Mirrorless Sensors and Sony Support

[nvw]

Hello,

I have a Sony A7R2. After shooting in the fog for a few days I wound with spots on my sensor, no surprise. The folks at my local camera store and the warranty company I sent the camera to could not clear the spots so it was sent to Sony. When my camera was returned there was absolutely no difference so it was to Sony again. The paperwork I received with my camera the second time said that the CCD had been repaired and the sensor cleaned. The sensor was much cleaner this time but there are still some spots (it only took 1 picture at f/22 to find them). What also concerns me is that with the lens cap on I see what appear to be hot spots (red and white dots) through the display and view finder. I've not seen this before. I do see hot spots on a 3 minute exposure and I know hot spots on long exposure are to be expected but these spots appear to be worse than when I sent my camera in for repair.

I am hoping those with more experience than myself could help me to set my expectations.

• Is my experience with Sony the norm, do they have a good service reputation?
• If I decide to send my camera for repair a third time, should bypass my warranty company and contact Sony directly to file my complaint?
• If I see spots on my image but the sensor appears clean, what else could be the problem? Could this be a CCD problem that Sony did not completely fix?
• What does seeing hot spots through the viewfinder and display indicate? Since I saw them the moment I turned on the camera the sensor could not have been hot.

Thanks for your advice.
Michael

[E.J. Peiker]

1. Assuming you are in the US, the answer is no.  free pairs are handled by a third party that has a marginal reputation but does appear to be improving
2. Not sure what the difference is since all repairs are done by the same third party but learning to clean the sensor yourself may be your best bet
3. The camera does not have a CCD sensor, it has a CMOS sensor.  Certainly the cover glass could be damaged in some sort of way but it is unlikely.  Probably just something stubborn.  Getting a completely clean sensor if your standard is f/22 on a wide angle lens is a very tough thing to do and unless you routinely shoot at f/22, it may not be necessary and is probably not a realistic expectation.
4. Seeing an example of what you are referring to as a hot spot would be helpful on this one.

[nvw]

Thanks, you are correct in that I don't need perfection at f/22 but I figured if you send a camera to a Sony authorized repair center to clean a sensor that it ought to come back clean. I did try cleaning it as did two others who have more experience with cleaning but even they could not figure out what the problem was.

In the end that was not the real issue, it was the hot spots which they are going to look at again.

Thanks for your advice,
Michael

[E.J. Peiker]

From your description it sounds more like hot pixels or stuck pixels than a traditional hot spot which covers an area that encompasses many pixels and can be due to the lens used.  Do the stuck pixels go away if you enable long exposure noise reduction? (dark frame subtraction).  Since you mentioned that they are there with the lens cap on, it should in theory resolve the problem if this is enabled.

[nvw]

I had not heard of stuck pixels but perhaps you are right. The spots are red and blue, appear on the monitor with shutter speeds below 4", very noticeable at 30" and long exposure. Switching on LE noise reduction did not have an effect.

Thanks again.

[TonyVentourisPhotography]

Live view is not really "live view" at 4 seconds and longer.  Its more of a quick still motion kinda view.  Since the sensor needs to expose and boost enough to show an image.  (since likely at that long exposure your scene is probably dark for example)  If you are only seeing these on the monitor and not in the images, its probably normal.  All kinds of funny stuff show up during many different cameras live view at long exposures.

The camera should compensate for true stuck or hot pixels.  Most have a mapping feature so they get "removed" from the image the moment they are captured.

Service experiences go on both sides.  Some people will have a wonderful experience, some people a horrible one.  Your expectations will also filter how you perceive it.  No manufacturer is inherently perfect.  And a lot of these companies are not the ones actually performing the service.  They contract outside repair centers to handle the work for them.  So sony may never actually take possession of your camera when its getting repaired. I dont want to speak for sony, since I dont know their setup, but I know a lot of others are using Precision Camera.  Sony might be one of them.  They are quite the mixed bag.  Generally good...but sometimes...

[Gravastar]

Have you tried to force the camera to map out hot/stuck pixels by setting the date forward by one month, exiting the menu and turning the camera off? You should hear the shutter close when you switch the camera off followed by a pause of a few seconds before the shutter re-cocks and opens. Then set the date back to the correct value.

Bob.

[nvw]

I've not heard of that one. Can you explain why that would that work?

I sent the camera back to the Sony repair center. I appreciate the help here but they are the ones that caused the problem so I'll let them fix it.

[Gravastar]

The A7II, A7R and A7RII (not sure about the other A7 series members) are programmed to carry out the mapping procedure automatically after a period of time. By setting the date forward by more than the programmed interval you force a remapping cycle.

Bob.

[bobtrlin]

I had a lens that had a close focus distance very close to the front element.  If I shot at f22, any specs of dust on the front element or filter, would show up on the image.

[Hans van Driest]

with the lens cap on, the signal from the sensor will be gained up to the maximum, resulting in a noisy image (including color noise). this is normal behavior.

[nvw]

There was a problem with the sensor and Sony has fixed it. Thanks.