ASK & DISCUSS INDEX

9 years, 3 months ago - Paddy Robinson-Griffin

https://cvp.com/ are apparently authorised as a sony professional repair place. you could also try top-teks http://www.top-teks.co.uk/servicing/

9 years, 3 months ago - Jonny Gleeson

Thank you Paddy. I will contact them.
Jak

9 years, 3 months ago - Brian Barnes

This lot repaired my PD-150 and did a superb job. http://www.tvset.com/engineering.htm

9 years, 3 months ago - Alwyne Kennedy

PIks Engineering know there way around the Z1.

http://www.piks.co.uk/

They're in London but you can post the camera to them.

Note: many faults on a Z1 will no longer economical to have repaired. You could buy a good used Z1 on ebay for the cost of some repairs. If, say, a major PCB needs replacing, then it'll probably be cheaper to buy a used replacement on ebay and sell yours for parts.

9 years, 3 months ago - Tulio Campregher

The best place to send it is a Sony authorized repairer, but for a Z1 it is not economically viable. The price of the repair is usually high, the Z1 was never a great camera anyway, they are fragile and the video quality it is not up to modern standards. 2nd hand units are cheap and there are plenty of much better cameras for not much more money.

9 years, 3 months ago - John Lubran

Oh I can't agree with Tulio on that issue. We've operated Z1's since they came out nearly a decade ago. For us, operating in just about every hostile environment the planet offers and that's an understatement, they've been remarkably tough and resistant. Only technical break down occurred when a Z1 was dropped into sea from a kayak in Alaska and another time when an unprotected Z1 was hit with a wave whilst on the deck of sailing yacht in Antarctica; that particular camera lost its LCD but carried on recording great video even though it was a write off due to the salt water eroding every vital part.

As for pictures, well regardless of final distribution we've alway shot in HDV with Z1's. We've found that in HDV they down size to SD better than they shoot in DV/DVCAM. Even though the Z1 is 1080 x 1440 whereas the later Z5 and Z7 are 1080 x 1920 the Z1's picture were more than mitigated by having CCD's rather than the much over hyped CMOS devises. At the end of the day the Z1 is still only a 25mbps camera but even though we've moved on we still keep the first one we bought in 2007 because it is still useful. Couple of years ago we had a guy in Bristol service it and replace the entire tape transport section, upper and lower drum. It only cost about £300 and is as good as new, I'd rather keep our own at that price than risk an unknown used one. Poor human handling isn't recorded on the hours meters!

9 years, 2 months ago - Jonny Gleeson

Thank you to everyone who sent me messages. In which case would anyone be interested in buying my Z1? It most probably needs a new sensor. It would be better to go to a film maker with more technological knowledge of these things.