Apple won't work on any Apple computer over five years old. Not even to simply replace a hard drive. They call them "legacy" computers. I'm not surprised to hear that Sony won't repair older cameras. But, I can get my older Apple computers worked on by a local shop, are there are independent shops that will work on older Sonys? I don't know, just wondering.
There is a difference, Sony drops parts when a model is dropped so depending on how many unsold parts they had on hand, a repair shop is unable to get parts. There are lots of shops working on Apple because most of the compute is standard parts, IC's connectors and passive components. On any remaining inventory Sony jacks up the price 10-100 times. Since their network of independent shops doing Sony warranty work is small it would be unlikely one of them has a needed part or assembly. I suggest talking to techs in multi vendor warranty stations to compare how they are supported by Sony. The general consensus is Sony is the worst in the industry. I did when visited the local shop that is warranty for Nikon, Canon, Sony and Panasonic. After talking to the head tech it was apparent Sony still has the same policies as when my shop was their warranty station for pro audio.
We were warranty authorized for 58 brands and the largest volume shop in that field in the US with 23 full time techs.When there were competing products between brands, I always recommended the non-Sony if a studio or theater was asked for advice on long term support. For example Sony made DAT digital recorders that competed with Panasonic, Tascam and a few others and the same problem, Sony changed models almost every 12 months so it was really hard to get parts for pm or breakdown repairs after 12 months. They always were lighter in construction and obviously not built for reliable 24/7 studio use. The Panasonics had a more conservative approach and seldom changed models so a shop or self maintaining studio or station could stock parts or get them if needed for years. Fairly quickly the studios standardized on the Panasonics for that reason. At the time any real professional recording studio has a few SV3x00 series recorders and Sony shut down that entire division. The did the same to their mixing console customers, these large systems cost up to $1,000,000 and when Sony dropped that division all those film scoring studios lost their entire investment. They did the same to dozens of divisions including TVs where they were popular for about 10 years. As soon a profits drop or share drops, they will shut down the division.
