A photographer and YouTuber recently went viral for sharing his experience of a firmware update on his Sony FX3, which resulted in more bugs than bug fixes, then being told to pay US$700 – around $1,050 Australian – to fix the problem.
"This is definitely not the video that I had on my bingo card for 2024," said Cory Mayo of YouTube channel Camera Nerds Media, "but it is a video nevertheless that I do need to make because I need to talk about my recent experience with trying to deal with customer service and getting this weird update on the Sony FX3."
Mayo explains that he picked up the used and repaired camera a month ago from his local camera store, and it had been working fine, until he upgraded the firmware from version 2.0 to version 5.0.
"That's when I noticed some interesting problems happening," he said.
He explains that after the firmware update his FX3 won’t stop rebooting, particularly in Bluetooth mode, showing the irritating glitch in the video.
Mayo tried various tactics to get it working again, including switching out the battery and SD cards, using native mounts, and finally following it up with a Sony rep going through troubleshooting options, but nothing worked.
Calling it a "red flag", Mayo said that the rep he spoke to online suggested that they could not confirm or deny that it was a firmware or software issue.
After doing some research and finding that many FX3 users had experienced similar issues, Mayo followed up with a phone call to Sony. Mayo recorded the phone call in the video, where the rep dropped the bombshell that it would be a minimum charge of US$667 (about $1,004 Australian) to fix anything on the Sony FX3.
Admitting that they had heard of issues with the functionality of the model after firmware updates, she said, "I have seen a few of those lately – not a lot to raise a flag, but we have seen that, and we are able to address that for you."
Despite this admission, it would still cost a minimum of US$667 to get it looked at.
Calling it "disheartening," Mayo said he would continue to use the camera with the Bluetooth function turned off.
"If it's a hardware issue or a software issue I don't think the user should be responsible for faulty firmware updates, I'm just going to say that like that is crazy," he concluded.
"Sony, I hope that you guys can address this issue with a patch in the future, maybe a firmware version 5.1. I would love to be in communications with you if you guys need my input on this camera, or I would love to help out in any way to hopefully make this right not only for my camera, but for other Sony users out there that are experiencing these problems with version 5."
Sony has been contacted for comment.
Why not take a look at our guides to the alternative best Sony cameras, the best cinema cameras, and the best cameras for vlogging.
