A7RIII damage repair - worth it?

[jjct]

My A7RIII took a dunk into an ocean wave. is sent it to a third-party repair center with a good reputation. They sent me an estimate that includes:

PANEL B ASSY
PD1053 BOARD
LC-1039 FLEX
EYE SENSOR
FINDER COVER
SY 1085, MAIN PCB
MIS 2003

The cost is around $1100. I'm not sure what all of that stuff is, but seems like the guts of the electronics. Does anybody have experience with something like this? Will replacing parts fix it, or is it likely to be compromised even with the repairs?

Thanks.

 

John

 

[adwb]

Is the camera not covered by your house hold insurance under all risks? 

[VTC]

Fresh water, maybe. Salt water, never. Other problems will likely manifest long after the repair made.

While I rarely defend the service center, there are good reasons why they won’t touch your water damaged camera. 

On the front end, this didn’t look that bad. But repair would have been impossible. ...Even when it’s less severe, you can never be sure what part has just enough corrosion to fail in another month or two. ...As an aside, one of the reasons we’re so vigilant about corrosion is we have seen a lot of cameras that got splashed and seemed fine fail two or six weeks later.

https://www.lensrentals.com/blog/2017/10/about-getting-your-camera-wet-teardown-of-a-salty-sony-a7sii/

Edited July 23, 2019 by VTC

[Chrissie]

Great link! Must-read for any camera owner, IMO. 

[dclark2171]

I agree to the above. You can get a few bucks selling "as Is for parts" on ebay. 

[Thad E Ginathom]

It's a big lesson, and I am never going to take my a6500 close to salt water. Sandy beach maybe, although probably I shouldn't do that either.

[steve of stonehenge]

I read every word of the Lens Rentals story above.  When I finished, I recalled a trip to the beach this June when I had been splashed with my camera in my hand.  It was a very slight splash but there was visible water on the lens and a few drops on the left body.  I immediately got out of the surf and dried it off.  No problems later so I forgot about the incident until reading this article.  So I inspected the exterior for signs of corrosion immediately after reading this article.  I used to be a pilot so I knew what to look for with corrosion.  No evidence...at least on the outside.  The only evidence I could find on the outside was the bottom of the SmallRig L-bracket.  The Allen wrench that stows on the bottom did have a very slight amount of corrosion.  I don’t remember even looking there after the splash.  Obviously it got some ocean water on it and I didn’t dry it off properly.

So maybe I got lucky, and maybe I will have issues later.  Not to worry though because I have great insurance.  All my camera gear has an “all risk” policy which costs about US $100 per year.  About 18 months ago, I was on a photo workshop in Yellowstone Park in Wyoming, USA.  My A7 m2 shutter failed on the first day.  No backup!!!???  The repair and postage was about $400 and the insurance paid readily.  That camera still works great and is my backup now.

Lessons learned:

1) Stay out of the ocean with a good camera.

2) Get insurance on your gear.  Peace of mind and it comes in handy when accidents happen.

3) Take a backup camera on trips.  Mechanical things break.

BTW, another Sony shooter loaned me a replacement camera on the Yellowstone trip.  He sure saved me.  I would have been using my iPhone and iPad for the remainder of that trip.  Ok but not what I would have wanted.

Sorry for the long story, but benefit from my mistakes.