Just need a place to rant, apologies in advance. My Sony a9 that I have owned now for just over three years started giving me the "error, turn camera off" message when switching to and attempting to use the mechanical shutter.
I sent it in for a quote and certified Sony repair shop here in Canada are quoting me $1800 CDN (barf), that includes a discount for some reason from Sony. There is no explanation on why the shutter needs to be replaced, only that they hooked it up and diagnostics are telling them it needs to be changed out.
Needless to say I think I have about 20,000 shutter clicks on the mechanical shutter, this is ridiculous. I have thoroughly enjoyed my Sony camera having used it for weddings and for my own family memories but the shelf life for the shutter is atrocious (my own experience).
Not sure how or if I will get it fixed but I am definitely questioning the durability of these cameras.
Just need a place to rant, apologies in advance. My Sony a9 that I have owned now for just over three years started giving me the "error, turn camera off" message when switching to and attempting to use the mechanical shutter.
I sent it in for a quote and certified Sony repair shop here in Canada are quoting me $1800 CDN (barf), that includes a discount for some reason from Sony. There is no explanation on why the shutter needs to be replaced, only that they hooked it up and diagnostics are telling them it needs to be changed out.
Needless to say I think I have about 20,000 shutter clicks on the mechanical shutter, this is ridiculous. I have thoroughly enjoyed my Sony camera having used it for weddings and for my own family memories but the shelf life for the shutter is atrocious.
Not sure how or if I will get it fixed but I am definitely questioning the durability of these cameras.
Unfortunate, what happened to you, sorry for that.
"but the shelf life for the shutter is atrocious"
without data to back that up, this is just too hard an exclamation, it likely is just bad luck on your side, giving the stated duration of 500.000 cycles on Sony's side.
N.B. We use two A9s for weddings and the shutter is still running fine.
Thanks for reply. For sure I get and agree that the science is on their side as their shutter life expectancy number doesn't come out of thing air. Just really bummed out and am shocked by the price tag of the repair.
Have you tried sending it, or contacting Sony directly about the issue instead of going through a third party? It sounds like Sony may be subsidizing the parts, but not the labor?
1bwana1 wrote:
Have you tried sending it, or contacting Sony directly about the issue instead of going through a third party? It sounds like Sony may be subsidizing the parts, but not the labor?
Thanks for the response. I have reached out directly to Sony. The actual breakdown is as follows:
Leonberger wrote:
Thanks for the response. I have reached out directly to Sony. The actual breakdown is as follows:
Part:
-$2076.76
Labour
-$285.00
Sony Discount
- $711.76
Shipping
- $10
Tax
-$215
Total: $1875 ish
Labour is not that bad its the price of the part!
Yikes, that is high!
I had a Canon 1ds2 shutter replaced for something like $400-500 quite a few years ago (also very low shutter count, but no discount). I wonder if modern shutters on all cameras are now high priced parts or that is just Sony. I guess we'll hear about Canon and Nikon mirrorless shutter costs soon enough.
Leonberger wrote:
Thanks for the response. I have reached out directly to Sony. The actual breakdown is as follows:
Part:
-$2076.76
Labour
-$285.00
Sony Discount
- $711.76
Shipping
- $10
Tax
-$215
Total: $1875 ish
Labour is not that bad its the price of the part!
Let me translate, however, for those not used to Canadian dollar prices.
Price of shutter ($2076.76 - $711.76) or $1,365 Canadian dollars that is about $1,070 US dollar.
Labour - $285 Canadian dollars or about $225 US dollars
Total - just about $1,300 US plus tax (and yes taxes are high in Ontario (13%) and you pay tax on both the part and the labour)
So about half the cost of a used camera to replace the shutter. Certainly not ideal and I agree the part is expensive even after the "discount," but if it were me I think it is still worth replacing the shutter unless you want to run the camera only in electronic shutter which may work for some purposes with the A9.
Deal directly with Sony. I dropped my a9/100-400 and the lens broke off at the mount. I got a quote to repair the lens (amazingly the body was not injured) from a Sony authorized repair facility in the $2K range. At a local camera shop event with a Sony rep, he suggested I send it to Sony Pro Support for a quote. The quote came back at under $350!!!.
I just want to say thank you very much from the bottom of my heart for all the insightful and helpful feedback. This is why I love coming here. Thanks again all. I have some homework and contacting of people to be doing. I will update when I hear more!
I had the shutter replaced on the a7rII a while back. Dug up the quote, parts were $210, labor was $345 after Pro Support discounts were applied.
I initiated the repair via Sony Pro support, but the work was done by precision camera. I can't imagine that the parts for an a9 shutter replacement is much more expensive that, since the high FPS is done via e-shutter. Whoever you are dealing with, it sounds like they are trying to replace the entire sensor...
If you can't find a reasonable repair cost, you should just sell your A9 to someone who only needs silent shutter and buy a replacement with a working mechanical shutter.
It'll sell at a discount if the mechanical shutter doesn't work, but that discount may be less than actually repairing it. Some A9 owners don't ever take their A9 off of silent shutter.
The insane parts cost of electronics really upsets me. Anyone break their back phone glass? -- I think selling it AS_IS might be the best choice. It's probably the most cost effective an environmentally impactful solution. Maybe this will save you money upfront and leading to an A9ii or iii in the future.
teddoman wrote:
If you can't find a reasonable repair cost, you should just sell your A9 to someone who only needs silent shutter and buy a replacement with a working mechanical shutter.
It'll sell at a discount if the mechanical shutter doesn't work, but that discount may be less than actually repairing it. Some A9 owners don't ever take their A9 off of silent shutter.
As already mentioned that quote must be for the entire new sensor and shutter and surrounding stuff. No way the crappy old shutter in the A9 costs that much. The A9 still has that 5FPS A7II era shutter. Should be a lot less to replace if just the shutter.
arbitrage wrote:
As already mentioned that quote must be for the entire new sensor and shutter and surrounding stuff. No way the crappy old shutter in the A9 costs that much. The A9 still has that 5FPS A7II era shutter. Should be a lot less to replace if just the shutter.
Yeah, according to this article, "Shutter replacement costs generally fall into the range of US$200 to US$400, plus the hassle of having to send the camera to the Sony service center."
That's outrageous for a shutter! I spent about $350 for a Canon pro body shutter replacement though that was 8 years ago.
It may be there is a junior camper reading an error code from the computer. That reminds of a car dealer that said I needed a whole new transmission and then I found someone to fix it locally for about 10% of the cost.
