A7 iii dial skipping settings

[rheneas]

Hi,

Have any other A7 iii owners noticed any of their dials "skipping" a setting, i.e. one click in either direction intermittently jumps two settings, or images if in playback mode. Doesn't matter what shooting mode I'm in, and I've initialised the camera which didn't make a difference. For me it happens most frequently with the front dial, but also less often with the rear control wheel (which I rarely use). I'd normally just send it back, as it's brand new, but my current one is actually a replacement for my original copy which went back for exactly the same issue with its front dial. As such, I'm wondering whether this is fairly common, or even a "feature" of the camera, in which case I'll just live with it if it won't get worse. Of all the other cameras I've owned (Sony A7, various Olympuses), only one has had a similar issue (an Oly E-PL5's rear wheel), and that got worse to the extent that the dial became unusable. That, however, happened after heavy use, whereas both my A7 iii's have been doing it from brand new. Anyone got any thoughts, or similar experiences with their A7?

Cheers

[EdwinaU]

Hi Rheneas,

We'll look into this further and see what information we can find for you. Meanwhile, some other members may have some advice to share.

Best wishes,

Ed

[Win_88]

Hi rheneas,

So does this mean that when you use the dial to switch between your shooting modes that the current mode doesn't always correspond to the symbol engraved on the wheel?

Win_88

[rheneas]

Hi Win_88,

Thanks for commenting. It's the control wheels, not the mode dial, that are the problem. For example, I'm in manual and I turn the front dial one click to move the shutter from 1/125 to 1/160sec, and it will actually jump two values to 1/200sec. Also happens when changing aperture values, or moving between other settings/menu items, or even when reviewing images in playback. It's intermittent, so not all the time, but annoying when it does happen.

Cheers

[The_Black_Rose]

Hi rheneas,

Did you make sure that the software is up to date? You can find a link to download the software update under the downloads section in the support page here: https://bit.ly/2Sin5Op.

Cheers,

The_Black_Rose

[twopointfunction]

I am also suffering from this issue. FW 3.00 and 3.01, camera mode and settings seem to have no impact.

The front dial and the control wheel both skip settings occasionally (jump two steps with only one physical click), in both directions. The rear dial seems unaffected.

Also it seems to be invariant of the physical orientation of the dials; I put a tiny piece of tape on the control wheel to mark its position, and the skipping occurs intermittently at many orientations. 

Very grateful for any info. The camera is one week old, and I am not sure if it is worth sending it for repairs (and whether they will actually fix it) 

[rheneas]

Hi twopointfunction

It does sound like you have exactly the same problem. I did consider sending mine for repair, and even got as far as logging it with Sony, but I had second thoughts and I've now learned to live with it. It's not got any worse, and has probably improved a bit, although it's still slightly annoying when it happens. I think your analysis is good and tallies with my thoughts that this is a problem downstream of the dials. I've noticed that it can be happening very frequently in a shooting mode and then when I switched to playback it immediately goes away, which is what initially made me think it wasn't to do with the dial position sensor. I also noticed that when I switched lenses it often went away for a bit. It also *seems* to happen more frequently with a 3rd party lens attached, although I may be imagining that. I suspect this is a fairly common issue, as I've had two A7iii's, and both exhibited exactly the same behaviour. I sent the first one back not because of this problem, but because the mode dial was fairly slack. I have to say I'm not that impressed with the build quality of the A7 series, having also owned the mark  1 version (loose screen hinge from new, although dials were very solid vs mark 3). Anyway, assuming everything else if OK with it, I'd probably not rush into sending it in for repair unless it's totally ruining your enjoyment of the camera. If you've had it from new then I guess you've got the option of wait-and-see before invoking the warranty. Hope this helps!

[OscarYo]

Could you solve the problem?

I have exactly the same problem. I am from Spain and I could not reply with my spanish account. 

I bought an A7III new in 2022 and I experimented this uncomfortable problem, so I returned it some months after. 

Then, in 2023 I bought a different A7III unit (also completely new) and it had the same problem. Only with the front dial and the rear wheel (what I use to change ISO) and in all conditions, but only sometimes. I could not find any configuration or any reason to explain when this problem is showed. 

In the beginning I though this was a problem Sony generate because of cutting expenses in an old camera, but now I saw you write this in 2018 so I am a bit surprised about this. 

In any case, this is unaceptable in a camera like this... this is completely ridiculous. If you try to use the camera counting the clicks, for example to compensate the exposition changing a couple of parameters, it is imposible to rely on the camera. 

I don´t understand why any people find or comment this problem. If you use the "Manual mode" is impossible someone don´t realize this. 

I started to use sony only 2 years ago and I am very very dissapointed with some other problems it has. Strange color banding in some situations (not artificial lights), some pink tint related with vignette corrections that shows even with corrections of and without using the compressed RAW or the electronic shutter.

Definitely not a brand to rely on, it has serious and unaceptable problems...

[Altiar]

Why don't you try to update the software as you can use a mac device or a windows one? Also, you can check the custom settings as it might be interfering with dial functionality. Try resetting the camera to factory defaults and see if the problem persists. After this, if the issue remained, I think the best action to take is to contact Sony as it might be a hardware fault with the camera.

[oscaranother]

Hello, I am the person who wrote before, It is impossible for me to use my old account. It is impossible to use this forum easily to log in from Spain in a different site of different country.

Obviously I have the firware updated, the last firmware is from 2021... 

I tried to do a factory reset too, but the problem is there even tought. 

I saw this problem in ALL A7III I tested, even in completely brand new cameras, so I don´t understand Sony can do this so bad.

I will not contact the Official Support because I don´t rely they could do anything and because of here in Spain the reviews about the site are too bad...

I guess I change the brand of my next camera, I was a new Sony user, and this is a very serious problem.