hans_wachtmeister

All,

 

I have an A7 version 1 ...

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I did not use it for a few months, now the camera shuts down right after an image shows up on the rear screen. Thought maybe my aftermarket charger and/or batteries might be NG, but same problem with a new battery charged in new charger.

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It's not "bait and switch." They know the exact problem from observation, rather than a guess based on an email. It wouldn't surprise me if the parts were. under $100 and the rest labor.

I had the same issue with an A7R that still was within the warranty period. Therefore I did not have to pay for the repair. The bill mentions that a particular PCB Board had been replaced at the repair shop.

A few weeks after the repair I had access to the schematics in the Sony workshop repair manual for this camera. Now there is an issue that you will not believe me, if you did not see it:

Each and every Sony A7R and later models have a small LITHIUM BATTERY SOLDERED to on of the PCB Boards inside the camera. It is supposed to be a backup battery for the memory to hold the camera settings while you switch batteries. If you store the camera with no battery or leave the battery discharged, then this internal lithium battery will loose its charge.

The camera does not boot anymore with this lithium backup battery discharged. Whatever guesses the members of this forum have to offer, they fail if this backup battery is discharged.

These are just standard size batteries, parts worth less than 50 cents. However you need to disassemble the camera and you need to know how to solder this little thing. Even for a skilled repair technician this won't be less than at least one hour of careful work, probably rather two or three hours.

I never disassembled a A7R nor its successors. I saw these batteries on the repair manuals. I once took apart a defunct DSC-F828 bridge camera and found the same backup battery, and soldered a new one and then camera worked again.

The meaning of these observations is that all and any Sony Digital Cameras will eventually fail once these Lithium backup batteries come to the end of their life. Even if you truly care to always have a charged battery in the camera, the lithium battery will terminate the life of your Sony within less than 6 years.

Having said all of this: This really is something to yell SHAME ON SONY!

Kind regards

If you are about to repair older cameras then parts are not an issue. You would buy cheap cameras that are beyond repair and take working parts from these. Do not underestimate the sophistication of these cameras. While you learn focus on one or two models.

Tools are an issue. Find Thomas Tomosy's books. Visit Ed Romney's website: www.edromney.com. He thinks that repairing old cameras can be profitable but you need really to know which models to go for.

Find factory repair manuals at from John Craig at www.craigcamera.com and also give a look at the seller nikondave on ebay.com.

Be really careful before you invest money.

Well established camera repair buisnesses are worried with the current change to digital technology. This is a really hairy situation and knowbody right now can know how this kind of buisness will run two or five years from now.

I start repairing Minolta XD11 as a hobby and there is really a lot to learn.

Kind regards from Juerg Brechbuehl

What is your reason to disassemble this lens? There are two methods, one from the front, one from the back. As soon as I know what the purpose is, I can give you directions.

Kind regards

And in addition to that: Crash safety does not depend on the size of the car, but on how it folds up in the frontal crash and on how stable it is built on the sideways crash.

How about buying a smart (see smart.com) takes you 50 miles a gallon?