing a lot of pictures on the camera is a good way) then recharging, and check its behaviour when freshly charged. If the camera appears to work well with a freshly charged battery, but exhibits symptoms after a long walk as you say, I'm pretty sure that the battery is the problem and it will be solved by getting a new cell.

I will also bet anything that Sony service or repair centre fail completely to spot this.

David

[Richard T]

Daid, thanks for your advice, much appreciated.
RT

[Richard T]

David
Do you (or anyone else) have any views on Sony original batteries vs much cheaper "equivalents". I saw some bad reviews re jamming a while back but not recently ?
Thanks RT

[David Kilpatrick]

I bought third party replacements for the KM 5D/7D and after five years, the original genuine batts are in much better condition than any of the third party ones and hold their charge better. They were better even when the third party ones were new. Because of the Sony infolithium function - percentage readout - I would only buy Sony, but I wait until I see half price deals. I have bought three or four spares at £25 each (or thereabouts) instead of the £49-59 usually asked.

David

[Richard T]

Update - sadly the new battery -genuine Sony - was only a temporary cure & problem re-occured very quickly. A100 now in hospital, expected back next week ! Woe Woe, thice Woe. Makes the posts about A850's, A550's very interesting though suspect they won't arrive in time to take a friends wedding.