A7III IBIS malfunction (got solution from sony.com)

[voronspb]

I'm in the beginning of my 2-week vacation abroad, and today I got that violent image shaking, clicking noise and Turn power off then on error related to IBIS malfunction.

My A7III is almost 1 year old and running v3.0. I was shooting my friends casually with 24-240, and suddenly IBIS failed, starting from roll axis, and then it quickly became impossible to use the camera at all (no matter which lens is installed, and whether the stabilizer is on or off).

My heart almost stopped at that moment, because carrying 2 kg, 3000$ worth of dead weight on my back for 2 weeks (while shooting with mobile phone) wasn't in my plans.

Luckily tonight I was able to fix this problem using the solution in this article: https://www.sony.com/electronics/support/cameras-camcorders/articles/00032723

It says:

1. Turn the camera off.
2. Remove the batteries and let it sit for a full minute.
3. Turn the POWER switch to the ON position
4. Press and hold the shutter button for 30 seconds.
5. Release the shutter button.
6. Turn the POWER switch to the OFF position.
7. Reinsert the batteries.
8. Turn the POWER switch to the ON position.

It helped, and the camera looks OK now. Let's see what happens tomorrow. Reported this problem to Sony.

Probably this solution may relieve someone from ruined photo set.

P.S. Now I feel grateful to myself, buying A6300 in place of A6500 as a second camera. Probably the EOS R cameras aren't that bad?

 

[David Bo]

Hope your Camera Will work the whole trip.

Wish you have a great trip.

 

[TonyCh]

It says:

1. Turn the camera off.
2. Remove the batteries and let it sit for a full minute.
3. Turn the POWER switch to the ON position
4. Press and hold the shutter button for 30 seconds.
5. Release the shutter button.
6. Turn the POWER switch to the OFF position.
7. Reinsert the batteries.
8. Turn the POWER switch to the ON position.

It helped, and the camera looks OK now. Let's see what happens tomorrow. Reported this problem to Sony.

Probably this solution may relieve someone from ruined photo set.

Glad that your camera is OK. Question - in steps 3~5, there's no battery in the camera, right?

 

[JerseySailor]

It says:

1. .
2. Turn the POWER switch to the ON position
3. Press and hold the shutter button for 30 seconds.
4. Release the shutter button.

Glad that your camera is OK. Question - in steps 3~5, there's no battery in the camera, right?

This sounds like there is no hold-over battery in the camera (unlike the small date-time battery in all PCs), and all they were doing in steps 3 to 5 was draining any capacitors that still had a change inside the camera, to make sure all temporary settings (as opposed to memory settings) went back to default on power on again.

Kevin

 

[SilvanBromide]

It says:

1. .
2. Turn the POWER switch to the ON position
3. Press and hold the shutter button for 30 seconds.
4. Release the shutter button.

Glad that your camera is OK. Question - in steps 3~5, there's no battery in the camera, right?

This sounds like there is no hold-over battery in the camera (unlike the small date-time battery in all PCs), and all they were doing in steps 3 to 5 was draining any capacitors that still had a change inside the camera, to make sure all temporary settings (as opposed to memory settings) went back to default on power on again.

Kevin

If there is no hold-over battery, presumably running the procedure would result in the loss of date/time (and possibly other) settings.

If that's the case, it should be mentioned in the procedure (the user would need to restore various settings after running through the other steps). The OP would be able to clarify either way whether the date and time or other setup were affected.

--
Former Canon, Nikon and Pentax user.
Online Gallery: https://500px.com/raycologon

 

[joger]

P.S. Now I feel grateful to myself, buying A6300 in place of A6500 as a second camera. Probably the EOS R cameras aren't that bad?

1st of all sorry to hear about your software issues - something a few here underrate is the complexity of testing and validating software features.

Adding some functionality might cause problems elsewhere and thus every new feature should be treated as a major overhaul of the complete system.

Having a less feature rich camera like an A6300 removes complexity but also options for photographing.

It's always good to understand what your intention is and what trade offs have to be made.

My Canon 5D II was malfunctioning several times not showing the histogram - only removing the battery helped. No major failure but annoying nonetheless.

I'd hope that your problem is a seldom coincidence. That said it's good to understand how to properly rest the camera - thx for sharing!!

 

[bayindirh]

It says:

1. .
2. Turn the POWER switch to the ON position
3. Press and hold the shutter button for 30 seconds.
4. Release the shutter button.

Glad that your camera is OK. Question - in steps 3~5, there's no battery in the camera, right?

This sounds like there is no hold-over battery in the camera (unlike the small date-time battery in all PCs), and all they were doing in steps 3 to 5 was draining any capacitors that still had a change inside the camera, to make sure all temporary settings (as opposed to memory settings) went back to default on power on again.

Kevin

You can selectively power some parts of the board with a backup capacitor and leave others powered by main battery only. I guess the RTC is capacitor backed, but temporary working memory is not.

--
https://www.flickr.com/zerocoder/

 

[voronspb]

Unfortunately this didn't help me for long. At afternoon the camera started glitching again. It works somewhat, but shakes the sensor from time to time. Will send it for repair after vacation.

 

[voronspb]

All settings were intact after dropping the power.

 

[SilvanBromide]

All settings were intact after dropping the power.

Thanks for confirming that.

Meanwhile, sorry to hear that the glitching has reccurred. Hope you can use the reset procedure to get you through the week!

 

[joger]

Unfortunately this didn't help me for long. At afternoon the camera started glitching again. It works somewhat, but shakes the sensor from time to time. Will send it for repair after vacation.

too bad - modern technology can be a pain in case it works - somehow but not reliable is not enough.

Good luck!

 

[blusbyphoto]

This same error happened this morning as I was shooting a real estate job. Luckily I had my second body in my bag, and was able to complete the job on time. I was also lucky that I was still within the return/exchange policy from Best Buy on the body that failed. The camera was just weeks old! Hopefully this is not an indication of reliability in the future!!

 

[bayindirh]

This same error happened this morning as I was shooting a real estate job. Luckily I had my second body in my bag, and was able to complete the job on time. I was also lucky that I was still within the return/exchange policy from Best Buy on the body that failed. The camera was just weeks old! Hopefully this is not an indication of reliability in the future!!

I have my body for a year and had no problems with IBIS. I also carried mine in a camera backpack for a week, during a South Korea trip.

Sony generally replaces the bodies when they fail that early. They exchanged my friend's A7II when its shutter failed within six months.

--
https://www.flickr.com/zerocoder/

 

[adventure_photo]

I'm in the beginning of my 2-week vacation abroad, and today I got that violent image shaking, clicking noise and Turn power off then on error related to IBIS malfunction.

My A7III is almost 1 year old and running v3.0. I was shooting my friends casually with 24-240, and suddenly IBIS failed, starting from roll axis, and then it quickly became impossible to use the camera at all (no matter which lens is installed, and whether the stabilizer is on or off).

My heart almost stopped at that moment, because carrying 2 kg, 3000$ worth of dead weight on my back for 2 weeks (while shooting with mobile phone) wasn't in my plans.

Luckily tonight I was able to fix this problem using the solution in this article: https://www.sony.com/electronics/support/cameras-camcorders/articles/00032723

It says:

1. Turn the camera off.
2. Remove the batteries and let it sit for a full minute.
3. Turn the POWER switch to the ON position
4. Press and hold the shutter button for 30 seconds.
5. Release the shutter button.
6. Turn the POWER switch to the OFF position.
7. Reinsert the batteries.
8. Turn the POWER switch to the ON position.

It helped, and the camera looks OK now. Let's see what happens tomorrow. Reported this problem to Sony.

Probably this solution may relieve someone from ruined photo set.

P.S. Now I feel grateful to myself, buying A6300 in place of A6500 as a second camera. Probably the EOS R cameras aren't that bad?

 

[voronspb]

Thanks, I've seen this solution before. BTW, my camera works fine for 2 days in a row. I'll be displeased if the service center will say that it's totally OK, because I don't have much trust in its reliability anymore. Luckily I was able to record a video containing the fact of that malfunction .

 

[jimboyvr]

I'm in the beginning of my 2-week vacation abroad, and today I got that violent image shaking, clicking noise and Turn power off then on error related to IBIS malfunction.

My A7

 

[voronspb]

The latest one, 3.0 if I recall correctly.

 

[voronspb]

Here's a video with sensor shaking on my camera:


In last few days this malfunction has stopped appearing for some reason, the camera mostly works as usual. But I'll be going to service center today, as I don't know in what moment the camera will become inoperable again.

 

[TonyCh]

The shake is so strong and loud, it definitely needs servicing. Be sure to show the service person this video. Please keep us posted with the updates.

 

[voronspb]

The shake is so strong and loud, it definitely needs servicing. Be sure to show the service person this video. Please keep us posted with the updates.

Already done. The camera is at the service now, in a few days I'll have an update regarding its status.