Sony Alpha 350 misalignment problems

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yorkshireflatcap

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John
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Hi all,

I'm gutted!! Took some pictures today and I found to my absolute horror that what saw in the viewfinder did not reflect what came out in the final image - Take for example, in the viewfinder I ensured that the church spire was just touching the top of the view frame and everything else was just so. I hit the shutter button, and looked at the image. The image had 'moved' down... there was a fair amount of sky between the spire and the top of the image where in the view finder, there was none!

I tried centering an old door frame, and it was centered correctly through the view finder but the final image had been 'moved' significantly to one side! This is the first time that I have noticed this. Could this be some calibration problem that I am unaware of, or could the camera be damaged? If it is damaged, what would be the cost of having to correct it?

Your suggestions are very welcome, and somewhat urgent as I have a project on the go that needs to be completed by xmas time.

Many Thanks

John
 
yorkshireflatcap said:
Hi all,

I'm gutted!! Took some pictures today and I found to my absolute horror that what saw in the viewfinder did not reflect what came out in the final image - Take for example, in the viewfinder I ensured that the church spire was just touching the top of the view frame and everything else was just so. I hit the shutter button, and looked at the image. The image had 'moved' down... there was a fair amount of sky between the spire and the top of the image where in the view finder, there was none!

I tried centering an old door frame, and it was centered correctly through the view finder but the final image had been 'moved' significantly to one side! This is the first time that I have noticed this. Could this be some calibration problem that I am unaware of, or could the camera be damaged? If it is damaged, what would be the cost of having to correct it?

Your suggestions are very welcome, and somewhat urgent as I have a project on the go that needs to be completed by xmas time.

Many Thanks

John
Click to expand...

hi john...this is happening because the viewfinder on the A350(as with lots of DSLR's)is about 95%,or in other words,you will see only 95% of the final image.i believe this is to do with the live view set up in the camera,and there's nothing i know that you can do to overcome it..other than crop the final image in PS afterwards...see here...

It all sounds great so far, but there there are a couple of notable downsides to the Sony A350's implementation. The use of the secondary sensor means that only 90% scene coverage is achieved via Live View, compared with 95% through the optical viewfinder and the 100% that most other DSLR's Live View systems can show. It's also more difficult to manually focus because you can't use the LCD screen to zoom right in, and the magnification of the optical viewfinder is a relatively poor 0.74x because of the secondary sensor's position above it. So if you require complete scene coverage, accurate manual focus and a bigger viewfinder, there are better Live View systems around. For everyone else, the A350's system is simply much faster and intuitive to use, especially in tandem with the tilting LCD screen, and will particularly appeal to people who are upgrading from a compact camera to a DSLR.

hope this helps:thumbs:
 
I think Stan is on the money. Most DSLRs only show around95%.

As long as everything is aligned OK I wouldnt worry. You can easily crop is software if you need to.
 
stan the man said:
hi john...this is happening because the viewfinder on the A350(as with lots of DSLR's)is about 95%,or in other words,you will see only 95% of the final image.i believe this is to do with the live view set up in the camera,and there's nothing i know that you can do to overcome it..other than crop the final image in PS afterwards...see here...

It all sounds great so far, but there there are a couple of notable downsides to the Sony A350's implementation. The use of the secondary sensor means that only 90% scene coverage is achieved via Live View, compared with 95% through the optical viewfinder and the 100% that most other DSLR's Live View systems can show. It's also more difficult to manually focus because you can't use the LCD screen to zoom right in, and the magnification of the optical viewfinder is a relatively poor 0.74x because of the secondary sensor's position above it. So if you require complete scene coverage, accurate manual focus and a bigger viewfinder, there are better Live View systems around. For everyone else, the A350's system is simply much faster and intuitive to use, especially in tandem with the tilting LCD screen, and will particularly appeal to people who are upgrading from a compact camera to a DSLR.

hope this helps:thumbs:
Click to expand...


Thanks Stan. If what you are saying is correct, then I consider this a fundamental flaw in the A350!! Also, two questions are begging here:

1) As I've had this camera for 10 months, why have I not noticed this before (It is only recently that I've started to use the camera in anger.)?

2) It seems that in order to get the right shot, because of the way the A350 is calibrated/setup, it's much of a hit or miss affair, in which case the camera is pretty useless as a serious piece of photography equipment.

Cropping
With regards to cropping, this is not the problem I'm having - it's the final image that's missing the bottom part of the image, as it's 'shifted' the image up by some considerable margin.

Any further suggestions are most welcome.

Regards

John
 
yorkshireflatcap said:
Thanks Stan. If what you are saying is correct, then I consider this a fundamental flaw in the A350!! Also, two questions are begging here:

1) As I've had this camera for 10 months, why have I not noticed this before (It is only recently that I've started to use the camera in anger.)?

2) It seems that in order to get the right shot, because of the way the A350 is calibrated/setup, it's much of a hit or miss affair, in which case the camera is pretty useless as a serious piece of photography equipment.

Cropping
With regards to cropping, this is not the problem I'm having - it's the final image that's missing the bottom part of the image, as it's 'shifted' the image up by some considerable margin.

Any further suggestions are most welcome.

Regards

John
Click to expand...


john..if you are missing part of what you see in the viewfinder,then there maybe a problem...as i understand it,the 5% difference should be shared on all sides,ie:the final image should contain more on all sides,and certainly should not be missing any part of the image.

if you have only had it for 10 months,then it is still under warranty..so might i suggest taking it back to where you purchased it,or contact sony UK.
 
The A350 has liveview doesnt it?

Stick it on a tripod and compare the image on liveview to the image through the viewfinder.

Then compare an image taken (still using the tripod) using autofocus and manual focus - looking to see if the autofocus points are where you expect them to be and that manually focusing finds the same things in focus.

That should answer the question about alignment. I suppose it is possible that the prism is misaligned but I would have thought you would get issues with focusing.

Out of interest do you wear glasses? Sometimes people with glasses can be getting a slanted view through the viewfinder because the eye isnt actually up at the viewfinder because of their glasses.
 
Thanks for everyone's responses. In response to Dan T Man, I am in the process of taking it back before the warranty ends.... I have just 6 weeks left!!

Who? : I don't wear glasses, the manual and auto focusing is working correctly, not blurring, but as I mentioned earlier, the image is being shifted downwards, or to the right depending on the camera's orientation.

Thanks anyway.

Regards

John
 
Fair enough. Was just a few thoughts. I'm not sure what else would cause the problems, I would expect a misaligned focusing screen to show up on manual focus, not sure about the prism.

Certainly get it back to Sony while still in warranty though.
 
who? said:
The A350 has liveview doesnt it?

Stick it on a tripod and compare the image on liveview to the image through the viewfinder.

Then compare an image taken (still using the tripod) using autofocus and manual focus - looking to see if the autofocus points are where you expect them to be and that manually focusing finds the same things in focus.

That should answer the question about alignment.
Click to expand...
won't work on an A3xx as the LiveView & image sensors are different & hence 1 could be misaligned & the other not. Combine that with the fact that neither gives 100% view ...
 
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did they replace the camera or did they fix it? My dad lend me his a-350 and it has the exact same problem. I even took a picture with the camera upside down and the recorded image showed the same as the viewfinder. I also tried the Live View and the same problem was there.
My real problem is that the warranty expired, and I'm currently living in Bolivia where I haven't found someone who seemed like they could fix it, or someone I could trust to at least look at it. So I really wanna know if it is possible to fix it,so i can send it to the Sony in the US. And if it's not.. then to look for a new camera.
Thanks
 
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You have to send it to Sony to fix Simon, they are the only people who have the "roller" part that needs replacing.

The sensor moves on a plate, and mis-aliigment occurs when a "roller" fails, generally by impact. When anti-shake fails, the sensor is a left a few millimeters where it should be, hence the misalignment vs viewfinder.

HTH
 
puddleduck said:
You have to send it to Sony to fix Simon, they are the only people who have the "roller" part that needs replacing.

The sensor moves on a plate, and mis-aliigment occurs when a "roller" fails, generally by impact. When anti-shake fails, the sensor is a left a few millimeters where it should be, hence the misalignment vs viewfinder.

HTH
Click to expand...
yeah.. seems that's my only option.
thanks for the reply
I'll let you know how it goes when i send it.
 
yorkshireflatcap said:
Thanks for everyone's responses. In response to Dan T Man, I am in the process of taking it back before the warranty ends.... I have just 6 weeks left!!

Who? : I don't wear glasses, the manual and auto focusing is working correctly, not blurring, but as I mentioned earlier, the image is being shifted downwards, or to the right depending on the camera's orientation.

Thanks anyway.

Regards

John
Click to expand...

Hi,

I have a Sony A350 DSLR and have exactly the same problem as you experienced. Did you eventually return it to Sony ? Was there a specific problem ? Was it repaired ?
 
stare said:
did they replace the camera or did they fix it? My dad lend me his a-350 and it has the exact same problem. I even took a picture with the camera upside down and the recorded image showed the same as the viewfinder. I also tried the Live View and the same problem was there.
My real problem is that the warranty expired, and I'm currently living in Bolivia where I haven't found someone who seemed like they could fix it, or someone I could trust to at least look at it. So I really wanna know if it is possible to fix it,so i can send it to the Sony in the US. And if it's not.. then to look for a new camera.
Thanks
Click to expand...

Hi,

Did you resolve the problem with your Dad's A350 ? Did you send it back to Sony ? What was the cost ? Needless to say, I have the same problem !
 
It has happened at least a few times before and been reported on TP.

This is the thread I started, and I have replied to at least two others where it had happened to Sony DSLR's.
 
I had the same thing on an A700 too.
 
I have had the same problem on a Sony Alpha 450. It was bought in August last year (2010). Whilst taking some pictures on holiday in March (after taking nearly 3000 photos up until then) I noticed that the image catured on the camera had shifted significantly to the right compared to the image seen in the viewfinder. I am not aware of having dropped or knocked the camera.

The camera is still under guarantee, so I took in back to the place I bought it, who sent it away for repair.

I have just collected it yesterday, and it now works fine. The repair report says "Changed stabiliser and tested"
 
Cheers for the info Mike - definitely sounds like a design fault!
 
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