Dirty pictures

Bruce — Fri, 13 May 2005 09:12:58 +0000

I don't usually post dirty pictures, but I'm going to make an exception... The following image (in addition to demonstrating noise) shows a number of dirt particles representing several of the world's deserts—mostly the Namib. I'm sorry if you were expecting some other kind of dirty ;-) How do I know this? A while back I sent my camera, a Sony DSC-F717, in for a service. It needed some kind of in-warranty focus adjustment to the holographic AF laser which meant it had to be cracked open. At the time I got a call from Sony Service who were very surprised to have a fine red powder spill onto the workbench when the camera was opened. Now I didn't delivery bury it inthe oxidised Namibian sand—but there was a lot carried by the wind. The Man at Sony said "You might as well buy a new camera" since the cost of cleaning all the sand out of the body and lens would be prohibitive (a Sony trait I later discovered). As a result I've been unable to do without the Healing Brush in Photoshop 7, or more recently Photoshop Elements 3.0 for Mac. It's only really a problem in areas of sky (but I do shoot mainly landscapes.) Although there are a lot of things I like about the F717 (and it was the best prosumer camera I could afford at the time) this is one more problem to add to the list of "issues" I have with my ageing Sony: Image noise; No RAW ...

Buy... I mean bye, Sony

Bruce — Fri, 18 Mar 2005 14:51:49 +0000

From http://www.bioneural.net :

Looking to buy a camcorder? Interested in a Sony? During a recent holiday while I was filming my camcorder locked up, asking me (but refusing to) eject the tape. Six weeks later I have my tape back, but no functioning camcorder. It won't ever be functioning... and my next one will NOT be made by Sony. The Sony in question was a DCR-TRV60e, an expensive model that had been in service for 18 months. It flashed an error code (03:32); supposedly something the user could fix. I tried a different battery, the mains power, resetting the camcorder - but it still refused to eject, so I couldn't continue filming to my dismay. This fault developed on a previous holiday, but spontaneously fixed itself. It was a similar fault with a Canon that caused me to switch to Sony, after loosing a valuable tape to that camcorder and loosing confidence in the brand. When I first rang Sony Central Service on return from holiday I was angry to hear that it would cost £176 to get my tape back, this being Sony UK's standard "take a look" fee. A new Sony camcorder can be had online for £240 inc. VAT with a 12 month warrantee. Furthermore Sony Central Service couldn't say whether this "fixed" fee would cover whatever caused the problem - if it was sand contamination, for example. So angry was I over this outrageous charge that I tried to get the tape out myself, carefully dissembling the camcorder. But I could ...

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Dirty pictures

Buy... I mean bye, Sony