The A7IV Sony camera is glitching again, at least to the extent of displaying the “not compatible with camera” message that started the whole thing. I’m pretty sure Sony originated the whole thing in an effort to stop the aftermarket purchase of 2nd party batteries. After all, Sony wants close to $90 for a NP FZ100 battery whereas you can get a compatible battery on Amazon with a charger (which sony does not give you) for $24. I’ll just bet that my glitch originates from a piece of Sony 2nd party battery detection software gone astray.
In the “Adding coals to Newcastle” department, my E mount 90mm f2.8 macro has totally failed. It makes a horrible mechanical razzing noise along with a coarse vibration and, of course, does not function. I sent it to a Sony “authorized” repair center who just received and inspected the camera and concluded that it needs a “4th group assembly”, $576. I’ve had the lens for a number of years but macro represents <5% of my shooting, so it has only maybe 2000-4000 snaps in its lifespan, a small fraction of what I shot with its A mount 100mm macro predecessor. When I called them about it, the Indian sounding service rep assured me the problem will not reoccur because it is/was a common problem with recent Sony lenses and that particular magnetic focusing mechanism is common to a lot of lenses and has since gone through total redesign. Do you know what Sony lenses cost?
In my history with Minolta/Sony cameras/lenses over a number of decades, my previous defect-failure rate is 0.00%
it may be just me but doesn’t that constitute a tacit admission on Sony’s part that the commonly failing mechanism should have been a recall/warranty issue. Sounds like grounds for a class action.
Oh yeah, and on top, when you attempt to prepay for the repair, the Sony Authorized Service Center wants a tip and makes it quite hard to pay the invoice without paying one. And they haven’t done s*** for me so far save irritating me.