Sony has been hit with a class-action lawsuit by a consumer who claims that the popular Sony a7 III has shutter defects that brick the camera and force owners to pay for expensive repairs.
Law Street Media reports that the plaintiff, a man named John Guerriero, filed the class-action complaint in the Southern District of New York against Sony Electronics Inc. yesterday.
Guerriero calls Sony “the vanguard of the mirrorless camera movement because they’re the most accessible full-frame system on the market” before accusing the company of denying warranty claims made by camera owners who experienced “mechanical problems” with the a7 III’s shutter.
“The a7iii is smaller, lighter, and more durable than its DSLR counterpart, which contributes to its higher cost – approximately $2,000.00,” the lawsuit reads. “Unfortunately for many purchasers of the a7 III, mechanical problems with the shutter have rendered the cameras unusable provided they do not pay over $500 for repair to an authorized service center.”
Sony states that the a7 III is rated for 200,000 shutter actuations, but according to the lawsuit, many owners have reported shutter failures occurring far before reaching that 200,000 actuation mark.
“Numerous users report shutter failures far below 200,000 but between 10,000 and 50,000 for most of the users who experienced this,” the complaint states. “While the a7iii is generally sold with a one-year warranty, shutter failure occurs randomly, often outside of the warranty period.”
“The result is that purchasers must pay approximately $500-$650 for repair and replacement of the shutter mechanism.”
The lawsuit also claims that because the camera’s shutter failure happens in such a predictable way, it’s due to a mechanical flaw in the design.
Mar 27, 2021 at 07:23 PM
osv2 Offline • • • • [X]
p.1 #2 · Sony Sued: Class-Action Lawsuit Says a7 III Shutter is Bricking Cameras
of course petapixel failed to mention that it's not actually a class action lawsuit, because it hasn't been certified as such, read the original article at law street media:
"The plaintiff seeks class certification and for the plaintiff and his counsel to represent the class"
this is one guy and his greedy lawyer, looking to make some money by suing a big company.
p.1 #3 · Sony Sued: Class-Action Lawsuit Says a7 III Shutter is Bricking Cameras
pointbob wrote:
I just read this....Is this something that other forum members experienced?
There's a Facebook group dedicated to it. Lots of pics of broken, dislocated, and stuck shutters, along with the signs of imminent failure (damaged sensor frame edge, arc shaped artifact on left side of frame). Whether there are enough failures out there to actually go ahead with the lawsuit, who knows, but the A7 III has probably sold 1M, if not 2M cameras since 2018. The vocal minority's percentage is a few decimal places too short for this to be a widespread issue.
There have also been a few topics about this problem in the DPReview Sony mirrorless FF forum as well during the years.
My A7III blades looks fine, almost pristine, I am around 8000 actuations on it.
My A7RII with just a little over 30000 and my A9 with about 14000 actuations (I shot a lot low light indoors = mech shutter) have a very few very faint marks (discolored streaks more) on the side of one or two blades. The edges of the blades look perfect though with no chipping or missing pieces (seem like that is how it starts).
One can only see the second curtain as far as I know (by shooting at a few seconds long exposure time with LENR enabled). So how the first curtain looks, I don't know, but 99% of my shots are with EFCS.
p.1 #6 · Sony Sued: Class-Action Lawsuit Says a7 III Shutter is Bricking Cameras
BlueBomberTurbo wrote:
There's a Facebook group dedicated to it. Lots of pics of broken, dislocated, and stuck shutters, along with the signs of imminent failure (damaged sensor frame edge, arc shaped artifact on left side of frame). Whether there are enough failures out there to actually go ahead with the lawsuit, who knows, but the A7 III has probably sold 1M, if not 2M cameras since 2018. The vocal minority's percentage is a few decimal places too short for this to be a widespread issue.
Fact:
Sony sold about 1.5M mirrorless bodys in 2019 and about 1.15M in 2020. This is APS-C and FF combined.
Unknown:
How the APS-C/FF percentage split is I don't know.
Neither how the percentage split per FF model is, but the A7III is most likely the most popular FF model.
Speculation:
With 50/50 APS-C vs FF and 1.3M per year in average (I don't have 2018 numbers) that would be 1.95M FF in three years (2018, 19, 20). Say 2M for the easiness.
If we then say that A7III is 50% of all FF sales, we would end with 1M in total up till now.
p.1 #7 · Sony Sued: Class-Action Lawsuit Says a7 III Shutter is Bricking Cameras
lattesweden wrote:
Fact:
Sony sold about 1.5M mirrorless bodys in 2019 and about 1.15M in 2020. This is APS-C and FF combined.
Unknown:
How the APS-C/FF percentage split is I don't know.
Neither how the percentage split per FF model is, but the A7III is most likely the most popular FF model.
Speculation:
With 50/50 APS-C vs FF and 1.3M per year in average (I don't have 2018 numbers) that would be 1.95M FF in three years (2018, 19, 20). Say 2M for the easiness.
If we then say that A7III is 50% of all FF sales, we would end with 1M in total up till now.
Don't forget the initial sales at and a while after launch in 2018. The A7 III is almost certainly the camera that catapulted Sony past Nikon and Canon for #1 in US FF camera sales in mid 2018.
p.1 #8 · Sony Sued: Class-Action Lawsuit Says a7 III Shutter is Bricking Cameras
There's a pretty important distinction between a shutter being rated at 200K and actually being guaranteed against defects for 200K. People should understand the difference, and camera makers should be more clear about it, i.e. "while we rate the shutter to last for at least 200K cycles, we make no guarantees beyond the initial warranty period." I see many cameras being listed describing a low shutter cycle count followed by the "rated for X" statement.
p.1 #9 · Sony Sued: Class-Action Lawsuit Says a7 III Shutter is Bricking Cameras
I think there is a lot left to be known about this. We will see as the facts come out. As members of the photographic community we should keep an open mind.
If however the Sony shutters are underperforming their ratings and the market by a significant number, then we should find out why. If this is caused by a design, manufacturing, or materials defect, I see no problem with holding Sony responsible and requiring them to support its customers.
In my opinion defending because we are fans, or condemning/wishing ill because we are haters, is equally improper. Just different positions on opposite ends of the same fanboy spectrum.
p.1 #10 · Sony Sued: Class-Action Lawsuit Says a7 III Shutter is Bricking Cameras
Since the A7III was released many have experienced shutter issues. And Sony has not taken it seriously. Just like the A7RIV/200-600 issues. My shutter went after less than 10,000 shots. I don't think it's a money grab. But it's about time someone shook the Sony tree to wake them up. But, Sony is big. So this lawsuit may not go anywhere at all.
p.1 #13 · Sony Sued: Class-Action Lawsuit Says a7 III Shutter is Bricking Cameras
realVivek wrote:
Shutter is not “bricking” the camera. Even when the (mech) shutter fails completely, the camera still can be used in the silent shutter mode.
Depends on if the shutter stays down, which I've seen many, many pictures of. Most of the time, a blade flexes outward and gets tangled up in the frame, and locks everything down. Not sure if the error pops up and locks the camera down even if the shutter fails completely open, but everyone tends to stop using the camera once something in the shutter fails regardless.
p.1 #14 · Sony Sued: Class-Action Lawsuit Says a7 III Shutter is Bricking Cameras
I'm curious how many of those images are user-caused.
I damaged the shutter on my A7rII outside of warranty. I bought a new shutter online for ~$100 bought a pdf Sony repair guide and replace it myself. It took less than an hour and it was good as new. That was in late 2016 and five years on the new shutter is still going strong.
p.1 #15 · Sony Sued: Class-Action Lawsuit Says a7 III Shutter is Bricking Cameras
realVivek wrote:
This (shutter) was a QC issue from a small batch.
If that is the case has Sony identified to affected cameras by serial number, contacted registered owners, issued a public notice, and set up a program for a free fix?
That would be SOP for such a situation and what i would expect Sony to do for their customers.
p.1 #16 · Sony Sued: Class-Action Lawsuit Says a7 III Shutter is Bricking Cameras
1bwana1 wrote:
If that is the case has Sony identified to affected cameras by serial number, contacted registered owners, issued a public notice, and set up a program for a free fix?
That would be SOP for such a situation and what i would expect Sony to do for their customers.
That sure is not the case for Canon nor Nikon when they have an issue like the focusing issues with the 1D3 or the spitting oil issues with multiple Nikon cameras. It would be great if they reacted like the car manufactures...but I'm sure with cars if there was not a potential of death...they'd bury their heads in the sand as well.
p.1 #17 · Sony Sued: Class-Action Lawsuit Says a7 III Shutter is Bricking Cameras
I have heard of instances of Sony fixing it within warranty, at least in the EU (standard 2 year warranty period).
1bwana1 wrote:
If that is the case has Sony identified to affected cameras by serial number, contacted registered owners, issued a public notice, and set up a program for a free fix?
That would be SOP for such a situation and what i would expect Sony to do for their customers.
p.1 #19 · Sony Sued: Class-Action Lawsuit Says a7 III Shutter is Bricking Cameras
48K on my A7r2 and 25K on my A7III, no issues ever. I owned the A7r2 for the past 5 years, bought new, until it found a new home today, so sad. Flawless tech.
p.1 #20 · Sony Sued: Class-Action Lawsuit Says a7 III Shutter is Bricking Cameras
lattesweden wrote:
A7II 5 fps
A7III 10 fps
Yes, that's an issue of the sensor, memory buffer, and processing pipeline, not the physical shutter itself. The part number is a copal FP shutter part that's used across many cameras.
