how to disassemble a sony dsc-f828 [photos]

i had to disassemble the lens part of my “goode olde” sony cybershot dsc-f828 due to a (stupidly self-caused) problem with the flash. since i couldn’t find any photo-tutorial online, i thought i’d post my own pictures from the process.
the f828 was introduced in 2003, so of course i do realize that it is a pretty outdated camera to post a how-to for. however, it’s travelled the world with me, and i’m sure there are other f828-users left who might run into hardware problems one day.

step 1: remove 4 screws on the left side of the lens, and the one on the display’s side.

step 1: remove 4 screws on the left side, and the one on the display's side.

step 2: remove both screws at the tripod mount. now you can remove the left enclosure part from the lens.

step 2: remove both screws at the tripod mount. now you can remove the left enclosure part from the lens.

step 3: disconnect the 3 ribbon cables on the left side of the lens (1-3) and the one on the bottom (4). you can easily remove the first 3 by lifting the grey part from the plug with a fingernail.

step 3: disconnect the 3 ribbon cables on the left side and one on the bottom. you can easily remove the first 3 by lifting the grey part from the plug with a fingernail.

step 4: remove the 2 screws on the right side. now carefully move the lens to the left and it’s almost loose (apart from the power cable).

step 4: remove the 2 screws on the right side. now carefully move the lens to the left and it's almost loose (apart from the power cable).

step 5: when you remove the white power connector from its shoe (1), your lens is completely disconnected from the rest of the body. if you plan to remove the flash, disconnect the three ribbon cables (2-4).

step 5: when you remove the white power connector from its shoe (1), your lens is completely disconnected from the rest of the body. if you plan to remove the flash, disconnect the three ribbon cables (2-4).

step 6: in order to remove the flash element, you need to unscrew two rather hidden screws below the element. the two screws you’re looking for are located at (1) and (2). also, remove the ribbon cable (3)

step 6: in order to remove the flash element, you need to unscrew two rather hidden screws. still step 6: the two screws you're looking for are located at (1) and (2). also, remove the ribbon cable (3) still step 6: different perspective, showing the right screw (2) and the ribbon cable (3) to be removed..

step 7: lift off the flash piece.

step 7: lift off the flash piece. here's the flash piece, turned upside down.

step 8: remove these 5 screws in order to open the casing

step 8: remove these 5 screws in order to open the casing

step 9: when the front part is removed, you can see the brightness sensor (1; to measure the required flash intensity?) and focus laser (2; “Hologram AF”). if you constantly experience overexposed photos when using the flash, the problem might be a misaligned brightness sensor in relation to the little transparent plastic tube.

step 9: when the front part is removed, you can see the brightness sensor (to set the flash intensity?) and focus laser. if you constantly experience overexposed photos when using the flash, the problem might be a misaligned brightness sensor in relation to the little transparent plastic tube.

step 10: after removal of the other 4 screws, you can lift out the actual flash hardware from the casing.

step 10: after removal of the other 4 screws, you can lift out the actual flash hardware from the casing.

here’s a final shot of the mobile flash parts that spring open:

here's a final shot of the mobile flash parts that spring open.

and now that i’ve reassembled the entire camera, i’m left with one spare screw…

31 thoughts on “how to disassemble a sony dsc-f828 [photos]

  1. I love this camera! I bought a Canon 40D two years ago, and still I go back to this one. The lens turret is loose on mine, so I am needing to tighten it up a little. Have you had this problem?

  2. I also love my f828. I am missing one of the small black screws that holds the body casing on. Where can I find a replacement? I would love to keep my camera working just the way it is.

  3. I love my DSC F828 too. When working on photos of my latest shoot ( glamour ),
    I noticed, If I greatly enlarged an area of the photo, ( adobe photoshop Navigator)
    I saw tiny clumps. I assume this is dust on the sensor. Can the sensor be cleaned? Can’t find any info on the net. If you can dissasemble that camera,
    absolutely amazing, maybe you can tell if the sensor can be cleaned.
    Bill Garofalo

  4. hi bill! personally, i wouldn’t dare to open a fixed, closed lens system. then again, before the flash had trouble, i didn’t dare to open that part either…

  5. I also need a few screws that hold the lens on…anyone know where to find these?

    GREAT CAMERA! Old, but GREAT!

    Ken

  6. hi ken! i ordered some spare f-828 body screws from a sony repair center once, but they were pretty expensive. i’m talking 6 euro per screw.

  7. hey guys my f-828 takes great pictures, but lately under sun light conditions the pictures are coming out very bright , how can I fix this? am not a unprofessional thanks , please help me out on this one.

  8. Thank you for this information. Somehow the screws underneath my lens enclosure were all loose. These photos helped me disassemble and re-assemble the unit and re-tighten the screws. Has anyone else had the issue of the screws on their camera coming loose?

  9. until recently, my f828 went with me literally everywhere i went. i regularly had to re-tighten all the screws of the housing.

  10. My second F828 was stolen 4 years ago and i just ordered another one from amazon. The only problem is the flash isn’t flashing. It pops up, no errors, but it sounds like the thing is blowing a fuse everytime it tries to go off. Any suggestions for replacing the flash? This is the easiest and most versatile camera i have ever used and i would love to get one fully going again.

  11. Better late than never, so excuse me for this late answer. For everywhone who is looking for very fine screws: try an optician, they usually have several types in stock. They are not cheap, but a lot cheaper than 6 €/srew !

  12. i like ur work. it was amazing.
    dear i need a sony F828 camera for use of parts. can you help me about that?

  13. Hi, guys.
    I’ve got horizontal lines in every photo i take with my 828. i’ve bought a new shutter flex cable, but I simply don’t know how to have it replaced. Would it be in lenses body??
    any clue?
    thanks!!

  14. The whole lens assembly was getting loose at the hinge. Google bought me to this strip down tutorial. Luckily I’m an experienced office equipment engineer/technician. Loose screws were the problem. With the help of this tutorial I fixed my camera in just ten minuets. Thank you Markus, thank you very much.

    Regards

    Alan

  15. Inspired by the thread I went away and checked my screw tin. I never throw a screw away. As luck would have it I have some.

    I checked them against my F-828 so I know they fit. None of these screws are originals, some of the head widths are larger than an original and because the external screw holes are recessed the don’t fit, they sit proud, but these screws would make good replacements for internal use where the screw has no requirement to fit inside a recess.

    I have 11 back exterior screws, as close to the originals as can be, I have 10 chrome screws of the same size and I have 10 mixed black and chrome screws suitable for interior use, they have the wider heads.

    If you’re in need of screws then get in touch alandmorton at gmail dot com

    They’re free to a good home but please don’t be greedy, ask me only for what you need. When there gone, there gone.

    Regards

    Alan

  16. Thanks so much for these photos and your description. I loved this camera but scratched the lens, so I bought a used one on ebay. After a while the flash on that one didn’t work, so using your photos as a guide I’m canibalizing the one without the flash to make one good camera. It’s easier than I thought it would be. Life is good, Bob

  17. my 828 will not focus. any ideas? i reset it back to all the factory settings and it still does not want to focus

  18. i’ve experienced the same with the oldest of my f828. it would more and more fail to focus.
    my solution was getting a new(er used) one.

  19. Hello friends, I have the same problem with my camera DSC-F828, if I take photos with flash on the screen appear white lines, but if I take pictures in manual mode, psychedelic colors appear on the screen, and heard that the problem is CCD sensor, and also resolves with service to the body of the lens, someone has managed to solve the problem?
    Sorry for my bad English

  20. Hello everybody.Sorry for my bad english. I also had psychedelic colors on pictures with the lens more than 70mm (like negative). under 70 mm everything was ok. now i have no signal at all from the sensor ,on whatever mm i put the lens. My LCD is ok because i can see the most recently pictures, but it looks like somebody made my sensor blind. something was bothered by the movement of my lens more than 70mm , but now this something is permanent . is there any sensor that gives information on ccd how to work depending of the focal length?

  21. sorry, román and miniotis, i don’t know the answers to your questions.

    a quick heads-up, though: i’ll be putting my good old sony f828 up on ebay in the near future, and also the jg-rc2 remote control (wired/wireless). check back here for more details!

  22. My F828 keeps getting a message E91.01 flashing. It takes pictures, but reverts back and forth from RAW to regular jpgs. So images fill the screen, others small, very small. Whats going on?

  23. Is it possible to clean the lens inside? I Think mine have humidity inside. I also have difficult to take photos with to much sun, and I don’t remember this problem a few years ago…

  24. Very helpful blog – ta for the info. My F828 was bought as a step up from the original DSC85 I had, and well worth it at the time. Its still a really good camera – I’ve even published a book with images taken on it (Central Otago – A View from the Interior – Reed Publishing). Its now nearly a decade old, has served me well considering its been dragged all over Kiwiland and around the world. Ive had the odd bug with it – mainly the switch on the CF card door not connecting properly so it resets every time you move the door (on the hand hold, so that happens often – annoying).
    Just recently it has started to over-expose shots taken using zoom/bright objects. Others online seem to have the same problem. Ive done the same basic strip down above (minus the flash unit which is OK) and checked all the connectors and cleaned the circuit boards. Someone asked about the chip – you can access that by undoing the 2 screws holding the circuit board on the rear of the lens unit (see photo 5 above) – also undo the single screw on the adjoining side board – makes it easier to remove. The CCD has a foam seal so shouldnt be dirty, but there was visible dust on mine, so clean very carefully with a lint-free cloth. I also use a clean paint brush with a little WD40 on it to wipe over the circuit boards – can help with faulty joints but dont overdo it.
    I also removed the rear casing while the lens was off which gives access to the CF cover switch and tweaked it a bit, plus checked for dirt etc. Unfortunately the overexposure problem is still there once the lens is zoomed past a certain point – it may well be the CCD chip has developed a fault, but shots are fine on macro / with no zoom. Might be time to investigate an Alpha upgrade, but the F828 has been a great camera for me.

  25. Barrie, my camera has the very exact problem. Listening carefully I noticed that my shutter doesn’t shut! (I turned off the camera sounds from the menu). I also tried to take a picture with a long exposure, then I covered the lens with a the lens cover before the camera starts elaborating the image… BOOM, the image is perfect. I can assure you that there must be a mechanical problem with the shutter itself – dry grease?

    I wander if any of you still owns the camera and knows how to lubricate the shutter safely.

  26. You’re a bottler. Thanks to you Sir Markus, you’ve saved me from a pugatory of losing my favourite camera. I have 3 of these beauties and my primary and best one began to shake and rattle at the lens to body (swivel) join alarmingly. An earlier attempt to pull it down and fix it resulted in a frustration of failure; then I found this post. I’d been coming in from the wrong way. Following this guide I discovered that the tiny bolts which hold the halves together are those found (pic 3) near the silver coloured metal plate. They tighten from the outside in; ie. tighten up the phillips head bolts where you see them and viola, all good. In fact I found that nearly every bolt on/in the camera needed a good tighten. Most external heads had some mild corrosion begining as well; WD40 fixed that. I’ve also learned from sad experience that f828’s don’t like running in film mode for really long periods either. My first f828 CCD died that way. – I often use the infra red “night shot” mode, and apart from adding a small bank of LED emitters to the top of the camera which work ok locally, I discovered that if you grab Grandpa’s old infra red heat lamp (the one he used for his sore and wobbly bits) it will light up an enormous area; an entire back yard in suburbia, or a heck of a lot of bushland, as if it’s infra red daylight. Real shutter speed! – Lovely (B/W) images result.- They may be an old camera now, but they’re still a really nice fixed lens camera well worth owning. – Cheers all, enjoy your f828’s!

  27. Pingback: Anonymous
  28. Well, there’s been a lot of nice things said and whilst I don’t want to spoil them I want you all to know that the article does not in fact cover the total dismantling of this model. Let me take you through to the problem. A few years ago I took my camera to Sony because there was lot of movement between the body and the lens which they were able to fix, but it has happened again and I figured that as it’s very old now they would say can’t help or they would do it and probably charge more than the unit is worth. So, I was happy that I found this article, the photo’s are good and the comments are easy to follow. However, it does not cover removing the steel bracket with the spot of green paint on the r/h side of the picture no 3. The problem with the bracket is you can’t tighten the 4 loose screws which are fitted from the inside of that bracket, in other words, that bracket is actually three layers. The outermost is a spring and detent plate, which is secured to the ‘body’ of the bracket, made of a zinc casting, by 3 x 2 x 8mm screws. I got one out and noticed there was a stain on the thread which signified a thread-lock compound had been used during assembly, maybe ‘Locktite’, a propriety compound found at any auto parts store. The other two would not budge so I went and bought a better screwdriver to see if I would have better luck. I bought a ‘CRAFTRIGHT’ 20 piece set which gave me 6 bits to load into an effective screwdriver handle; they were a possible good fit and were made up of Phillip’s-head and the similar but different + headed screws. I mounted the bracket in a vice and despite being determined but careful, I couldn’t move them. I’ll try using a little heat on the casting. I’ll have to buy a gas torch to move to the next stage.

  29. Miniotis, my F828 developed a similar problem (sensor blindness, all other functions ok). I took it apart as per the above procedure, reseated all flex cables and it fixed it.
    I got this camera recently and started using it with the IR magnet fix, amazing camera for IR!

  30. Hi my Sony DSC-F828. I need son help. When I take picture. I get lines in the picture and very poor colors. Not always happen but now is very difficult for me to continue to work like that. Please I need some advise to fix it. Thanks

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