The GetDPI Photography Forum

Great to see you here. Join our insightful photographic forum today and start tapping into a huge wealth of photographic knowledge. Completing our simple registration process will allow you to gain access to exclusive content, add your own topics and posts, share your work and connect with other members through your own private inbox! And don’t forget to say hi!

FYI: A900 total failure.

fotografz

Well-known member
Yeah!
I'm glad you are fixed! OK the flash still needs some attention....easier to carry a third flash vs third body!
Very odd :wtf: But it seems to work now. Some simple little lever and the whole camera goes down ... yikes! Have to keep my eye on that.

The flash will have to go in, but I'll be taking the Nikon and A900 this coming Sat. and I have 2 SB900s with the D3X ... so one Sony flash is all I need ... if it fails I can use the Nikon on A.

Again, thanks to all the great members on this forum.
 

You have GOT TO LOVE THIS forum !!!!!!!


First, a very generous member PMs me and offers to loan me his A900 if I was in a jam ... and then this fellow dbogdan simply solves the problem.

Never experienced such an odd thing, so I would never have thought to do it. Looked at the aperture lever and it was firmly up at the top 2:30 position ... but I moved it all the way down and back up again ... and it worked !!!

Thank You!
Wow, great news and a good warning to watch for. Many thanks dbogdan!

FWIW, I think this is the genius behind the Canon EOS system. By making the lenses completely electronic they eliminated a major failure point. I did the same thing with the DMR on a shoot when I was under pressure and moving too fast and screwed the lens 98% of the way on. Everything seemed fine, but I managed to bend the stop-down lever in camera. Didn't realize it until I was on to my next shoot for the day and every picture was overexposed almost to pure white.

As for Nikon reliability, I do not/have not owned any current systems, but all of my colleague's gear failures involved a long fall on to concrete. D2x is a tough machine. 12-24 not as much. NPS rocks. Looking forward to a 'SPS'.
 

You have GOT TO LOVE THIS forum !!!!!!!


First, a very generous member PMs me and offers to loan me his A900 if I was in a jam ... and then this fellow dbogdan simply solves the problem.

Never experienced such an odd thing, so I would never have thought to do it. Looked at the aperture lever and it was firmly up at the top 2:30 position ... but I moved it all the way down and back up again ... and it worked !!!

Thank You!
So, was the aperture lever issue also responsible for the second flash overexposing?
 

Bill Caulfeild-Browne

Well-known member
Marc, while I realize that your problem was not related to the number of shutter actuations, I'd be interested in knowing how many shots you and other forum members have taken "trouble free" with their a900s.

Mine is at 8,000 pix, roughly 1,000 per month since I bought it. So far no problems whatever despite use in extreme heat and humidity and extreme cold.

(I have an a700 as back-up but it's never been used other than for testing. Most of my work is MF anyway.)

So do tell please, a900 owners - how many shots?

Bill
 

fotografz

Well-known member
Marc, while I realize that your problem was not related to the number of shutter actuations, I'd be interested in knowing how many shots you and other forum members have taken "trouble free" with their a900s.

Mine is at 8,000 pix, roughly 1,000 per month since I bought it. So far no problems whatever despite use in extreme heat and humidity and extreme cold.

(I have an a700 as back-up but it's never been used other than for testing. Most of my work is MF anyway.)

So do tell please, a900 owners - how many shots?

Bill
Not sure what that would tell us Bill, collectively we are probably statistically insignificant, and the camera hasn't been around that long.

Other than this incident, I've not experienced any issue except heavy battery drainage compared to other DSLRs.

When I do shoot with it, I tend to use one for most shots and the second A900 just when I need two focal length lenses for one event at a wedding.

That would be 500 to 800 shots (give or take) per wedding. However, I don't use the same cameras at every wedding and spread the load over at least 4 cameras over a year.

I'm more interested in the long haul, and bought a 3 year warranty on one of the A900s.

-Marc
 

roweraay

New member
FWIW, I think this is the genius behind the Canon EOS system. By making the lenses completely electronic they eliminated a major failure point..
I am assuming you are aware that just like mechanical components, the electronics can also catastrophically fail. They just shifted the "failure point" to a different area - that's all. ;)
 

dbogdan

New member
Glad to help!
It's that Nikon to Sony, clockwise/counterclockwise thing...I also use both systems and glitch a bit at times when switching glass.
You know it does seem that the aperture lever could use some sort of a light return, or positioning, spring.

-david
 

fotografz

Well-known member
Glad to help!
It's that Nikon to Sony, clockwise/counterclockwise thing...I also use both systems and glitch a bit at times when switching glass.
You know it does seem that the aperture lever could use some sort of a light return, or positioning, spring.

-david
Hi David, my thanks again. Who would have thunk it? After reading your post, I pushed the lever up but it was already all the way up. The camera worked after pushing it all the way down and then back up.

Sometimes I wonder if someone at these companies ever actually uses their own products ... :ROTFL:

Rather than a bunch more useless, or rarely used features, it would be great if the small stuff was attended to.

Like how Sony hoods that are reversed mounted come off in your hand when removing the lens from camera because they come off the same way as the lens. I HATE the Sony rear cap that only goes on if perfectly aligned, and you can't see the arrow marking in dim light.

I loved how fast you could change lenses with Canon, but the hoods were a PITA.

All's well that ends well.

-Marc
 

Terry

New member
Hi I HATE the Sony rear cap that only goes on if perfectly aligned, and you can't see the arrow marking in dim light.

-Marc
Well, it's a PITA in good light as well. Close to top on my lst of annoying "features" :cussing:
 

dbogdan

New member
I have to agree.. the cap issue has to be my #1 gripe as well.
All in all I am quite pleased with the 900. As time goes on, my Nikon gear just sits. The 6x17 hasn't seen light in near 4 months, but I still get excited when the opportunity arises to use the 4x5. In which case I use the 900 to proof the shot. And even then stitching has grabbed a bit of that as well.

-david
 

Ben Rubinstein

Active member
Just had 2 radio transmitters fail on me at the same time during my last wedding. They've been fine for the past 14 weddings of the season and 4 years prior to that as well. Then suddenly my main unit and backup go at once. Put a brand new cable on, no use, new batteries, no use, my camera's PC Sync is fine as they were'nt working on 3 different cameras. I was lighting up a hall with strobes and it was a big deal losing my transmitters. Then I find that a set of batteries in my 580ex slave weren't charged properly for some reason, AFTER the crucial shots I needed it for. I lent all my gear to a friend shooting a wedding on Sunday, he had my 5D with 17-40L attached, camera froze completely at an important part of the ceremony, it's my main camera and has never ever done anything like that before to me. He lost the moment completely while desperately changing the lens over to his 2nd camera that had a long prime on at the time.

Weddings can be kinda stressful you know.... :D
 

jlm

Workshop Member
this made me take a look at mine.

I changed lenses, and got the camera error, dead camera.

Noticed I had had the dof preview pushed un-intentionally when the previous lens had been mounted
then noticed this had moved and left the aperture lever off of the 2:30 position.
moved the lever manually back, voila, joy!

wonder if that preview function may always cause this if left actuated when changing lenses
 

Guy Mancuso

Administrator, Instructor
Had the same issue recently. Happened when I didn't seat the lens completely and tried to lock it in. It moved the aperture lever slightly out of skew . I moved the lever by hand counterclockwise to its stop, about a 2:30 position, to correct the problem.
You get the GetDPI hero award for the week. LOL

Nice call
 

edwardkaraa

New member
I lent all my gear to a friend shooting a wedding on Sunday, he had my 5D with 17-40L attached, camera froze completely at an important part of the ceremony, it's my main camera and has never ever done anything like that before to me. He lost the moment completely while desperately changing the lens over to his 2nd camera that had a long prime on at the time.

Weddings can be kinda stressful you know.... :D
I guess the morale of this story is, cameras don't like to change hands. As far as I'm concerned, women and cameras (and especially lenses) are never to be lent :D :D :D
 

fotografz

Well-known member
this made me take a look at mine.

I changed lenses, and got the camera error, dead camera.

Noticed I had had the dof preview pushed un-intentionally when the previous lens had been mounted
then noticed this had moved and left the aperture lever off of the 2:30 position.
moved the lever manually back, voila, joy!

wonder if that preview function may always cause this if left actuated when changing lenses
I actually can live with quirks on a camera this good, as long as I know what they are. ;)
 
L

Light

Guest
How is the image quality between the A900 and D3x at 1000 and 1600 iso.

Regards

Light
 

fotografz

Well-known member
How is the image quality between the A900 and D3x at 1000 and 1600 iso.

Regards

Light
Less noise from the D3X.

D3X has turned out to be good enough at ISO 1000 to 1600, that I sold my D3. Not that the D3X can shoot in as low of light as the D3/D700, I just rarely go beyond 1250 when shooting a wedding ... and basically, that's all I use a 35mm DSLR for.

However, in general, the Sony files need less post work over-all, where the D3X tends to produce more neutral files that you take where you want in post.

The Sony is a good wedding camera because of this. Less post time is required ... except for low light images.

I'm getting a little better at processing higher ISO files from the Sony, and get good results @ ISO 800 pretty consistently. But if you don't expose correctly the noise can be ferocious.

IMHO, the D3X is definitely a better machine for B&W conversions ... the DR and mid-tone response make B&W conversions very fast and easy.

Both are excellent cameras IMO.

-Marc
 

dbogdan

New member
Spoiled by the Nikon design of just slapping on the rear lens cap in any rotation and with a slight twist their home, I had never paid much attention to the Sony/Ziess design, other than it wasn't that easy.
Looking a bit closer, and to their credit, I see/(feel) matching reliefs on both lens and cap.... Shouldn't take to long to get the hang.
 
Last edited:

dhsimmonds

New member
Sorry to learn of the a900 failure Marc.

But you are right it can happen anywhere to anyone with any electronic cam.

I know that you are/were a Leica DMR fan. My own brand new DMR failed on me after just 56 frames! The dreaded Error message came up and no amount of re-booting, replacing batteries, cleaning DMR and the R9 connectors would make any difference and so back to Solms it went via Leica UK.

Fortunately, Leica UK lent me a DMR back for the duration of the repair (2 months!) so apart from the shots that I lost after the event, I could keep on working with the R9 and loan DMR. (An advantage of digital backs!). The failure didn't cost me anything as it was of course under warranty and Leica funded all transportation costs even collecting the loan unit from me when my own was returned.

So Sony have a lot to learn yet about providing good back up service and I shall be interested on what they find was the cause of your failure and how long they take to get it back to you.
 
Top