(Updated March 23, 2011) Similar to Canon, Sony at one time promised to REPAIR FOR FREE its cameras experiencing symptoms of a defective CCD under their recall advisory. THIS INCLUDED FREE SHIPPING. Some symptoms of a defective CCD include distorted images or abnormal colors, scratchy purple lines, blank or black pictures, and/or black videos with good sound being recorded on the camera's flash card. You may suspect that the camera's shutter is not opening, but this is not the case. Digital still camera models that are affected by this problem are extensive, and include:
Cyber-shot DSC-F717, F88, P10, M1, P12, P2, P31, P32, P51, P52, P7, P71, P72, P8, P92, T1, T11, T3, T33, U10, U20, U30, U40, U50, U60, V1
CD Mavica MVC-CD250, CD400, CD500,
FD Mavica MVC-FD100, FD200
Cyber-shot DSC-F717, F88, P10, M1, P12, P2, P31, P32, P51, P52, P7, P71, P72, P8, P92, T1, T11, T3, T33, U10, U20, U30, U40, U50, U60, V1
CD Mavica MVC-CD250, CD400, CD500,
FD Mavica MVC-FD100, FD200
The following was the verbage of the original Service Advisory:
"Based on the information provided, your product may be affected by the CCD image sensor issue and needs to be sent in for evaluation and possible repair. Sony will repair your product, free of charge, where the issue is caused by the image sensor device provided the failure is not due to abuse, misuse or neglect. Sony will also cover the cost of shipping and handling from and to addresses within the United States and US Territories for service to correct this issue."
(UPDATE June 2010): Sony has abandoned the free repair of all cameras, with the exception of T3 and the T33. For these two specific cameras, Sony will offer the free repair until May 31, 2011, at that point the free repair offer expires. Shipping is not free for this repair. Please see this Sony link for the details.
By the way, If you have a Konica Minolta digital camera experiencing these issues, Sony at one time would have also fixed this for your for free. However this offer was for a very short duration:
"Based on the information provided, your product may be affected by the CCD image sensor issue and needs to be sent in for evaluation and possible repair. Sony will repair your product, free of charge, where the issue is caused by the image sensor device provided the failure is not due to abuse, misuse or neglect. Sony will also cover the cost of shipping and handling from and to addresses within the United States and US Territories for service to correct this issue."
(UPDATE June 2010): Sony has abandoned the free repair of all cameras, with the exception of T3 and the T33. For these two specific cameras, Sony will offer the free repair until May 31, 2011, at that point the free repair offer expires. Shipping is not free for this repair. Please see this Sony link for the details.
By the way, If you have a Konica Minolta digital camera experiencing these issues, Sony at one time would have also fixed this for your for free. However this offer was for a very short duration:
(UPDATE September 6, 2008: A reader has reported that the following link no longer works, and that Sony has abandoned their free repair of the Konica Minolta cameras with the defective Sony imager. The reader also stated that as a result that he will no longer consider Sony products. Given the quality assurance problems Sony has been encountering lately, I don't blame him. Just my opinion. Also IMO, ALL of these cameras should have been recalled and repaired in the first place as inevitable failure of the defective imager is HIGHLY likely. To have repaired them on a case by case basis, with a program limited duration, has inevitably led to the above consumer's experience and response. Shouldn't a camera that originally cost a few hundred dollars really be expected to last more than just a few years? ):
The Dimage models that Sony was accepting for the recall repair were: Dimage 7HI, 7I, A1, Xi, F300, XT, X20, S414.
And finally, this is a WORLDWIDE advisory recall. You may need to do some google searching to find the advisory notice for your country. Google the words "Sony", "advisory", your camera's model number, and your country. Look for the official Sony website for your country with its related advisory in the Google results that come up.
Hope this helps some of you out there. Please remember to come back and leave a comment below on how things went. We're all curious, and your feedback may help others!