After my $6300 plus bill for repair I purchased a new EX1R. I am entirely happy with the camera except for one irritating issue The top handle record button is not very sensitive. One has to give it a good hard push in to start recording. If I am using cache thats going to be a problem as it causes camera movement.

I just purchased from B&H two days ago. I doubt they would swop it for a new one and I am terrified to send it in to Sony repair.

Or I could just live with it... and use the handgrip record button.

Any thoughts?

Mervin

Probably that way on purpose. With all the things that can happen on top of a camera an inadvertent push of that red button could certainly ruin your day. Especially if it's in record mode intentionally, and some momentary thing STOPS the recording.

Honestly, I forget about the top-handle record button I use it so infrequently.

if you are worried about movement, could you just use the remote?

Well the top handle record button on my 2 week old EX1R starts and stops recording without me having to smash it. HOWEVER, I tested it after reading your post and I noticed something. When I tested just the pressure to depress the button by using my finger tip/nail, it was smooth and smart. BUT, when I used my full thumbpad (arguable what most would consider "normal), the surrounding locking collar around the button meant I had to push hard like you described in order to get the button to travel far enough to start/stop recording given the softness of my thumb. Check it out by using your finger tip versus finger pad and let us know.