Having a big problem with my a6700 I think I need to send it back

[goactive]

Have you contacted Sony support about this?

I will after I make the video showing it today..

I have a return replacement ticket now but its not in stock right now for the body only.

Will call Adorama I got it from and see if they can break up a set to get it faster.

 

[Dave981]

Have you contacted Sony support about this?

Pretty sure Sony will say to test it with a Sony flash. Actually they'll probably say that they don't guarantee function with other brands of equipment.

 

[goactive]

Have you contacted Sony support about this?

Pretty sure Sony will say to test it with a Sony flash. Actually they'll probably say that they don't guarantee function with other brands of equipment.

If thats the case it useless to anyone that uses any flash other then Sony. Or a trigger like a Pocket wizard or any other brand of trigger and there is many of them.

I have never owned a camera ever that did not work with a manual flash I was using Vivitar flashes for years a long time ago with every camera I had.

Here is a photo from many years back of some of the flash systems I was using. I would light up weddings with different flash some with gels on them. All set off from a flash trigger.

Back then I also had a Sony a6000 and a6300 and the manual flash worked on them but I did not try and shoot a full portrait jobs with them. I sold them Due to focus problems they had they could not focus in strong back lighting and we work on the beach and shoot into strong back lighting all the time they would be blinded by the strong sun light and would not focus at all they also would not focus on small thin items with even mild sun backlighting like a pole of a wedding arch they could not see it.

so far the a6700 has all that fixed no problem so far with backlighting but i have not got it out in the super bright sun we deal with many times.

Then a wedding photo - Shot with a Nikon D700 I used two Vivitar flash to light up the wedding the church let me do this. Some churches will and some won't. I think I used radio poppers back then to trigger them another trigger system brand.

Third image is from the a6700 with the sigma 56mm 1.4 lens at 1.4 natural light.

It did great here and edited from a JPG.

--
Started shooting digital back with the first 2MP cameras. Over 20 cameras later still going. I shoot for a living - family and people portraits, weddings, Sports and a little of everything.

 

[goactive]

Here is the video i made showing the problem you can see the camera stop working for the strange delay around 10 seconds then lock up a second time in a row.

This happens with any flash trigger I have and any flash I have.

--

Started shooting digital back with the first 2MP cameras. Over 20 cameras later still going. I shoot for a living - family and people portraits, weddings, Sports and a little of everything.

 

[Roy55]

In your video I noticed a very strange thing, your A6700 is completely unaware that there is a lamp connected to it, there is no flash icon on the screen. At home, I am able to create such an effect only in the full electronic shutter mode in which the lamp is not supported.
In addition, what lamp is connected to the A6700 because I noticed that it has a metal "hot shoe". Maybe it's stupid, but did you accidentally connect the lamp from a system other than Sony? You mentioned that you also had a Nikon system.
Nikon and Sony are not compatible with each other. Note the "hot shoe". Sony has plastic one, Nikon metal.

 

[goactive]

In your video I noticed a very strange thing, your A6700 is completely unaware that there is a lamp connected to it, there is no flash icon on the screen. At home, I am able to create such an effect only in the full electronic shutter mode in which the lamp is not supported.
In addition, what lamp is connected to the A6700 because I noticed that it has a metal "hot shoe". Maybe it's stupid, but did you accidentally connect the lamp from a system other than Sony? You mentioned that you also had a Nikon system.
Nikon and Sony are not compatible with each other. Note the "hot shoe". Sony has plastic one, Nikon metal.

In the video I used a manual flash that works with any camera it only has one pin to trigger it.

For the trigger I have two of them a Nikon and Fuji but I am using manual so it only needs to trigger from the center pin.

I also by-passed the trigger by using a one pin shoe in between the trigger and the camera that is plastic so nothing else is touching. Every thing I have tried I still get the same problem.

It seems to be the camera shorting out or something at random as it is not happening all the time.
Here is a photo of the plastic one pin item and the back of the camera to see better.

I just checked and testing all the different triggers including a old non brand general one I found none of them make anything show up on the back screen when on the camera and the on camera flash dose not make anything show up either. They all trigger the flash up till it then had this strange problem.

--
Started shooting digital back with the first 2MP cameras. Over 20 cameras later still going. I shoot for a living - family and people portraits, weddings, Sports and a little of everything.

 

[quatpat]

Maybe something to do with the flash recycle time?

Did you check the batteries of your flash? The less power the more recycle time...

 

[Roy55]

In your video I noticed a very strange thing, your A6700 is completely unaware that there is a lamp connected to it, there is no flash icon on the screen. At home, I am able to create such an effect only in the full electronic shutter mode in which the lamp is not supported.
In addition, what lamp is connected to the A6700 because I noticed that it has a metal "hot shoe". Maybe it's stupid, but did you accidentally connect the lamp from a system other than Sony? You mentioned that you also had a Nikon system.
Nikon and Sony are not compatible with each other. Note the "hot shoe". Sony has plastic one, Nikon metal.

In the video I used a manual flash that works with any camera it only has one pin to trigger it.

For the trigger I have two of them a Nikon and Fuji but I am using manual so it only needs to trigger from the center pin.
I also by-passed the trigger by using a one pin shoe in between the trigger and the camera that is plastic so nothing else is touching. Every thing I have tried I still get the same problem.

It seems to be the camera shorting out or something at random as it is not happening all the time.
Here is a photo of the plastic one pin item and the back of the camera to see better.

I just checked and testing all the different triggers including a old non brand general one I found none of them make anything show up on the back screen when on the camera and the on camera flash dose not make anything show up either. They all trigger the flash up till it then had this strange problem.

Ok, now I understand. Maybe something is blocking pin in camera multi interface shoe. Did you try blow some compress air in it?

 

[goactive]

Maybe something to do with the flash recycle time?

Did you check the batteries of your flash? The less power the more recycle time...

It had plenty of power with that low setting I can shoot hundreds of shots as fast as I can push the shutter.

When I was out shooting on the job I was using the ad200 that is even more powerful I never have a recycle time problem with it. When I switched camera it had no problem.

 

[goactive]

In your video I noticed a very strange thing, your A6700 is completely unaware that there is a lamp connected to it, there is no flash icon on the screen. At home, I am able to create such an effect only in the full electronic shutter mode in which the lamp is not supported.
In addition, what lamp is connected to the A6700 because I noticed that it has a metal "hot shoe". Maybe it's stupid, but did you accidentally connect the lamp from a system other than Sony? You mentioned that you also had a Nikon system.
Nikon and Sony are not compatible with each other. Note the "hot shoe". Sony has plastic one, Nikon metal.

In the video I used a manual flash that works with any camera it only has one pin to trigger it.

For the trigger I have two of them a Nikon and Fuji but I am using manual so it only needs to trigger from the center pin.
I also by-passed the trigger by using a one pin shoe in between the trigger and the camera that is plastic so nothing else is touching. Every thing I have tried I still get the same problem.

It seems to be the camera shorting out or something at random as it is not happening all the time.
Here is a photo of the plastic one pin item and the back of the camera to see better.

I just checked and testing all the different triggers including a old non brand general one I found none of them make anything show up on the back screen when on the camera and the on camera flash dose not make anything show up either. They all trigger the flash up till it then had this strange problem.

Ok, now I understand. Maybe something is blocking pin in camera multi interface shoe. Did you try blow some compress air in it?

No I dont have any compressed air.

I tested more and nothing is locking in I can pull any of them out so not locked in. I tested 6 different items and none of them fully locked in.

It would be nice if I can get this working and not have to send it back in. Any thing else to try. I will have to send it back in by Friday.

I have a very small job tomorrow later in the day then have a week off our session just ended here.

--
Started shooting digital back with the first 2MP cameras. Over 20 cameras later still going. I shoot for a living - family and people portraits, weddings, Sports and a little of everything.

 

[Adam-T]

Sproradic problems are hard to solve - is it a number of shots or a time between/total shots, etc. There are reports of difficulty near the sync speed. Does the camera jam up with just the adapter in the hot shoe and not the trigger, etc.?

Good luck - it would be nice if you could test your camera with a sony-compatible flash or your flash with another a6700 (or a6x00 where x<7), but I understand return windows.

Sony can`t guarantee that cheap shonky chinese accessories will work and I`d be inclined not to mention anything other than the totally manual stuff which should work regardless of make (unless its really old like Vivitar with a high voltage on the centre pin) .. I can`t see how a manual centre pin flash could cause an issue like this unless its drawing current through the pin which modern ones shouldn`t ..

 

[Thad E Ginathom]

A possibly analagous problem, three or four years back, with my then-new a6500.

The flash was highly unreliable, sometimes firing, sometimes not. Sometimes it would over expose. Both pop-up and on-camera.

I should have sent it back, but I didn't. I seldom used flash (do so a bit more now). I didn't bother.

Also, if I left the camera on in the bag, I'd end up with a hot camera and a flat battery. I figured it wasn't power-saving because the viewfinder could sense something close. No, that doesn't make sense, I know.

So, anyway, one, two or more things on my camera, which I mostly loved, were not working or unreliable.

Recently, the flash started to work fine. I noticed the power-saver function was working too.

What changed?

Well... nothing. Except... Maybe... That day I failed to notice a steep speed bump and everything in a the car got a rather big shock?

I'll never know. But could it be that a loose connection got fixed?

Maybe if I'd taken the camera to a service place they would have noticed that immediately and fixed it immediately.

But...

Bottom line is that there is no excuse for a brand-new camera not just working and your dealer should get it exchanged for you.

--
Just a taker of snapshots. Mostly South Indian Classical Music in my South Indian home city

 

[Dave981]

So a couple more questions/tests - I've never had it (6000/6400/6700) do what you're getting in the video, but I'm also using a Godox TT350s which is identified as a flash via the MIS pins. That said-

does it ever do this with the flash not in the shoe? (i.e., is it a camera thing; one potential concern is if an early session with a flash that had a metal front edge that was low enough to contact/short the sony MIS pins, when the flash fires then whatever voltage was going through the center pin might ground out through the MIS and have damaged the circuitry; if this never happens when nothing is in the shoe, than this isn't likely. and assuming your trigger is fairly new, it shouldn't be pushing too much current)

does it do this when the flash is in the shoe but not turned on (maybe the flashes are sending too much voltage...)?

is your camera overheating (I've noticed the a6700 gets warm quickly, especially outdoors in the SE US).

do you have a fast card (I could hang up my a6000 by shooting fast on a uhs-1 card) - if you shoot slowly (1 shot every other second) does it still happen (you're a pro but we're grasping here)?

is everything tightened? (a loose flash shouldn't cause the camera to hang, but the sony shoe is functionally shorter than most so with a non-MIS foot it won't make as good a connection)

Otherwise I haven't run into this and I don't recall reading about it on dpr or other places. Focus/hangups have been reported with flaky lens mounts/connects but not with flash.

Good luck.

 

[goactive]

So a couple more questions/tests - I've never had it (6000/6400/6700) do what you're getting in the video, but I'm also using a Godox TT350s which is identified as a flash via the MIS pins. That said-

does it ever do this with the flash not in the shoe? (i.e., is it a camera thing; one potential concern is if an early session with a flash that had a metal front edge that was low enough to contact/short the sony MIS pins, when the flash fires then whatever voltage was going through the center pin might ground out through the MIS and have damaged the circuitry; if this never happens when nothing is in the shoe, than this isn't likely. and assuming your trigger is fairly new, it shouldn't be pushing too much current)

does it do this when the flash is in the shoe but not turned on (maybe the flashes are sending too much voltage...)?

is your camera overheating (I've noticed the a6700 gets warm quickly, especially outdoors in the SE US).

do you have a fast card (I could hang up my a6000 by shooting fast on a uhs-1 card) - if you shoot slowly (1 shot every other second) does it still happen (you're a pro but we're grasping here)?

is everything tightened? (a loose flash shouldn't cause the camera to hang, but the sony shoe is functionally shorter than most so with a non-MIS foot it won't make as good a connection)

Otherwise I haven't run into this and I don't recall reading about it on dpr or other places. Focus/hangups have been reported with flaky lens mounts/connects but not with flash.

Good luck.

I have not tested it with the flash in the Shue but not on i will try that.

Its all tight but I can still pull it out if I pull on it its like it is never locked in the shoe.

The cards I am using are new 128 v60II Lexar cards the 1667x 250mb.

I can shoot 4k video with it and have shot a full photo job shooting all natural light photos with no flash shooting quote fast even with a girl dancing around shooting fast never a hang up. Never a problem till I started using the flash on a job but even then it did not do this right away. I shot part of the job with flash till it then messed up in the middle of the shoot.

When It first messed up we were stand-ing on the beach in one of the most humid days of the year and hot out. We shoot all our jobs on the beach. Shooting one more later today.

I have not felt it getting to hot but It dose get warm when shooting 4k video but not to much for just photos.

I think it is strange it only dose this at random with no set pattern even with the camera on a tripod and nothing moving it will end up doing this.

Last nigh I was able to shoot over 70 shots till it then messed up other times I might only get 12 or so till it messed up

I would think that if it was not going to work with a flash it would not work at all.

Also the Vivitar flash and others I showed in the photo I do not have any more so I am not using any of them I used them many years ago. I am all Godox now days.

I have two AD200 and a 360 and the manual on camera flash. I have used them on all my Nikons and a Fuji in the last 6 or 7 years. I have 4 different Godox triggers as well. One is a manual trigger with only the center pin all still have this problem after so many shots it happens.

Also at times but not always when using the flash I have seem it no longer focus at all also intermitting it will not focus at all on anything but them 10 seconds or so later it starts working agan and at times it was would not trigger the flash all the time its been very strange, But only when a trigger or flash is mounted on it and on.
I will test it with it off. Charging the battery right now

 

[Dave981]

The transient focus problems and hangups make me worry about shorting of the MIS pins, which could result in unpredictable behavior, if it only occurs when there is a flash in the shoe. But a plastic shoe shouldn't do this.

here: https://www.dpreview.com/forums/post/55735467, the poster verified the camera was firing (continuity tester across center pin-housing, but there is also a sensing switch in the foot. so that's potentially one thing to look at.

Another is turning the physical flash on but the flash mode setting to off, which gets the flash in place but turns of the in-camera trigger.

Finally, check the trigger voltage of the flash unit(s).

 

[Dave981]

and just to add a couple things I checked this morning - x1t-s and tt350s trigger voltages are 3V (just wondering whether higher voltage/current gums up the switching IC after a period), and live view settings on / expose w/o flash lets me meter for a scene as if a flash isn't there and still fire the flash, even in ttl mode with a sony-compatible flash unit (albeit in my dining room and not on the beach at sunset by the gulf).

 

[goactive]

I Just talked to Sony this camera only has what they call a limited warrantee so they will not send out or give a replacement for the camera.

I would have to send it in to be fixed that will take around 10 days or more from the time they get it in. So I would l be looking at around 16 or more business days but with week end non business days around 20 days or more.

I had to call three times the first two times when talking with them I was disconnected.

I am better off sending it back. So I will send it back tomorrow.

 

[goactive]

I sent it back today and ordered another one. I might get it tomorrow if they got it out in time.

They did not have the body only in stock so I paid the extra for the 18-135 kit and ordered a Sony version trigger as well. So now I will have 5 lens for this system hoping I can use it all the time.

Update they did get it out today got a e-mail saying I will have it Friday.

--
Started shooting digital back with the first 2MP cameras. Over 20 cameras later still going. I shoot for a living - family and people portraits, weddings, Sports and a little of everything.

 

[little al]

Good luck with the second one, and thanks for all the testing with various flashes and ancillary stuff, and above all, the excellent effort you put into doing all this.

Cheers

 

[Dave981]

A few compatibility issues starting to show up here: https://www.dpreview.com/forums/thread/4725068

https://www.dpreview.com/forums/thread/4724600