I have heard from several Sony NEX-5N owners that the “performance improvement” offered by Sony for the NEX-5N’s clicking defect during video capture has been resolved. I recently confirmed this for myself with several NEX-5N models that had the fix applied. In all cases, the clicking was not audible to me anymore.
I’m revising my Sony NEX-5N review to reflect this solution and changing my recommendation for the NEX-5N as a highly-recommended camera.
After reading from some blogs that this issue had been resolved, I took the bold move of buying this camera at a fair today. Since it was too noisy to check whether the problem persisted, i had to trust the Sony sales rep, who claimed that the ‘new’ batch doesn’t have this problem anymore.
Took it home, and even before i could power it up, the ‘clicking’ sound was audible by gently panning & rotating the camera. Yes, i emphasize the word gently. Brought it back to the fair, and after much arguing, managed a full refund.
He then brought 3 other units, all of which had the similar clicking noise.
The last unit that was showed to me (claimed that it was from the latest batch which arrived a week ago) also had the clicking noise, however it was much lesser in comparison.
Conclusion? I think this problem may have been rectified to a certain extent by Sony, but it’s still there. I would probably say that the last unit i tested would work under normal shooting conditions but if real sudden movements were made, the ‘click’ would still be audible.
Hope this helps others who were eagerly awaiting purchase of this camera.
If possible, please test it thoroughly at a retail outlet before committing to purchase
Man, that’s really unfortunate that units are still shipping with that problem in the box. Did they say whether or not they would be willing to repair it or if they would cover shipping to send it back to the repair facility and back to you?
On the phone now w/Sony support about my NEX 5. They’re sending me a shipping label for free repair of this unit. Next day air shipping to Laredo, TX; 5 business days to fix; next day return mail – should be fixed in under 2 weeks. No push-back, no runaround – they’re aware of the problem and stepping up to fix it.
Thank you, Paul and Eric, for the update on Sony in America, but what are we in Germany to do the assure ourselves that a new Sony NEX 5N bought here in January or February 2012 will be free of the clicking problem?