Dust in the focus ring.
 

After a couple of outdoor shoots recently I have noticed now when I turn the focus ring there is a slight crackly sound meaning dust must have got inside the focus ring shaft. I'm usually very careful about dust but on one particular shoot dust was kicked up in the cameras direction.
I'm wondering whether anyone else has had this and what you have done about it. Has anyone sent it in to sony for cleaning for this? Should I just ignore it and live with it? Could it cause bigger problem if I just leave it be?

Any experience/advice on this would be much appreciated.

Thanks,Alex

I have this problem, or similar atleast... I had rented out the camera and once it came back the focus had squeeking noise when turned. I shipped the camera back to Sony and they said there's nothing wrong with it. I insisted that the focus ring didn't sound like that when camera was bought and they promised to re-check it. While later they called me again and told that every unit they have there sound exactly same and said there's nothing they can do to fix it.

If you think you have dust in there you could always try to vacuum it out. Rain covers help keep the dust off when I film in deserts or haboobs.

My girlfriend dropped her Canon camera off of a camel while vacationing in Egypt. Basically, everything was full of sand. After she tried to blow the sand away with her hair drier, it was pretty well locked up. My solution was to vacuum all around the edges of the rings on the lens. I finally got them moving again. I vacuumed repeatedly while turning the rings and I was able to restore it to maybe 99% of the original smoothness. I don't know if this is anything that Sony or Fujinon would recommend, but it certainly helped in this case.

The worst thing you can do is to use canned air or any kind of air blower as this tends to force the dust in deeper. A soft paint brush is really good for cleaning dust out of the gears and other nooks and crannies. I always keep a couple of brushes in my kit bag.

That's bad news that they couldn't clean/fix it. I'd like to think the designers of the camera thought ahead on this happenng. I'll see what Sony Japan says.

Has it caused you any problems since?

Thanks for the advice. I'll give the brush technique a try although I suspect the dust may be stuck in the grease that lubricates the gears.

So far no dust in the ring...but I'm waiting for it to happen.. I shoot in sand dunes all year.

I'm not surprised seeing your preventative measures :o)

I use a Kata CRC11 which has draw strings around the lens and velcro everywhere. Certainly easier than taping everything up.

Well I had to take the tape off the ring because it will get so dusty the camera gets confused easy with a strong backlight.. so the ring is at risk. I just keep myself very aware of anything that gets on it. :)

It still works... so it hasn't caused any real problems.. yet

Erik,

that looks like a nice idea to protect the cam! Ex3 in Dumont Dunes. This year I'll film also there after I move from Germany to Vegas :-)

Really? What do you ride?

This is an old vid, my bike has changed but you get the idea..

YouTube - Closer look kfx730 Superbeast

I will be making some new vids with the EX3 soon.. within the next month.

I'll write you a private message.

Erik,

I tried to email you via the dvinfo system, but it looks like this won't work. Or maybe my email is in your spam email folder. Don't know. Please send me a short mail to

info(at)madmanmovies.net

Then I can contact you! Maybe we can drive and film in Dumont soon :-)

Swen