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Sony NEX problems, please help!

LizaWitz

New member
I have the NEX-5 and I bought the E-Mount 18-200. We travel full time, so I needed a one-lens solution and don't mind the lower light gathering ability.

I've had this setup for a week and yesterday we were taking a bunch of photos and I ran into a problem. I'm not sure if the camera or the lens is the issue, so wouldn't know which to try to get fixed. (Bought the camera with the 16mm lens, then bought the 18-200).

With this lens, turning the lens to zoom in is really easy, but turning it to go wider is a bit hard. Going from 200mm - 180mm takes a fair bit of torque, and this causes the lens to wiggle sligthly in the mount and sometimes the camera loses communication with the lens.

When the lens is on the camera, there is about a half a millimeter of play. Always, the lens clicks into place and has this wiggle. It is very slight and about as small as you could expect for a well designed piece of machinery.

But when zooming out, it seems an internal connection is lost... the F-stop indicator switches to F-- and the lens goes into default focus position and the camera stops focusing the lens at all.

The only way to fix it is to power cycle the camera. I turn it off then on.

I've started holding the lens with both hands when I zoom out, and this helps. (Previously I was holding the camera with the grip in my right hand and zooming the lens with the left hand. The lens is heavy enough that I hold the lens with the left hand all the time. )

Has anyone else seen this, or seen the camera lose contact with a lens?

Any suggestions really appreciated. In a few days we're getting on a 16 hour flight and on the other side of it, I'm planning to take a lot of pictures.... got this camera specifically for this, but if I have to turn the camera off between every couple shots it is going to be very frustrating. (This kind of annoyance can overwhelm all the good impressions of such a nice camera!)

Probably no time to have sony do anything now, but would appreciate hearing from others if anyone has seen anything like this on their NEX.

Thanks!
 

Terry

New member
I haven't had this problem but I would guess if your 16mm is still working fine the 18-200 is what is losing contact.

First up for the stiffness are you using the lock mechanism on the lens and is it fully in the right position?
 

LizaWitz

New member
Ok, so even putting more pressure than I feel is responsible on the 16mm lens doesn't cause the issue. I double checked the zoom lock and I have not been using it. I can't get it to go into a halfway position. When it is open, the zoom out feeling is about what I've been expecting (about twice as hard as zooming in.)

So, this seems to indicate it is an issue with the lens. The lens that sony says they are having trouble making.

I'll have to look to see how long the warranty is. I'm guessing with sony it is always the situation that you mail your item off?
 

Terry

New member
Ok, so even putting more pressure than I feel is responsible on the 16mm lens doesn't cause the issue. I double checked the zoom lock and I have not been using it. I can't get it to go into a halfway position. When it is open, the zoom out feeling is about what I've been expecting (about twice as hard as zooming in.)

So, this seems to indicate it is an issue with the lens. The lens that sony says they are having trouble making.

I'll have to look to see how long the warranty is. I'm guessing with sony it is always the situation that you mail your item off?
Where did you get the lens from? if Sony do you live near a SonyStyle store? They are generally pretty lame but....
 

LizaWitz

New member
I bought it from B&H Photo. It is probably a week old, so probably within their return time. I've gotten in the habit of holding the lens with both hands, one around the thinner area near the camera, and the other twisting the ring to zoom out... this mitigates the problem by putting zero torsion on the camera.

I've shot around 1,500 frames in the last couple of days with this camera for a project, and it seems the issue could be considered a "minor hassle" that may cause me to miss some shots, but it is in the running with incompetence in causing missed shots. At first I was panicked because I didn't know what was causing it, but now I can avoid it most of the time.

I can return it to B&H, but they are out of stock on the lens now, so they can't do an exchange. I could get my money back, and then I'd be traveling around europe with just the 16mm lens. Or I can just live with it, but I'm not yet sure if this is a real problem, or if the situation will continue to get worse. Judgement call time here.
 

Jim DE

New member
Lisa, It does sound like an internal assembly issue and as ugly as this sounds I would return it as a defective product while you can. If there wasn't zooming tightness issues I would try cleaning the lens contacts being as the 16mm has no issues.

The deal breaker for me would be the tightness while zooming ...... meaning this problem could get worse with use if it is a assembly alignment issue.

Sorry Lisa, but if it was mine, it would be on the brown truck heading back.
 

fotografz

Well-known member
For GOD's sake do NOT try to return it to a Sony Style store or anything to do with Sony Style in general.

Call B&H with your receipt in hand to get a RMA number and return shipping label ... and send it back to them immediately.

Trust me on this.

-Marc
 

LizaWitz

New member
Hello All. First off, I want to apologize for not responding to this thread back in october. We literally were on our way out of the country the week this all happened, and dropped the return off at the mail on the way to the airport.

I find a local camera store that carried sony products. If I'd known they were there, I would have bought everything from them to begin with (I'm just too used to buying things online, and getting bad service locally, I guess.)

Anyway, I took the lens and camera in to the store and the nice guy had both NEX-5s and 18-200 lenses. Via trial and error we were able to determine that the problem was the original NEX-5 I had.

So, I bought a new one from him and returned the original. (While I was at it, for good measure I bought a NEX-5 kit with the 18-55 for my significant other while we were at it.)

End result: Have been using this combo- my original 18-200 and the new NEX-5 for the past several months with no problems at all.

So, if you get the "randomly disconnecting" 18-200 problem that I did, it might be that the camera is the problem and not the lens. The same camera worked fine with the 16mm lens... but it was still the camera.
 
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