I'm in Tokyo for a holiday and brought with me my A7s and RX10 and now both cameras have packed it in.
The A7s body has lost communication with both Sony lenses, I've cleaned both contacts body/lens many times over the last week and has now completely stopped working. The Rx10, my backup photo camera is now flashing its guts out on the screen and failing in every way to take a picture. Now both cameras were purchased around the same time with warranty just running out, how very convenient.

It's not a power issue based on Japan's voltage etc as both cameras started to show signs something was wrong the day before I left Sydney.

I'm not the only Sony user that is having issues along these lines, they're all over the web.
See ya Sony I'm moving on.

I have a rx10 mark 1 collecting dust here, it works ok at the start but then after using a while, like you do while shooting a entire wedding day, the camera starts to act up and becomes basically unusable. I have had so many different weird things happening with the camera that are often not repeatable that I stopped using it at weddings. For the occasional holiday with the family the camera will do just fine but for more serious business it has not proven to be a reliable camera at all.

Yeah, I remember your problems with the Rx10 and mine also has not been great along its journey, the first one I purchased I sent back due to faulty lens wobble, also I only use the RX10 for family holiday pics, video is not for my liking these days.

Quality control on everything these days has gone and the only thing driving business is more profit over quality reliable items and people are ok with products that don't function 100%.... look at the a6300/6500 gear, it malfunctions right out of the box and customers are ok with this.

Simon,

I'm in Tokyo for the weekend. I just sent you a PM.

Mark

Hi Simon

I was a Panasonic man for nearly 24 years going back to cameras with Saticon tubes and Ultrasonic AF but I jumped ship to Sony about 3 years ago and got EA-50 shoulder mount cams. Got really tired of issues with the Sony's so now back with Panasonic again since Februray 2015 and happy again!!

What are you likely to go to now?

Yep, I'm moving back to Panasonic for video, just to many issues with the mirrorless lines for me, mind you I have a lot invested in my Sony gear as I made the decision years ago to stay in this camp, now I'm not sure what to do with all the batteries, lenses etc...

I have a GH5 waiting for me when I'm home and now researching a stills camera/video brother to the GH5.
As I've been away from Panasonic it's a learning curve on their products and have been looking at the Lumix GX8 as my second camera.


Cheers, S

I also wanted to say that, I want to stay with the same brand so everything is interchangeable, lens, battery etc... common sense really when traveling. I would keep the A7s for street photography as I really enjoy shooting with this and the image from the A7s is fantastic for stills however, this camera has become faulty and not reliable at all for me now.

Simon:

Sorry to hear of your experience. Must be very frustrating.

I owned an a7S which I sold. Had no real problems with it, but I did not subject it to heavy work or harsh conditions.

Interestingly, the Freefly folks have a new drone-mountable gimbal, the Movi Carbon. It is exclusively designed and balanced for only the Sony a7S ii with a 24-240 zoom. Looks to have a weather resistant housing for drone use. They must think the a7S ii's will hold up to professional use.

I think it's one of those things, some have the same cameras without any issues and others have problems. I never purchased the extended warranty they offer as I have never had reason to before on sony cameras, should have in this case.

The RX10 has been a great holiday camera for me, takes photos, and average video for fun all in one package, I really love this camera and would go again if they made an APSC size rig in one unit.

The A7s has been great however started to show some signs of errors months ago and then stopped. Now it still turns on really slow and then has no connection to any of my Sony lenses.

Time to move on now for me now, I'll try Lumix for a while.

Sorry to hear about your troubles. That is frustrating.
I started using Panasonic in 1990. Now I have transitioned over to Sony (S35 and FF) for my corporate work and still use my Panasonics for events and my lower end work. Some of the Sony cameras have workarounds to deal with which I am not fond of. Some rental houses say that Panasonic is generally more durable than the equivalent Sony.

Thanks David, gear comes an goes I guess.