Awful luck with FX1 :-(
 

I'm not having such a great time with my FX1. Here's the story:

I received my first FX1 two weeks or so ago. I shot a short with it, and in doing so noticed a loud noise coming from the tape deck periodically. I called Sony, and they told me it was a defective camera. I called up B&H, who were willing to take an exchange. I sent in the old camera.

Today, the replacement came in, I put the battery on, plugged it in to the charger and... The thing won't even turn on! I tried AC power, I tried running it off a battery, and no luck. Can't even open the tape mechinism!

Anyway--just frusterated. I was supposed to start shooting my feature last weekend...the camera was in for exchange, so I moved the shoot to Friday. I'm going to have to move it AGAIN, thanks to another bad camera.

Don't get me wrong, when it WORKS the FX1 has a great camera, and I'm sure if I ever get one that works properly I'll be extremely happy, but for the time being... sigh.

Too bad Eric. My sympathy is with you!

I curious about the noise level from the tape deck on my FX1. I only hear it in a really quiet room, or if I put the FX1 up close to my ear. Is that what most people experience? Or should it be dead silent?

That sounds right. When you can hear a high pitched noise from a room away---that's when it's time to get a new DOA camera. :-(

Anyway.... I can't afford these reliability problems. I'm returning my FX1 and sticking with my PDX10. I just can't work with these problems. :-(

I wish you could give the FX1 another try, it's really a great piece of equipment. I never thought I would be able to make the shots I do, but on the other hand I've only been using $1500 cameras.

What I've heard the FX1 doesn't have more quality problems than other cameras.

I understad that. I want to give the FX1 another try in the future, but right now I just can't afford the delays in production that it has caused. I plan to try it again after this current film I'm working on.

Well I think you know how we urge everyone to support the DVinfo sponsors, and I'm lucky in that I can be on their doorstep in less than 2 hours (not so lucky for my bank acct ;-) However, the FX-1 is a consumer camera which you can probably find locally. The other day I was surprised to look at the local "shopper" circular and see that the little camera shop a couple miles from my house had a big ad for the FX-1.

Now I'm thinking of this kind of local store, not a "big box" merchant. Rather than give up completely on the FX-1 you might see if there's a similar local company that sells it. You might pay a little more, but you'd be supporting a local business, and a $3,000+ purchase from such a place would probably get you lots of personal attention if you had a problem.

Of course B&H prides itself on customer service as well, but you have to deal with shipping costs, turnaround time, etc. which can be frustrating. I try to use local businesses whenever I can for these reasons, and also hope this might help save them from extinction at the hands of the big national chains.

Just a thought....

Not in Northern Michigan ;-). Up here in Cadillac, or "Cattle-Tracks" as we like to call it, you have to order just about everything online. Oh well, I like B&H, but I just can't take any more delays on this film. I'll probably get another FX1 or similar camera in the future, though!

Read FX-1 stopped working
 

Hi Eric;
You might want to read through the posts entitled "FX-1 stopped working". Seems that this camera has some issues as far charging. My camera has been at the Sony shop for six weeks now via Mack extended warranty. I can't get any information back from Sony about the camera repair because I do not have a repair tracking number and Mack won't give me the time of day other than to say it is still at Sony. I say BS on that. It is a great camera but I would hesitate buying another one until Sony starightened this issue out. Our company is looking for new HDV equipment with the possible purchase of 12 cameras. Think I will check out the JVCs.

Gary Smith