AF100 dis assembly, anybody done this.

[Vultch]

I appear to have damaged the HDMI connector at the rear of the camera, one pin on the centre connector has moved thou I have nudged it back into position, the HDMI still works but the connector will need to be replaced at some point.

At the back of the camera are 4 screws that would allow the back to come off, the HDMI connector seems to be held on by 2 screws to this rear panel, has anybody been inside the camera, and does this rear connector connect - does it just plug into a internal HDMI cable or board, what would I need to buy.

Thanks

 

[BrandonT]

I'll give you my advice from previous experience. I have a Sony V1U (a 20x zoom 3MOS HDV cam), which I'm about to sell since I got my AF100. I bought a wired lavalier mic by a company called MXL when I bought it. This was in 2010. This is the mic:

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/controller/home?O=orderHistory&A=details&Q=&sku=581525&is=REG

Well apparently the XLR connector in the mic wasn't compatible with the XLR input on the camera. Which still sounds like total BS to me. Any way, the sound came through and sounded decent when I first tried it. Then I went to unplug it and it wouldn't come out. I kept trying and it was truly stuck. My dad is much stronger than I am and he tried and stopped before likely breaking it. So, I disassembled the XLR box. There were several screws and I was better able to get at the insides of the component. But that did me absolutely no good. In the process, I happened to damage a ribbon cable that went to the EVF that was in the same area. The LCD was fine. It's a mistake I would like to think that I wouldn't make today after successfully disassembling a MacBook Pro and replacing a logic board, but I digress.

So, I didn't have any kind of extra warranty purchased. I contacted Sony about fixing it. I was honest about what happened, but explained that it shouldn't have happened in the first place. The mechanism to release an XLR plug in this Sony cam isn't as good as it is on Panasonic cams, with the tab that it has. I still believe it was Sony's fault in the camera design as far as the mic getting stuck. Obviously it was mine that the EVF stopped working. I also explained that I was just out of college trying to get my business started and asked that if they could possibly fix this under the manufacturer's warranty, that it would mean the world to me. They were really great and they didn't charge me for the repair. In the notes that they returned, they said that the mic was not compatible with the camera and that I should only use Sony brand microphones with it (there's the BS, again). Then I bought a wired Audio Technica lav and have been very happy with it, up until just buying a Sennheiser G3 set this week.

So, the moral to my story is that right now, you just have one thing that is messed up with the camera. Do you use HDMI much? You said that it still works, but likely will stop at some point. Whether you do it now or wait, I would strongly advise sending it off for repair. And when it comes to electronics, I'm big on doing it yourself. Like I said, I replaced a logic board in a MBP. And I've been looking into replacing the processor in my iMac. These use proprietary boards like any laptop.. it's not like upgrading a tower computer. But even so, it still follows a basic structure. Camera innards just aren't the same. Make one mistake and you could take out your LCD, EVF, audio, wires that go to the SD card, etc. I doubt the repair would cost more than $200 or $300.

 

[Vultch]

Fair comment, I know as soon as I remove one screw the warranty dies, so I may wait until the warranty expires, as i said the HDMI still works but i need to be careful inserting a lead.