I'm looking at a used F3 and the owner says the hour meter has 146 hours but that it was reset by Sony after maintenance was done last year at the factory?

Why would Sony reset the hour meter after maintenance - so there is no way to tell actual hours on these cameras if the factory reset the meter?

Thanks for any info on this.

There are two hour meters shown on the F3, one that can be reset and the other continuous. Not sure if the continuous meter can be reset by the factory. They might be talking about the user resettable meter.

Yup, I'd be it is referring to the user re-settable hours.