Sony Hdr-cx360e - 'miracle' From the Chinese Cellar

To us in repair the camera Sony HDR-CX360E has acted. Judging by the inscriptions on the body it was an HD camera with 10x optical zoom. On the Yandex-market such a camera is sold at a price of 24 500 to 31 200 rubles. The device is positioned as "... a Full HD camcorder with excellent image quality and intelligent functions ... The high-end Sony G lens now comes with enhanced wide-angle shooting capabilities ..." The trial shooting brought us to a state of stupor; Quality was simply none, it seems that the optical zoom was absent at all, and this camera worked somehow strange. Then there was an irresistible desire to learn more about the specimen that came to us, and also to look inside.

Even with a cursory examination it became clear that the manufacturer was saving a lot. The body is made of rough plastic, the elements are poorly matched to each other, although the claret paint simply shone, reflecting the light that fell on it and attracting attention. Sony has always been famous for high-quality stereo sound from its video cameras from time immemorial. However, as it turned out, the holes of this model, intended for the arrival of sound waves to the right microphone, were roughly stained with hot melt from the inside. As it later turned out, these holes are just superfluous, the camera has one single microphone.

Another distinctive quality of the complex devices from Sony is the robust attachment of internal elements with a lot of bulkheads and quality threaded screws, forcing technicians doing repairs, pretty sweat. Disassembly of the model HDR-CX360E revealed a completely "new" trend in the leading manufacturer - a minimum of fasteners and the absence of threaded screws at all, instead of them simple inexpensive screws.

All the interior decoration of the camera is "decorated" with the mounting hot-melt glue apparently in order to improve its consumer characteristics. After the last self-tapping screw was removed, the bottom cover of the case with the inscription "Made in Japan" (which means "a real high-quality product made by the manufacturer") suddenly disappeared by exposing a cast-iron "brick" for the show, whose purpose, according to Apparently, to give "weight" to this unique device. "Brick" was qualitatively attached to the aforementioned hot-melt glue spread on this weighting agent with a large amount of soul.

The fallen "brick" bared the huge, not occupied space of the inner part of the hull of this technical novelty. Elegant freedom provided easy access to the few nodes of the modern elegant video camera.

And the first, which immediately fell eyes, was an optical unit, the size and modesty of which simply fascinated. There was nothing superfluous, even the hot-melt glue did not go beyond reasonable limits. It was amazing how in such a miniature case the 10x zoom-block was put together with a 12 megapixel matrix. The answer was certainly covered in modern nano-technologies of the twenty-first century.

The main board also made a pleasant impression. The set of elements on it was more than modest - microcontroller, RAM and permanent storage.

Curiosity continued to push us further, and we unscrewed the last board-a control board, in addition to the buttons from the car stereo, the USB connector and the power connector, there was nothing else. The power connector was very carefully and prudently filed by the employees of the assembly shop of the company, so that it would not interfere with the pressing of the next button. That is, we can say that this device was simply brought to perfection. It seems that the popular world brand refused the conveyor assembly and switched to manual.

And if you still doubt that this is the real product of a well-known electronics manufacturer, your doubts will immediately dissipate when you see this sign.