Uh Oh - Some A7/A7r have light leak issues!!

dcsang

dcsang

Canadian & Not A Dentist
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Apparently Sony has acknowledged this (quite quickly I'd say) and are already working on a fix according to reports over at the Sony Alpha Rumors forum.

Story found at Petapixel.

I haven't tested mine yet but it seems to only occur with long exposure photos - I have yet to do one with my A7 and I'm curious how it gets impacted when using lens adapters instead of native lenses.

Cheers,
Dave
 
People are complaining about this with the Fuji X-T1 too (though via a different scenario).
 
taemo said:
now does this happen by mounting a Sony lens or any lenses such as M-mount?
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I have not been able to determine if the issue is only with native mount lenses or if it impacts those using older manual focus lenses via various adapters.

Since the leak occurs at the mount itself (or that's what appears to be happening) one could make the assumption that it will happen regardless of the lens attached. But as I said, I haven't been able to find any confirmation of this.

Cheers,
Dave
 
taemo said:
now does this happen by mounting a Sony lens or any lenses such as M-mount?
Click to expand...
Hard to say. People are proving it with just a body cap on, so that isn't even a lens. However, it could be that a heavy lens stresses the mount and cracks a seal.

What I have not seen in all the reports is whether or not anyone has shown the problem exists on their camera AND that they only use FE lenses. Legacy lenses do tend to be heavier. :(
 
dbm said:
Hard to say. People are proving it with just a body cap on, so that isn't even a lens. However, it could be that a heavy lens stresses the mount and cracks a seal.

What I have not seen in all the reports is whether or not anyone has shown the problem exists on their camera AND that they only use FE lenses. Legacy lenses do tend to be heavier. :(
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yeah that's my worry too but then it's the adapter that has contact to the mount and not the lens itself.
 
taemo said:
yeah that's my worry too but then it's the adapter that has contact to the mount and not the lens itself.
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From what I've read, the leak is not occurring between the lens and mounting plate. It's occurring where the chrome ring contacts the anodized orange ring. So the caps/lens/adapter has absolutely nothing to do with it.

What scares me the most is that if light is slipping through, then the cameras aren't as weather-proof as they are supposed to be.
 
Well, that should tell them to keep the product designers hands off engineering critical components like the mount. That shiny metal ring is a very poor light trap...
 
dbm said:
From what I've read, the leak is not occurring between the lens and mounting plate. It's occurring where the chrome ring contacts the anodized orange ring. So the caps/lens/adapter has absolutely nothing to do with it.

What scares me the most is that if light is slipping through, then the cameras aren't as weather-proof as they are supposed to be.
Click to expand...

The upside here is at least the fix will probably be irrelevant of what lenses are used.
 
Just tested mine. No light leaks. I wonder if this issue is as widespread as people claim, as I have two bodies from very different batches, and both seem just fine...
 
Some XT-1 owners are shinning very bright lights into the accessory connection ports with the door open. Then they post a light-leak photo. When this door is open, and people do very long exposures with 6X to 10X ND filters, they see a light leak when they connect a third-party electronic release cable to the 2.5 mm jack.

I doubt any of them thought to try the black cloth fix.
 
Can the xt1 app be used instead of electronic cable release? Does it support bulb or a slow enough shutter speed?

Yep, easiest work around would be the black cloth.

Gary
 
willie_901 said:
Some XT-1 owners are shinning very bright lights into the accessory connection ports with the door open. Then they post a light-leak photo. ...
I doubt any of them thought to try the black cloth fix.
Click to expand...

Where once photographers used to take pride in finding their own fixes to certain problems, now consumers take pride in finding the impossible flaw.
 
This problem and the xt1 one would not in itself bother me since they involve long exposure related photograhy in broad daylight which I something that I never do. On the otherhand as someone mentioned earlier, it brings into question weatherproofing. I never did like that bright orange-red vanity ring around the lens mount anyway, would have been tempted to put gaffer tape around it anyway.

Gary
 
The test is interesting, but final data point is somewhat flawed, since they are referencing two other digital cameras using test conditions that are very different.

They did reproduce the issue using flashlights but later when they did an updated showing what happens w/ Canon and Nikon Dslr in sunlight conditions, they did not retest the Sony in that same conditions. While the Canon faired way better then the Nikon, we don't know how bad the Sony was relative to either.

On the otherhand, as I said before, I would never use any camera w/ such a long exposure and high iso. My only real concern would be weatherproofing.

Gary
 
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