One of my biggest fears, and I'm sure it's the same for other videographers, is that the camera will fail in the middle of a shoot. This happened to me the other night. Luckily it was a 2-camera shoot so I had another and I sent my helper back to the office to retrieve a third one.

I don't know what happened. It had been recording for about 5 minutes and I was changing the frequency on my wireless mike when it happened so I don't know if it gave a warning or not but when I looked up at it, it was dead. Blank, nothing, nada nothing in the viewfinder or any other lights. It had been running off AC so I put a battery in but still nothing.

So I was wondering if anyone knew of a fuse or something that could be replaced. I've looked on the internet but have not been able to find anything.

Luckily I had just purchased the X160 so I can still do the 2-camera shoots that I have lined up if I have to send this one off for repairs.

Did you notice any of the 'magic smoke' coming out of the camera? :-)

Well, this will have to be a good one. According to the service guys it's had pretty much nil issues so far. Most interested to find out what went wrong with the camera.

Andrew

No magic smoke. Just my luck that I'll set some kind of precedent.

When I had a JVC HM200, the camera went totally dead one night. It was on, then poof! No power.
It was a fried main circuit board. I'm not saying that's your camera's issue, but mine had the same symptoms.
Luckily it was under warranty and was fixed for free.

were you running off the supplied ac adapter?

i had a problem many years ago with a sony ac adapter that didn't handle a mains surge very well and fried the power board in the camera.

Yeah, using the PS that came with the camera. I make sure that each camera I use is powered by the one that it came with.

Sony has had my camera now for 3 weeks and I have not heard anything from them at all.

As an update, Sony repair says the M.C.B. RE-320 (COMPL-NC) and the M.C.B. RE-321 (COMPL-NC) boards were bad and had to be replaced. $1600 bill to fix.

I just had a odd issue with my pmw-300, using a battery camera was on and battery died. I put a new battery on and camera went on i saw a image in viewfinder for a second and then it went blue. menu partially worked, i could play back clips from the sxs card just fine. But i cant record or even get into full menu. Camera was dropped at Sony on Friday late .

well I just got my estimate to repair my pmw-300 it needs a new Board a dcp-64 that and labor is 2745.00

its absurd, not happy

Not surprised you are having problems. This camera has been around since 2011, and is showing its age. Come on Sony, let's have a 2016 version of the 300.

"This camera has been around since 2011"

Not true. The PMW-300 was announced in June 2013 and I bought it as soon as it was available in the UK which was at the start of 2014...

http://www.shootingimage.co.uk/MoreInformation/Sony/PMW300.html

I got mine in 2014 and it's been 99.9% wonderful.

Andrew

After the second time I toasted a camera, I started asking questions. Now I try to always run on batteries but some times it is not practical so I carry a UPS and plug my AC adapter into that.
Lots of hotels, churches, etc. have electrical problems, especially in downtown Atlanta hotels. I even fried a laptop due to a surge!

No more problems.....yet.

Yeah, it's a always a good idea to at least have a good quality surge protector to plug your camera into when battery power is not an option. I use only Sony batteries on my 300 also. The cost is higher, but for peace of mind it's worth it.

I actually took a chance and bought my 300 used on ebay. It had been used on a reality TV program, so I was pretty nervous about how it would hold up. One year and over 500 hours later, it hasn't missed a beat. I love the camera, and often get remarks from people that "it's nice to see a REAL camera", or "that looks like a SERIOUS camera". It's not 4K like my other cameras, but it is by far the best camera that I have owned.

I have run into a power problem with my 300. I cannot get a battery to connect. I can only use the power supply to power the camera. I am not sure exactly where the problem lies, if it's the battery release button not engaging/disengaging problem or something else. The pins that align with the holes in the battery appear to be straight and not bent. Has anyone else experienced this?

Whew! Turned out to be a simple fix. One of the four screws on the inside of the battery compartment had become loose, and was sticking out just far enough to prevent the battery from sliding in enough to engage. Tightening the screw was all that was needed. Huge sigh of relief!