dsc-h5 autofocus problem

Hi,

This is my first digital camera. I have already read all the manual but it seems impossible to press the shutter halfway down. It does not work. I have tried to press very slowly or very fast and it does not work.

The manual says to press the shutter halfway down to lock the focus and then press again the shutter to take the shot. But I just can't make it work this way. When I press shutter it automatically takes the shot.

Am doing something wrong? I'm using the default settings, didn't change anything...

Thanks a lot for the help!

Luiz

Luiz-
This is a tough question to answer without the camera in my hands. The manual is correct - you should be able to lock the exposure and the focus by depressing the shutter halfway. It's likely that you're pressing the button too hard. But without watching you and trying for myself, I can't know for sure. If this is the first time you've had a camera that works like this, you may have to learn to be sensitive to the spot where the focus locks. Usually there's a slight resistance at the focus lock point, so that you know not to push any farther. Try experimenting with it some more to see if you can get it to work. I would be surprised if it doesn't. It's much more likely that you just haven't become sensitive to yet and are pushing too hard.

well thanks for the reply. I'm from Brazil and I have also posted the same question in a forum here in Brazil. For my surprise some other guys are having the same problem with their H5. I have used another digital camera (fuji finepix) and I can hold the button halfway to get the correct focus without problems. I know that it seems to be a very weird problem but since I have got other reports like my problem, I'm suspecting that it is a real problem. I have also tried an H2 in a store yesterday and I could hold down the button without any problems... I'm trying to contact the store where I bought my camera to get a new one. Hope I don't have any problems again.

Very interesting. It sounds like they've got a batch of cameras with bad buttons. That's not something I've ever heard of. But there's a first time for everything.

Please do us a favor and post a review for your camera. We need more reviews for the Sony H5:

Read and write reviews for the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-H5 >>

Thanks for the follow-up reply. I'm glad you posted again as I've never heard of this problem. I assumed it was user error. But it sounds like it's definitely a camera problem.

Hi Luiz.

I'm from Argentina and I have the same problem with my DSC-H5 camera. From one moment to other the autofocus (halfway shutter action) stop working.
Tried it in different modes and nothing new.. also resetted it, discharged the batteries, and everything you could imagine.. and nothing, the problem is still there.

Just chatted with Sony's customer support and they asked me to send the camera to Sony Factory Service (in Texas).

I bought this camera last month (less than 30 days) at Amazon and sent it to my sister's apartment at the US. I'm lucky and my sister is going back to Houston so she will send the camera to the Service.

I'll let you know if there are any news.

Greets!

Diego

Quote:

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Originally Posted by 3eleven

I'm from Argentina and I have the same problem with my DSC-H5 camera. From one moment to other the autofocus (halfway shutter action) stop working.
Tried it in different modes and nothing new.. also resetted it, discharged the batteries, and everything you could imagine.. and nothing, the problem is still there.

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Thanks for posting, Diego! This is exactly why the Internet is so great!

Hope Sony takes care of you. Please let us know what happens and post a review for your H5 when everything is all done with.

I am having the exact same problem. Bought my H5 on Nov. 3rd and just before Christmas noticed that the camera would not let me lock in and focus when depressing the shutter button half way down. Bought the camera from Best Buy with a service plan. Brought it in to them to take a look at, but they basically just told me it was a setting on the camera. But, after reading this I think my instincts were right and it's definitely a camera problem. It's funny too because he took me to the floor model to compare and the floor model had the exact same problem. That's why I second guessed myself. Guess I'll go back to Best Buy first to see if they will replace it, or send it off to Sony.

I would recommend printing out this thread and taking it with you - just in case they try to tell you it's not a camera problem, again.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Photo-John

Thanks for posting, Diego! This is exactly why the Internet is so great!

Hope Sony takes care of you. Please let us know what happens and post a review for your H5 when everything is all done with.

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Thanks John! I will when I get my camera back.

Tell me, is there a way to get notified by email when this thread have new replies? Just to know when to check if there's anyone else with the same problem.


Thanks again.


Diego

Went back to best buy and they exchanged the camera with a brand new one without any problem. I guess anything bought after Nov. 1 2006 had an extended replacement policy, otherwise they would have to send it back to Sony for repair. I wasn't looking forward to being without a camera for an extended period of time. Hopefully the same issue won't come up with the new camera.

Hi there,

I have had the same problem with my H5 so I thought I'd chip in my own experience.

I bought the H5 about two weeks ago and the auto-focus worked for about one week. I'd press half-way down, it would focus, beep and take the perfect pic, no problem. Then it stopped for no apparent reason, and I did everything I could to try to fix it, short of taking it apart. But I couldn't get it back to normal, so I figured I bought a lemon.

I'm glad to find this forum where people have discovered similar problems, as I now know that it's definitely not just me. What a hassle, though, to have to ship it back to Sony!

I'll let you know how it all plays out in the coming weeks. Good luck, everyone.

Mike in Singapore

Hi everyone,

I found this forum looking for people having this problem on their dsc-h5. I just had the same problem: autofocus worked fine for a month until yesterday, then suddenly stopped to work.

It could be useful for me to know if someone already had his problem fixed, to know what kind of problem was.

Thanks

Greetings from Roma
Rob

I see this is becoming a very common issue. We bought our Sony H5 on December 29, 2006, and today, we ran into the same problem with the autofocus. I'm soooo dissapointed !! The camera has been great so far, but to run into such a serious issue in such a short time is frustraiting beyond belief.

We are contacting futureshop here tomorrow, hoping they will replace it for us. If anyone has gotten a response from Sony on the matter, be great to hear it

It's terrible that all of you are having issues with the focus button assembly, I hope that sony fixes that for you. Do keep in mind that there are thousands of H series cameras out there, and only five or six people here who have problems - I've found five or six on each additional board I frequent, but i'd imagine that fewer than 1% of H cameras are having this issue. That is a big issue, but don't let that spoil your enjoyment of the camera once it is repaired.


I don't mean to be an apologist for sony, but I am really happy with mine, and I'm sure that if this doesn't poison you to the camera, you will be very happy with your (working) H5 also.

Same problem here..... I`m from Brazil and I got my h5 in december 16.
The half way focus never worked.....
At the begining I thought that that was the way the camera worked... and I was very disapointed with that because without the half way focus the camera try to focus for itself when you press the button fully down and that results in an long wait for the camera take the pic.
I made contact with sony here in Brazil but they said that they couldn`t do nothing for me since my camera is made in japan not made in brazil..... nice to know that sony do not give any warranty over products that are not made in Brazil (read PSP, Playstation (1,2 and 3), some tvs, vaio laptops...)..... that just sounds wrong.....
As a result to that..... Ill probably have to get it fixed for myself and spend more money in my brand new 1 month old expensive sony camera..... or stick with a lemon that indeed take very nice pictures but takes around 2 seconds to do that after I pressed the shutter.....
That is my second problem with sony.... (had a vaio laptop grz-530 that left a lot of people, including me, with a dead memory slot after 6 months of usage).
Got the camera because of the zeiss.... but I guess is the last sony product that Ill buy... unless I move to a country here sony really cares for their costumers....
Anyone knows how much ill expend to fix the problem myself?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Sushigaijin

It's terrible that all of you are having issues with the focus button assembly, I hope that sony fixes that for you. Do keep in mind that there are thousands of H series cameras out there, and only five or six people here who have problems - I've found five or six on each additional board I frequent, but i'd imagine that fewer than 1% of H cameras are having this issue. That is a big issue, but don't let that spoil your enjoyment of the camera once it is repaired.


I don't mean to be an apologist for sony, but I am really happy with mine, and I'm sure that if this doesn't poison you to the camera, you will be very happy with your (working) H5 also.

---

You're prob right. have seen a lot of great feedback on the camera, it's what made us consider it in the 1st place. After we tested in the store that was it, had to have it.

We managed to get futureshop to replace ours. New one is working fine. One big thing I notice is the new camera is much quieter when focusing than the old one. Possible the old one may have had other issues besides the button itself...

hope Sony gets this sorted out for the rest of u

Seems like a really big issue for sony, there are many people complaining about this problem.

My camera is still on the Sony Service Center at Laredo TX since Jan 9th. The technicians are working on it to get it repaired.

What I ask... I bought this camera on Nov 30 and stopped working on Dic 30 (happy new year), shouldn't them REPLACE the camera instead of repair it?

And about the customer service, very poor. I've been checking their eservice page with my event number and the message never changed until today, which says the same but with different words:

The Sony product that you have inquired about is currently being repaired.
Please allow 5 additional business days for the repair to be completed.

Also, about the cameras made outside of your residence country: I was hoping Sony Argentina take care of this issue, but when I tell them that this camera was bought in the USA (most exactly via Amazon) they told me to take the camera for any of the service offices to get a quote of the job. The US product warranty doesn't works on Argentina.

I'm so pissed off, but all I can do is wait for them to finish the work and return the camera safe and without any scratches!

Greets

Diego from Argentina

I got My Cam On DEC 24 , And It Got Busted after a week , the only problem is that i bought it from dubai , and im currently in lebanon , so i really donno what to do to fix this shutter button

I'm new to the board & have run into the same problem with my H5. Has anyone been able to get one "fixed" yet or better yet a new camera from Sony? This is apparently a widespread problem. I learned from a source at Wolf Camera that numerous H5s have come back with the problem. Now it's making sense as to why so many retail outlets have not received these cameras. (Best Buy, Sam's, Costco and so on...) I'll be sending mine back in the morning to:

Sony Electronics
Precision Camera Repair
Enfield, CT

Please update your own status as I will do the same. Thanks, Rick

Hi Rick.
I sent mine to Laredo TX and they send it back to my sister's apartment at Houston.

As I said before I'm at Argentina and didn't check the results yet. Will see if they solved the problem in about 3 weeks (hopefully yes).

Greets!

I´m in Brazil, and I had the same problem in autofocus. I buy my H5 in october 2006 and the autofocus never worked.

I got my H5 on September 4, 06, and its auto focus died on October 14, 06.
Sent to Pricison Camera, they even didn't bother to repair befor they ship it back to me.
So, again, sent camera out to Lardo, TX, for repair, and camera came back, start functioning near correctly (even though sometimes AF responds very slow).
March 2, 2007, same problem appeared again, I start to suspect H5's quality.
An hour earlier, found this forum, decided to give sony a big buzz.

Now, I'm planning to organize us to file a huge complaint about this, so that we can get our money back, or have our camera replaced, and make sure if this autofocus thing dies after warranty, Sony will fix it free of charge.

Any one who's interested? Send me an email!

Send emails to lucheng@luchenghome.com

Hi all there,

I'm in the same boat. My H5 started showing up the same problem last week. I did send my camera to the Precision Camera repair, CT after I called Sony's customer support (useless fellows). There is a turn around time of 10 working days. I cannot wait that long without my camera :-( I will never ever buy a Sony Camera.

Guys, your camera got fixed? Is it working? You guys had the same issue after the repair? Please post ur experience. If so, I dodn't want to wait for this junk camera to be returned after the repair. I will buy Canon S3.

John

My camera is a veteran. It has been visited 2 places, and it stopped working last friday again! I'm going to let Sony give us all a acceptable resolution for its expensive and never working camera.
Seriously, everytime when I want to take picture, my camera is not working, during the past 6 months, it had been in non working state for more than 2 months.

Got mine back fron CT. in 10 days. It's working great ..... so far. In fact they must have done some adjusting as it's focus is right on now. I'm getting some amazing pics. I really love this camera but will buy another new H5 as back up !!

Hi,

It seems like people here are having issues with the shutter not auto-focusing (pressing the shutter button half way down) I don't seem to have a problem with auto-focusing, but it is an issue with the shutter button.

My camera's shutter button fell off (bought it in Spet 2006, button fell off 2 days ago). There was also a spring in the bag I keep my camera. I am assuming it's part of it, but can't figure out how to put it back. I already requested service for it via the Sony website. I am actually sent it off this morning.

Do any of you have a borken shutter button issue??

smfkeeper, you mention you got yours back in 10 day. Was that counting from the time you sent it off? I called Sony support and they gave me a 7-10 day estimated turn around time. I hope it's that quick. You mention you sent your camera to their repair center in CT. Unfortunately I am in CA and I need to ship it to TX (not as close as I had hoped).

Also, I bought mine at best buy and did not get the PSP / PRP (I would always buy them for stuff I buy but never had the things break, so I stopped buying it). I read on their website that you can buy it after you purchase an item but only while it is still within the return policy period. Have any of you guys tried buying it after that return policy period? I am planning on taking it in to B.B. once I get it back from Sony and ask if I can still buy it if they inspect my camera.

just following up. It's now April 14th & the H5 that I had repaired last month has broken again ! Same problem with the shutter. Won't press half way down to focus. I'm hopping mad about this. I'm sending it back in for repair & the selling it when fixed.

:mad2:

This is really a design problem.
Two months ago my H2 shutter button just got some wish to fly and flew away. Yes, before that the auto-focus just ended.
Send the machine to the service and one month after I got the machine back.
This was two weeks ago and today the same shutter button again learned to fly and just went away.
Doesn't Sony know that the shutter button is a necessary piece that should not fly?
If I had read this forums before this was a machine that I would not had bought:mad: César Castro

I just want to follow up...

-I bought my camera in Sept '06
-Shutter button came off on April 9th.
-I shipped my camera on the 11th to the Laredo, TX facility (I am from CA)
-They received it on the 16th.
-They shipped it off on the 18th (sent me an e-mail notification)
-I received it on the 23rd.....12 day turnaround.

I hope I don't have more issues with it. I really like this camera.

I had the same auto focus problem with my H5 as well, Mine happened within the first 30 days so it was easy to do an exchange at PoS. Since I got my new one it has been great with no issues, that was 4 months ago now. Still worried that or another common problems will pop up after that 1 year so thinking about the Sony ext warranty.

Hi People,


i got a new DSC-H5 on 20. Dezember in munich, germany. this camera was broken, the autofocus didn't work at all. I went back to the store and i got a new one, which isn't working since yesterday aggain. I was really sad when i read this forum here... my autofucus is not working anymore, and i'm going to send my camera to sony back, but as i read here.... they are just going to repair it, and it is going to stop working in a few months aggain and aggain.... what i'm going to do after the warranty is over?
:mad2:


thank you very much for the information!

leg

Hello, I just wanted to share my experience with this problem as well. I don't care what Sony or anyone else says, this is a very common issue atleast on the H5. So if it's not a very common wide spread issue, that Sony recognizes, then we all just happened to get some out of a bad batch. Anyway, my issue happened just after a few days of owning my camera. At first I just thought I didn't know how to use the focus features properly. When I finally figured out it was a defect I was outside of the return policy. It was purchased from Best Buy, and I did buy the service plan on it as well. I took it in to Best Buy and it was sent out to Precision camera for repair. The entire process for the repair including the shipping was just over a week. They replaced the "switch block". So far the camera's auto-focus appears to be working great. Just thought I'd share my issue as well. If anyone is having this problem and is under Sony's warranty or a service plan you should be able to take it in and get it taken care of. Hopefully the replacement parts don't experience the same issue.

Ok... I have the same problem with the H-2. I am returning that shortly to Best Buy.

NOW...on my H-5... the trigger button DISAPPEARED! What do I do? Can it be purchased anywhere. I am completely in a huge time crunch here. Best Buy could not find a number (with Sony) to call about parts. They gave me a computer repair number!

HELP!

I need to know who to turn to!

-Matthew from Concord, NC

Another SAD update: I am now sending my H5 back for a third time. Same issue .... after being repaired, I can shoot a couple hundred shots then the shutter button will no longer go half way down to pre-focus.......

I'm sending back (per Sony) to Precision Camera Repair center in CT (I'm located east of the Mississippi) I was told by a very nice lady at Precision that Sony would only address an individual camera's issue after four repairs for the same problem.

Also interesting is that although the Sony tech would not admit a wide spread problem with the H5, he did email me a UPS shipping label for free shipping to Precision Repair.

:confused: :mad: :mad2: :mad2: :mad2:

I bought the Sony H5 in December 2006. After 4 months and 1,000 shots the half-press shutter problem occurred. Since I live overseas and bought the camera in the US, it is out of warranty. I replaced the switch-block control at the Sony service. It cost me 100 USD including the service. The camera works fine now. Here is the part: 147966621

http://www.partstore.com/sl/2/581324...147966621.html

Greetings from Japan and thanks for the thread. It's the only discussion I've thus found on the web about this problem. If you know of any others, could you share them with us here?

I bought my camera late January here in Japan and developed this shutter problem just this past week. Have probably taken about 2,000 photos in the 4 months I've been using it. Shipping it off to Sony for repair next week.

I'm thinking about selling the camera once I get it back. What might be a good replacement?

I bought my H5 camera in December, 2 days ago the auto focus half-pressed shutter stopped working.

I went to Sony Center with the camera and with the guarantee. After they looked at it for half an hour saying that the problem is that I played with the settings they told me they will repair the shutter problem but just for this time. Next time I'll have to pay for it. Isn't that stupid?

From what you guys say, the problem reappears after you fix it. What should I do?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by ArielConstantinof

I bought my H5 camera in December, 2 days ago the auto focus half-pressed shutter stopped working.

I went to Sony Center with the camera and with the guarantee. After they looked at it for half an hour saying that the problem is that I played with the settings they told me they will repair the shutter problem but just for this time. Next time I'll have to pay for it. Isn't that stupid?

From what you guys say, the problem reappears after you fix it. What should I do?

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Well if you bought it in December then you're under Sony's 1 year warranty. Where did you purchase this unit from? Do you still have the original sales receipt? Mine came from Best Buy, my place of employment, and the majority of cameras even under the manufactuer's warranty get sent to Precision camera for repair. You could take it to Best Buy, wheter you bought it there or not, and as long as you have a receipt showing it was purchased within the 1 year warranty they can send it out for repair. If it was "just" a setting that you accidently messed with then it would be fixed simply by resetting the camera. I don't have mine in front of me so I can't tell you at the moment exactly where it's at but it's labled "Initialize Camera". If you do this and still have the problem then you are one of the many who have experienced a bad shutter block in this model.

Also, just an update on my unit: I had the shutter block replaced a little while ago and so far I've had no issues with it. I'm taking a trip to Vegas for my wedding in August so I'm hoping I don't experience this problem again while I'm out there.

Sony Center fixed my H5 in just 2 days. I just hope I won't experience the same problem again because they told me they won't fix it again... I don't know why :mad2:.

Thanks for the answer ace6227!

i bought my new camera from the actual sony store black h5, the red auto focus would not work,when i took it back,we discovered the serial numbers didn't match up either,they just handed me a new one silver,its worked great to this day,it will lock on and grab some amazingly great colour pics.i've had it for a couple of months now.