that's pretty lame - have you followed up with them to find out what's going on?

I guess I will call tomorrow to find out. The service center is only the next county over from me. The only contact they made was when they called me to tell me they could not find a problem with the camera. :-\

Paul

Sony finally returned my X180, 6 weeks later. They replaced the lens and aligned the camera. Seems to be working as when new. This did not fix the slight out of focus condition when at the infinity hard stop. That seems to be an unwanted "feature" of this particular model.

Paul

Paul - I gotta hand it to ya. For all the troubles you’ve had with this, ahem … professional cam,
Sony finally returned my X180, 6 weeks later. They replaced the lens and aligned the camera. Seems to be working as when new. This did not fix the slight out of focus condition when at the infinity hard stop. That seems to be an unwanted "feature" of this particular model.
…. you seem to have taken it pretty well. It’s not everyone who would’a taken this hard stop condition as a ‘feature’.

On the plus side, with a little bit of levity like that it should add, instead of subtract, to your life expectancy.

On my end, instead of going with the X70 last summer (partially thanks to your ‘rave’ reviews) I couldn’t wait any longer and decided to opt for the AX100 (which you haven’t touched!). The plan is to use use it for a B-cam when a good ‘A-cam’ shows up. Got a JuicedLink pre for the XLR inputs so it’ll be used that way.

6 weeks, though, that’s a L-o-o-n-g time. They probably had to get approval from the home office then get parts from Japan or China.

Good luck with the repair job and hope this helps with the nightly news reports.

Thanks john....I did own a CX900 for a few months!

And the camera is on it's way BACK to Sony......again. The backfocus was not correctly aligned when the new lens was installed, so the camera will be slightly out of focus when you zoom. Cameras should not get blurrier when you zoom out from telephoto. :-\

The levity comes from getting to play with my tiny X70 during the wait. Can you imagine if I didn't have a station isssued rig and secondary camera, and had a freelance business to operate full time?!?!?!

Paul

My X180 just arrived back from Sony for the second time, to adjust and fix the back-focus.

Well, the backfocus is still out, but now I have v3.00 firmware, is that even released yet? Kept seeing new menu features and didn't know what was up so I checked my version.

So now I need to press Sony to replace my camera whole.........gots me a lemon. :(

Paul

Update on all this.

I have had my 180 for I think over a year now..... had been great up until just tonight.

The floating focus and out of focus while zooming has just started. Missed some crucial shots tonight cause it wouldnt stay in focus. Full manual and it would just suddenly jump to a blurred image.

Will attempt to get it looked at and see how it goes. Other than this issue, its been a great little cam.

I know a lot of people may think I am a nitpicker and always complaining about these Sony lenses, but I think it is crucial that people are aware of these problems, so they can test their new purchase out and be within warranty if they see the same issue happening to them.

Paul

Paul, Sony obviously has a problem and should own up to it. Completely unacceptable behavior.

I have already ordered the Z150 and if it is a lemon I am going to raise a ruckus!!!

:-|

https://youtu.be/Sa3b0R_Gzdo

Well, finally, a YEAR LATER, Sony has issued a firmware revision specifically to fix this lens issue. This would have been nice before they sent me a brand new camera which I sold new in box for only $3000, taking quite a loss from my original purchase price.

Ugh...

much too late indeed ;-(

i've given up even looking at new cameras, well, at least till they've been on the market for at least a year, which of course then makes them almost obsolete ;-)

UPDATE: Have my hands on a new X180 demo from Sony for testing. Hard infinity stop still blurs out noticeably. Also, backfocus does not track correctly, zooming in, then zooming out even 10-20%, you can see it loose focus. If I zoom to 100%, find proper exact focus, then zoom out 50% in manual, the image will be soft...if I slide the ring forward for AF, the image will then find focus and become sharp. The X180 EXCELLENT standard style peaking function makes this vey easy to see, as it shimmers with detail when it hits correct focus.

Moral of the story...still an amazing and underated camera, just recognize this focus issue and adjust your shooting style and you will be a happy camper. Hoping the X180 replacement will someday arrive with functioning backfocus. :)

Paul