I dropped my PDX 10 (one of those dumb and dumber days). Camera was shut down and LCD was closed. Everything works fine except the manual focus controls are bent.

It appears that the bracket under the manual focus button got pushed slightly away from the lens and the button is stuck at an angle.

I am amazed that everything else still works and hope that it won't cost an arm and a leg to get this little bracket straightened out. I kept on shooting at the event and didn't even notice the bent focus button until I got home.

I'm taking it to a local repair shop in Washington DC that works on pro equipment. Hopefully they can staighten this bracket out without sending it to the Sony factory service center, which will probably take a couple of months.

Has anyone had any similar experiences?

Happily I haven't needed to deal with Sony's repair service, however I've read very positive things about their service and quick turnaround time. Remember, the PDX-10 is part of the broadcast/professional line of cameras and is handled completely differently from consumer camcorders.

You might want to check with them first before getting someone else to work on your camera. Here's a link to more info on their website:

http://bssc.sel.sony.com/BroadcastandBusiness/service/support/national_service/servicecenters.shtml

Sorry to hear about your accident... let us know how it works out...

David, that's a drag about the bounced camera. Please post back here when you've had results from Sony's repair folks.

I, too, dropped my PDX10 a few weeks ago. It was on a tripod, was not shooting, and the LCD was closed. All I did was turn around to dig in my camera bag for a few seconds...and then *woosh!* along came a strong gust of wind and blew it down, right onto the concrete.

Thankfully, nothing catastrophic happened to the camera -- Amazingly, the mic and rubber lens hood took the brunt of the jolt. The eyepiece was just *slightly* bent (it was completely extended because of the QM90 battery) as the camera rolled over after hitting the ground. Thankfully, I was able to tweak it back in place, and it's 99.9% as good as new.

But it sure did scare me for a minute or two. ;-)

david,

as boyd said, PDX10 is part of the pro range of cameras so even authorised Sony service centres who do consumer gear are not meant to work on pro gear. i worked for a sony service centre here in australia before but we only did consumer gear but i can tell you the PDX10 is not built much different to similar consumer video cameras. any decent video tech even without sony pro experience should be able to disassemble & repair the PDX10 without any problems, unless things like specific test equipment or software upgrades are involved. but if your camera requires any parts replaced then that could be a problem as these parts can usually only be obtained from sony if you're an authorised pro service centre.....

hope this is of help...

if your camera requires any parts replaced then that could be a problem as these parts can usually only be obtained from sony if you're an authorised pro service centre.....Not so sure about that... I have never tried myself, but it appears you can order anything you want here. Just enter pdx10 in the model number field: https://servicesplus.us.sony.biz/PartsPlus.aspx

I'm sending camera to Sony's repair facility because they may need to replace some parts. They seem to be on the ball, so hopefully it won't take too long. I'll let you know how it goes.

Cheers

Just wanted to follow up on my camera repair. Great service from Sony. Sent it to the NJ repair facility and they returned it within 7 days. No charge, it was still under warrenty.

They said they reset the manual focus button and and the tape housing, so no parts were needed.

I got lucky on this one. This was a real lesson on handling equipment during fast paced event shooting in a crowded, noisy setting.

I would definately recommend the Sony repair service.

Again,
Thanks for feedback

That's great news David. It speaks well for Sony, and also for the build quality of the PDX-10! :-)