Buzzing Sound

Joel Guy · November 15th, 2005, 03:20 PM

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?

Duane Smith · November 15th, 2005, 03:38 PM

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.

Boyd Ostroff · November 15th, 2005, 03:57 PM

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...

Joel Guy · November 15th, 2005, 05:56 PM

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.

Joel Guy · November 15th, 2005, 08:02 PM

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??

Sean McHenry · November 15th, 2005, 11:08 PM

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

Boyd Ostroff · November 16th, 2005, 08:14 AM

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...

Joel Guy · November 16th, 2005, 08:56 AM

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?

Boyd Ostroff · November 16th, 2005, 09:29 AM

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/Broadcastan...eCenters.shtml

Joel Guy · November 16th, 2005, 09:58 AM

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.

Joel Guy · November 16th, 2005, 10:38 AM

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?

Joel Guy · November 28th, 2005, 04:38 PM

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?

Joel Guy · December 1st, 2005, 12:01 PM

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.

Sean McHenry · December 1st, 2005, 03:02 PM

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

Interesting.

Sean

Joel Guy · December 1st, 2005, 06:22 PM

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.

November 15th, 2005, 03:20 PM	#1
Joel Guy Regular Crew Join Date: Aug 2004 Location: NYC, NY Posts: 151	Buzzing Sound - PDX10 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?

November 15th, 2005, 11:08 PM	#6
Sean McHenry Trustee Join Date: Mar 2004 Location: Hilliard, Ohio Posts: 1,193	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 __________________ ‘I don’t know what I’m doing, and I’m shooting on D.V.’ - my hero - David Lynch http://www.DeepBlueEdit.com

December 1st, 2005, 03:02 PM	#14
Sean McHenry Trustee Join Date: Mar 2004 Location: Hilliard, Ohio Posts: 1,193	Sadly it doesn't specify if it was zoom or focus. I'm still betting on the autofocus. Interesting. Sean __________________ ‘I don’t know what I’m doing, and I’m shooting on D.V.’ - my hero - David Lynch http://www.DeepBlueEdit.com

November 15th, 2005, 03:38 PM	#2
Duane Smith Major Player Join Date: Mar 2005 Location: Dallas, Texas Posts: 234	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.

November 15th, 2005, 03:57 PM	#3
Boyd Ostroff Wrangler Join Date: Dec 2002 Location: Mays Landing, NJ Posts: 11,787	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...

November 15th, 2005, 05:56 PM	#4
Joel Guy Regular Crew Join Date: Aug 2004 Location: NYC, NY Posts: 151	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.

November 15th, 2005, 08:02 PM	#5
Joel Guy Regular Crew Join Date: Aug 2004 Location: NYC, NY Posts: 151	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??

November 16th, 2005, 08:14 AM	#7
Boyd Ostroff Wrangler Join Date: Dec 2002 Location: Mays Landing, NJ Posts: 11,787	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...

November 16th, 2005, 08:56 AM	#8
Joel Guy Regular Crew Join Date: Aug 2004 Location: NYC, NY Posts: 151	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?

November 16th, 2005, 09:29 AM	#9
Boyd Ostroff Wrangler Join Date: Dec 2002 Location: Mays Landing, NJ Posts: 11,787	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/Broadcastan...eCenters.shtml

November 16th, 2005, 09:58 AM	#10
Joel Guy Regular Crew Join Date: Aug 2004 Location: NYC, NY Posts: 151	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.

November 16th, 2005, 10:38 AM	#11
Joel Guy Regular Crew Join Date: Aug 2004 Location: NYC, NY Posts: 151	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?

November 28th, 2005, 04:38 PM	#12
Joel Guy Regular Crew Join Date: Aug 2004 Location: NYC, NY Posts: 151	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?

December 1st, 2005, 12:01 PM	#13
Joel Guy Regular Crew Join Date: Aug 2004 Location: NYC, NY Posts: 151	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.

December 1st, 2005, 06:22 PM	#15
Joel Guy Regular Crew Join Date: Aug 2004 Location: NYC, NY Posts: 151	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.