More than 100 of Sony's high-end and high-price Qualia digital still cameras have been hit by at least one of three problems, the company says.
The most common problem, which affected 133 cameras, Sony says, was a software bug that meant the flash unit sometimes failed to fire. The problem occurred when a second flash photo was attempted exactly 30 seconds after the first one.
If the second photo is attempted at any other time difference after the first picture the flash fires normally, says Yoshikazu Ochiai, a spokesperson for Sony in Tokyo.
Ten of the cameras that had the flash software bug also had faulty LCDs, he says. The third problem related to discoloring of some of the silver trim on the camera case and affected 59 models.
The digital still camera was one of four products in the Qualia product family that Sony launched in June. They are designed to wow and put a little magic back into the company's image.
Truly Tiny
The Qualia 016's most impressive attribute is its size. At 2.7 inches by .9 inches by .7 inches, it occupies one-third the volume of Sony's diminutive Cybershot DSC-U40. It weighs 1.8 ounces, less than half the weight of the U40. Otherwise the features are largely below those found on larger cameras. The 2-megapixel class camera has a 0.55-inch LCD monitor, no optical zoom, and a battery life of 50 minutes.
Perhaps its second most impressive attribute is its price. It costs $3520, making it Sony's most expensive digital still camera by far. It is also considerably more expensive than many professional grade cameras.
Sony, which provides a high level of customer service to match the price tag of its Qualia products, said it has been contacting customers in regard to the problems. Details have not appeared on the company's Web site and the spokesman declined to reveal how many of the cameras, which Sony builds on receipt of an order, have been sold to date.
High Profile
The problem is the second to hit a high-profile Sony product in the last few months.
The other involved its PSX machine, which combines a PlayStation 2 games console with a hard drive and DVD-based video recorder and goes on sale in Japan on December 13. The initial specifications of the device when it goes on sale have had to be cut down from those announced in October when it was first shown to the public.
Sony, which is positioning the PSX as one of its biggest product launches of the season, ran out of time developing the machine and had to cut support for DVD+RW and CD-R Data disc playback, TIFF and GIF format images, movies taken with its Cybershot digital still cameras, and MP3 file playback. It also cut the transfer speed of video from the hard drive to the DVD from 24X to 12X and said the machine won't be able to connect to its PlayStation BB online service.
