I recently had the chance to play around with a PDX10. When the camera was turned on, it emitted a buzzing sound from somewhere around the control panel on the left side of the camera (hidden by the LCD panel). The noise was damped when I shut the LCD screen, but I could still hear it. When I manually turned up the shutter speed, so that the image became partially over-exposed, the noise got louder. And I'm talking loud, something that would ruin audio on a shoot. I assume this camera is just messed up; am I right?

What could this be?

I have no idea what could be causing that, but I can confirm that it's not SUPPOSED to do that--or at least, my PDX10 doesn't do that.

Never heard that on mine either. Now the speaker is under the LCD, so that was probably the source of the sound. Perhaps there was some source of RFI the camera picked up? But hearing a change related to shutter speed makes me think there was a problem with that camera...

I've had another chance to look at the camera, and can say that I was wrong with my statement that it had something to do with shutter speed. It doesn't seem to be changing with the shutter speed anymore. The sound is affected most dramatically when I zoom in and out, as in, the sound is shrill on one end, and then, as I zoom the other way, goes to a kind of deeper (in pitch) buzzing. Strange....

Boyd, I think you might be right that this is a blown speaker.

After examining the camera in more depth, it is not a blown speaker. The sound seems to be emitting from the front of the camera, on the left side more.

It does not make the noise when the camera is in VCR mode, so it couldn't be the LCD or anything that runs in that mode.

Since it changes in tone when I zoom in and out, could this be the lens motor??

Could be the zoom motor but I wouldn't think it was doing anything at all if you aren't activly zooming in or out. Shutter isn't mechanical in these guys so that's out. Maybe something to do with focus however. Try putting it in manual focus and see if it changes in any way.

I can tell you that this camera is in Sony's Professional line so repairs should be fairly quick should it need it.

Let us know about the focus. That would be actively seeking as long as the camera is on and in auto mode. If you are zooming, panning or tilting the camera, that might cause the pitch change as it attempts to focus on different ranges and objects.

Sean McHenry

My "wild guess" would be the steadyshot image stabilizer. I think it uses some sort of vibrating prism. Try turning steadyshot off in the menus and see of the noise stops. Also shoot some footage and see what it looks like with and without steadyshot.

But I think that camera needs to go back to Sony for repair...

The camera is less than a year old, so it is still under warranty.

How does the Sony repair process work? Anyone have any experiences with their customer service, good or bad, to share?

The good thing is that the PDX-10 is handled by the professional division of Sony and not their consumer division. Fortunately I haven't had any problems, but others report excellent results. Here's a link to their service site with locations of the repair centers. Contact them for more info:

http://bssc.sel.sony.com/BroadcastandBusiness/markets/10018/serviceCenters.shtml

Thanks for the link, Boyd. I'll go ahead and send in the camera today.

The strange thing is, this camera has extremely low hours on it, less than ten. I am in the middle of a transaction to purchase it, and still want to, as long as this problem is fixed. The owner has agreed to pay any repair fees, though that shouldn't be necessary as it is still under warranty.


When I hear back, I'll post the results here.

Maybe the person who diagnosed the problem correctly should get some sort of prize.

One more thing, and this is probably just me being paranoid, but since I'm sending it in anyways....

The B&W viewfinder, the actual physical piece (not the image it produces) is supposed to wiggle just a little bit up and down, right? As in, I can set it to a certain height, and then it kind of sits there, and I can wiggle it up a mm or so without moving its "set" position, as it is slightly loose within that range.....Does this make sense?

Sony received my camera at their Teaneck, NJ repair facility last Monday, but because of the holiday, they are still in the process of diagnosing the problem.

The woman I spoke with said that because the camera is still under warranty, they will just do the repair and then mail it back to me, without any sort of communication. I thought this was kind of weird, but nice to hear that the repair will in fact be free.

Does anyone have any kind of experience with how long the repairs usually take once underway? I'd really like to have the camera back by December 18th...does that seem like a reasonable amount of time?

So, I got this camera back today, shipped overnight delivery by Sony, paid for by them. As was the repair, as the camera is still covered by the warranty.

The "Engineer Comments" read: "Rpld. lens assy. cleaned, tested and aligned unit to specs."

Then under "Invoice Text": "Replaced lens assy. Downloaded good data to the unit and performed adjustments. Manually cleaned drum, transport and aligned unit to specifications."

So...apparently it was the lens after all. The camera is as quiet as a mouse now.

Sadly it doesn't specify if it was zoom or focus. I'm still betting on the autofocus.

Interesting.

Sean

Okay - so here is something weird...

When the camera went in, it had 1X10 Operation, 0X10 Tape run and Drum run, and 5X10 Threading.

Now, I am at 0X10 for the first three, and 1X10 for Threading.

Would the data they downloaded to the camera have reset these records? The camera was pretty new when I sent it in, but now, apparently, it is brand new.

PS - I think you are right about it having been the autofocus, Sean. I just tested the camera in the exact same setting as before, with the exact lighting conditions, and the focus seems to be hunting much less than it was before. At the time, I wasn't sure if the hunting was part of the camera or part of the problem, but it's performing much better now.

Strange that the useage ours were re-set. Maybe that's a policy on that kind of repair work?

I dunno...I wonder if anyone else has had that happen.

I agree, it is strange. In this case, it wasn't much of a change; but I wonder if someone had 200 or so hours of operation, if Sony still would have reset them.

If so, I suppose this is a bit of a buyer beware...The hours meters might not always be telling the truth...?

Okay - one final question, as I want to get this right before the warranty on the camera expires (January 6th).

The camera has been working well. When I have it set to Manual focus, it is pretty much completely silent.

When I have it set to autofocus, it emits the lowest (volume-wise) sound of a tiny motor running. Of course, when I open up the LCD screen, and put my ear next to the controls, I can hear the sound better. As I hold the camera normally, in a quiet environment, I can perceive the sound, very slightly.

Is this normal? Do your camera's make this sound? Is this normal for autofocus on digital camera's (I have no experience with auto- controls)?

I'm not so much worried about the sound, as I am about it being the symptom of a larger problem - as this is directly connected to the noise the camera was making before the repair.

I'd still like people to answer my last question, but I'm going to mail this back to Sony in the morning. When I just turned the camcorder on again, the old loud noise came back. Zooming in got it to go away, so then I tried turning the camcorder off and then back on again, and there it was again!

It's kind of infuriating that I send them the camera 2 weeks ago and this is what I get back.

Dang, that sucks. :-(

Sorry to hear about the problem cropping back up. Please continue to keep us informed about what happens!