April 4 2011 - Photo Jottings

April 4 2011

4/4/11

Nearing the end of the road for the A700!

I got a black screen and error message while taking pictures last week, so I turned the camera off for a few seconds, then turned it back on and tried to take a picture, but the same problem occurred. I then decided to take off the lens, and as I did that four pieces from the mirror system fell out!  I’m estimating this
camera has approximately 90k shots so far, but it should have lasted longer than that, oh well.

Believe it or not, the camera still takes great pictures!  AF seems to work ok.  Unfortunately, it requires full manual exposure as it over-exposes by about five stops.  You also don’t get anything through the viewfinder, so you have to guess, compose, take the picture and adjust as necessary.

I think I’ll try to glue the mirror back in and see what happens, there’s nothing to lose in that procedure right!

Below in front of the camera from left to right; two mirror retainer pieces, main mirror, thin black plastic piece which is used as a baffle for the secondary
mirror below the main mirror, it goes between the main mirror and the mirror platform in the camera.

Something I didn’t know; the mirror is transparent!  It only reflects at a certain angle.  It looks almost identical to the SLT mirrors unless you turn it just right.  Also, as mentioned above, there is a smaller, secondary mirror below and inside the main mirror which follows the main mirror in travel, I guess this is to keep light in to the system while the main mirror is up towards the top of its travel and not reflecting much light.  When the main mirror is up fully, so is the secondary, otherwise the shutter would be blocked.

APRIL2011/a700partshp.jpg
Sony A700 comes apart!
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