zoom problem

qazwsx

Well-known member
i nearly had a heart attack on a production when i ran into this strange problem with the a1 and was wondering if someone has experienced something similar.

basically the zoom ring seemed to be disabled and no amount of turning would show any effect. both of the zoom rockers worked, but whenever i'd zoom in, it would automatically zoom right out. the presets were set to off and the problem persisted even after i pushed the recessed reset switch and removed the watch batt. now what was even worse was that when i tilted the camera forward then back, it would reboot itself.

i did manage to fix it, but i'm still not really sure how. the last thing i did right before it started working was i went into the custom menu and i reversed the zoom ring direction.

now the night before we had shot a night exterior where there was a lot of thin debris (sand) kicked up around the cam. so my initial thought was that there was dirt in the lens mechanism, but after using a software switch to fix it, could this have been some kind of software error? what's the likelihood of that?

also, even though it's working now, should i look in to sending it in for a checkup/repair? any insight would be greatly appreciated.
 
No answers? Don't you hate it when you're the only one experiencing a problem?
Seems like a glitch (??)
If so, pretty sucky one to have.

My suggestion would be the obvious: if it happens again, take it in to get checked.
 
yeah, it happened again today while we were on a shoot with bodog entertainment for the wsop! talk about breaking down at the wrong time. luckily we had our trusty dvx100 as a backup — thank god for non servo dependent zooms!

i was fiddling with the a1 the entire shoot trying to get the zoom working. all to no avail. however, right when we were packed and ready to go *bam* the zoom kicks in. unbelievable.

we have two weeks left at the wsop, so we won't have time to send it in for service. i just wish i knew what triggers it so we can prevent it from happening in the future.
 
okay, i think it has to do with the primary zoom rocker because it happens even when i disable the handler rocker and constantly on the screen is the "ZS" indicator as if someone was holding down the rocker button. so there's probably some kind of short there or something?
 
i dropped the camera off at the irvine service center for repair and got it back today (approx 1 week turnaround time). it was two+ months over warranty already, but they still honored it (thanks canon) here's the final report for those who care or who might care in the future.

Canon Service Representative said:
We have examined the product according to your request, and it was found that the pcb assembly was inoperative. The zoom did not operate properly. The pcb assembly was replaced. Updated firmware. Tested

Firmware is now 1.0.2.0
 
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