My Sony a7s3 broke after leaving it on for 4 months

[marux]

Now I understand why in US manufacturers of microwaves or washing machines write in manuals that you should not put toddlers or pets into them...

[Nattodayy]

Thanks, this is really good to know. I setup an A7sIII connected to a capture card for my boss to livestream. He knows nothing about cameras, but needs to broadcast 5 hours a day. I taught him how to shut off the camera and told him to do it after every use, thinking the camera would fry if it’s left on too long. Glad to know I don’t have to worry lol

[xiaotianwan]

It's propapbly caused by the heat, maybe the thermal deformation of the board made some chip came de-soldered, the a7s3 runs really hot

[RickyBatista]

Why is your camera on nonstop for 4 months. Are you filming Big Brother in your house?

[NickDelDuca]

This is hilarious I recorded a 4 hour show with my A7siii one time and when it was done it was pretty darn hot to the touch and I was freaking out a little that I might have shortened the life, done damage etc. I had no idea it would even stay on and not eventually overheat after a certain period of time. Finding out people leave them running 24/7 for months at a time is kind of a shock

[RangerStudios]

Amazon plugs changed my life. Not only do i have the control, but I can make sure everything is off when I leave the studio.

[chasenuuhiwa]

I use mine as a webcam, basically stays on all the time. Been a year now... that NEVER happened to me.

[nilofido]

1 week or 4 months from an electronics engineering point of view are the same thing, although components have a minimum number of cycles life expectancy, specially capacitors, this numbers generally outlive the technology itself; the old saying is that electronics dyes either in the first 6 months or never. This trend is the legacy of quality control, specifically 6 Sigma, on an extremely low percentage of finished products a combination of tolerances are at the edge and help each other to fail ( this is an extremely simplistic explanation), in other words bad luck.
The only external factor that I can think of is environmental conditions, temperatures always close to maximum recommend working range and high humidity, Sony isn’t exactly famous for weather sealing and maybe the loose tolerance was on the seals.
Planned obsolescence is a remote possibility, IMO unlikely on a pro level equipment as such, it would bite back too quickly, maybe a far fetched possibility could be a looser QC due to the chip shortages, however I am not in the conspiracy game.

[JohnDrummondPhoto]

My takeaway, as Charles Barkley would say: don't be a dumba$$. Lack of a warning against extreme abuse doesn't mean extreme abuse is OK.

[MelbourneArchviz]

Seems to me like humidity damage. We both live on islands and humidity is higher. Or it could be defective from manufacturer.

[ritrattoaziendale]

Lol, i manually hit the off switch if don't use my Canon mirrorless for more then 1 or 2 minutes ahahah! When i was on dslr i was leaving it on (with auto shut off) for a whole shoot, the longest did was maybe 5/6 hours during a wedding reception, but after work/shoot, i always killed that damn switch. Man, "it's not written in the manual not to leave it on for months or years"...c'mon ahahah it's a miracle you didn't burn it sooner. I now shoot with two (mirrorless) cameras in weddings, and when i switch between them (they of course have different lenses, one with wideangle and one with tele), i also switch them off if i know i'll be using only one for the next minutes, even if both have ECO activated, screen shut off in 10 seconds, and total shut off in 1 minute or so.

[markus]

Im planing to make long time timelapses from 6 month to 2 years. I got for this purpose a used A7R II. Bad autofucus but I use manual for timelapse. More important, it has silent shutter and enough resolution for 8k. And they are not that expensive used if thomething goes wrong. But with that long period project, i hope they wont burn up in that time. At the Moment im practicing timelapse with day night transition. And doing shorter timelapses. If every thing goes well, i will get multiple A7R II more.

[tommisaltiola]

I did astrophotography stacking for hours with a7r2 and it broke from water damage even though it was weather sealed. The outside and inside temp resulted in condensation of water inside the camera

[AlexLancashirePersonalView]

Have you had an electrical storm recently, could have been an electrical surge.

[mengshun]

Not being flippant. Electonics should run only when being used and shut off when not needed. This is an implicit rule and manufacturers have gotten way too lazy and/or greedy to stop mentioning this. Being "on" incurs wear, small as it is. Small over time becomes large.

[jacksonjackson]

Was literally waiting for you to say this was a joke. Thanks for the cautionary warning and all, but brother, I'm blown away that you actually left it on until it croaked.

[TeymouriPro]

So it’s not webcam, right, but it has lot of other functions we need and it works very well.

[RangerStudios]

I had similar things happen with the Sony ZV-E10. And mine weren't on all the time either. That's why I just brought back my BMPCC 4Ks to the studio. Sony's cameras are odd. So far not impressed at all by Sony.

[JeremyTaylorNZ]

You don’t have very clean power in PR, is the battery-eliminator plugged into a UPS to clean it up or is it plugged directly into the wall?

[jakubstrumillo]

My Pentax K-70 never broke, still works. My Fuji X-H1 still working like new. No problem at all since new. And thats my go-to work horse i used him on sea adventures, in dusty offroad conditions and tethered during corporate shoots. But i believe that i will worn him finnaly one day... few years luck.