fragile USB socket...

[John Hedgecoe]

Looks broken to me.

My EX1 is on the other side of the world right now, but I did look at my Sony HDV camcorder for comparison, and it is not the same as your photo. The 'tab' on the right is uniform across the front of the connector.

Same with my cell phone, uniform across the front, like your right side.

[Bob Grant]

Originally Posted by Piotr Wozniacki

Please take a look into your camera's USB socket, and confirm whether all the contacts should be under plastic, like the 3 RH-side ones in my picture. As I said, it doesn't look right but on the other hand, I never used excesive force, or feel/heard anything crack...

TIA!

You ain't going to thank me. Your socket is broken. The plastic separator between the pins should run the whole length of all the contacts.

Excuse the crappy picture, only had my $10 webcam.

[Piotr Wozniacki]

Bob, John;

Bad news - but of course Thank you anyway !

[Piotr Wozniacki]

Have been thinking... Sending in my camera now because of the silly USB is a tough decision - I was going to wait until more important problems are finally resolved by Sony, and only send the camera then for a general overhaul...

So, assuming I'll probably only use the USB for the future firmware upgrade (and NOT for regular off-loading from the cards), what DYI solution could be used to prevent the contacts from touching each other? Shorting it is the last thing I'd like to happen...

[Bob Grant]

So long as you only insert the plug in absolutely straight you should be fine. Not doing that is probably what broke the plastic. I know it's difficult to get the plug in without it starting out at an angle.

I'll be pleasantly surprised if this get repaired under warranty, the question you need to ask yourself is the cost of getting it fixed going to be worth it.

[David Hadden]

Originally Posted by Bob Grant

So long as you only insert the plug in absolutely straight you should be fine. Not doing that is probably what broke the plastic. I know it's difficult to get the plug in without it starting out at an angle.

I'll be pleasantly surprised if this get repaired under warranty, the question you need to ask yourself is the cost of getting it fixed going to be worth it.

while not a current owner (give it a month) I'd say that if USB is the *only* way to update firmware (please someone tell me there is another way) then getting it repaired is something that you really must do if you want to be able to apply any future fixes.

Dave

[Bob Grant]

As a side note we've had almost the same problem with a HC7 and the A/V cable. The plastic contact holder had snapped off and was wedged inside the plug in one of our underwater housings. Plug would not connect to any camera as a result and it took carefull microsurgery to extract the piece of plastic so we could use the housing again. You need to be very careful with any of these new "micro" plugs and sockets.
The plug in the underwater housing is a right angle one, I wonder if anyone is making a component cable with a RA plug on it. That'd certainly help connecting the EX1 to a monitor.

[Sean Donnelly]

The main USB port actually isn't used for the FW updates. Under a small cover held by a phillips head screw is another "secret" USB port. I really hope sony will let us start doing our own FW updates, I'd hate to have to send it back to them just for that.

-Sean

[Eric Pascarelli]

Looks like that secret USB port is even harder to get at the the main one.

[Michael Maier]

Yes, the connectors are one of the lower points in this otherwise great camera. I get it they were trying to save space or even ran out of it, but a side rear panel above the SDI with real component jacks, the USB and A/V would have been nice and handy.

[Sean Donnelly]

Just a side note: Yesterday I swapped SN1789 for SN 2527, and the newer one came with a MUCH better SDI cap. This one might actually last a month.

-Sean

[Paul Kellett]

Originally Posted by Sean Donnelly

The main USB port actually isn't used for the FW updates. Under a small cover held by a phillips head screw is another "secret" USB port. I really hope sony will let us start doing our own FW updates, I'd hate to have to send it back to them just for that.

-Sean

Where on the cam is this ?

[Sean Donnelly]

if you open the connector door under the hand grip, to the right of the USB connector is a small metal tab. Remove the small phillips head screw at the top of the tab, and it comes off to reveal a 2nd USB port.

-Sean

[Paul Kellett]

Ta.
paul.