Sony FDR AX 100E Autofocus noise?

[fightinfalcon]

Hi!

I just bought a second hand Sony FDR AX100E and noticed some noise when the autofocus changes focus.

Is this normal? is there a way to remove it, or do I have to send in the camera? are there any hope?

Best Regards. 

[Anonymous]

HI there,

Have you tried a factory reset?

Best wishes,

M

[fightinfalcon]

Thanks for the tip! 🙂 I tried to initialize but it didn't work. 

Best regards!

[darkframe]

Hi @fightinfalcon,

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@fightinfalcon  schrieb:

I just bought a second hand Sony FDR AX100E and noticed some noise when the autofocus changes focus.

Is this normal? is there a way to remove it, or do I have to send in the camera? are there any hope? 

---

that's depending on the loudness of the noise. You'll always hear at least a bit of a noise because finally parts in the lens are being moved by an electric motor. Hard to say whether that sound is abnormal loud in your case without having a chance to actually listen to it directly.

When filming in a silent surrounding you'll even hear it in a recording thanks to the fact that the dimension of the camera is rather small hence its microphones are located rather close to moving and noise producing parts.

Sometimes it'll sound like a longer "zooooom" (moving focus e.g. from far away to close), sometimes like several short stepping noises (camera is still trying to find focus but changing between two or more objects in almost the same distance).

What you can do: Before starting taking a shot make sure that the camera has finished focussing or, and often preferably use the manual focus. The manual focus is the best choice anyhow in case you're planning to use the zoom function or when doing a pan.

Cheers

darkframe

[fightinfalcon]

Thank you for the response!

here is a link to a video where the problem is recorded. When I remove my hand and the camera changes focus to the backround you could hear a noise.

https://youtu.be/hyTzWD5SByo

best regards

[darkframe · Accepted solution]

Hi @fightinfalcon,

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@fightinfalcon  schrieb:

here is a link to a video where the problem is recorded. When I remove my hand and the camera changes focus to the backround you could hear a noise.

https://youtu.be/hyTzWD5SByo

---

that sounds absolutely normal (a bit like a rattling or stepping noise, right?). As said before, in your example you can hear it because there's absolute silence in your scene apart from the camera's noise.

Oh yes, I forgot about this in my last post: Normally the audio recording level is set to automatic. In a silent surrounding the automation will increase gain to even "catch" sound at a low volume. That fits to your example video. So it would be better to set the recording volume manually (as described here).

Another hint which I've not thought of in my previous post: Use an external microphone and you'll get rid of any noise caused by the camera directly and/or your fingers pressing buttons and changing position.

Cheers

darkframe

[fightinfalcon]

Thank you for all the great help! 

I will try to adjust audio & focus manually and maybe get an external microphone.