Sony A6000 a6000 Intermittent problem when turning camera off

[Astrnmrtom]

Recently my a600 has been occasionally exhibiting an odd behavior when turning the camera off. It happens with the 15-50 kit lens. When I'm done shooting, I switch the camera off, and instead of the lens retracting, it's like the camera goes into self timer mode because after a couple second delay, it takes a picture then the lens retracts and the camera turns off. Anyone else experience this?

 

[Tim Mayo]

Strange. I've not heard of this issue before. Does it do it every time you power off? Is it only happening with the 16-50 kit lens attached?

 

[Astrnmrtom]

Not every time, and I've only noticed it with the 16-50 kit lens. Started happening recently and I've never noticed it with the 55-210 lens. I did an Google search and found one post on another forum that described the exact same thing. Another person on that forum replied and says his camera does it too. One had contacted Sony but they were not familiar with the problem. Then someone mentioned it could be the system doing occasional hot pixel mapping. Another mentioned it could be the camera doing a sensor cleaning. I'm going to clean the lens contacts, and if it continues, try a reset. The people on the other forum said they tried both, and it didn't cure the issue but I'll try anyway.

If it was just a pause in the lens retracting I could see it as a contact issue or a bug in the lens itself, but the fact there's a pause, then the shutter fires, THEN the lens retracts, make me think it's in the camera. When it first started happening I thought I was accidently hitting the shutter button at the same time I was switching it off.

Tom

 

[Tim Mayo]

If it's hot pixel mapping then yes it will do this from time to time, but not every time you power off. You should be able to trigger this manually as well by setting the date 2-3 months forwards, then turn the camera off and it should trigger it. You'll then know if this is what you are hearing. Just don't forget to change the date back!

 

[Astrnmrtom]

Thanks Tim.

It wasn't doing it every time, just enough for me to notice it. For quite a few years now I've owned cameras that aren't known for their great battery life so I've developed a habit of turning the camera off between shots or groups of shots depending on what I'm doing. I'm probably putting more start/off cycles than normal. Occasionally I'll flip the camera on to take a shot change my mind and shut it off, only to spot something new and flip it right back on again. I thought maybe the camera firmware was not reacting as fast as I expected when doing so. When I started paying attention, that's when I noticed a shutter click before the lens retracted. No image is stored to the card when this happens. I could easily see where there's something in the firmware that is triggered every X-number of on/off cycles, like sensor cleaning, and if I'm walking around turning the camera on and off a lot, that would trigger it more often than expected.

I never notice a random shutter click after turning the camera off when using a manual lens, nor have I heard it with the 55-210 kit lens. It seems to be something that only happens before the lens retracts with the 16-50 kit lens and even then, it only happens occasionally.

I've cleaned the contacts but haven't used that lens recently. I'll try to keep track of how often it happens if it continues to see if I notice a pattern. Both the camera body and lens have the latest firmware, and besides this occasional mystery, both work just fine.