Merry Christmas to all of you! Need some advice here, thanks in advance!

photo_bam

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Hello all and happy Christmas!!

Im unsure if this is the best place to post my question (sorry if not) but here I go...

Last saturday I just bought Nikon P7700 as a Christmas gift to myself :mrgreen:

Unfortunately, now that I carefully looked at it at home, it shows three or four minor scratches over the front element :grumpy:

These scratches are impossible to notice under normal light, it is, a well illuminated room or daylight. You need a lamp close to the lens pointed at the right angle and still you need to look for the scratches, moving the camera and/or the lamp here and there until you find them. Otherwise, without the help of a lamp put close to the lens, it is impossible to see those scratches.

I took some pictures and they all look perfectly ok (this Nikon P7700 is great!), but probably more test should be done. I have read that minor scratches do not cause any problem.

Yet, I feel very upset and uncomfortable as it is a brand new camera, it should be perfect!! :grumpy:

Im undecided whether to go back to the store or call Nikon center or do nothing and stop worrying about it.

Do you think warranty covers this? I doubt it because they may tell you "you did it, you are the one to blame".

What do you think? Do warranty usually cover the lens? I was told I have a 1 year warranty but wonder if this kind of stuff is covered??

And even if I go back to the store or visit Nikon offices, I would need to take my handheld lamp and spend some time trying to find the scratches to show the seller or Nikon representative.

I can not imagine myself telling the seller (or Nikon representative) "see? well, hold on, mmm.... uhhh... they should be around here, well.... there you have!, look! oh, wait, I missed it, wait a second...." while pointing with my hand held lamp at the lens and moving both to find out the right angle of incidence to make the scratches to show :lol:
Under normal light, no matte how hard I try or how I move the lens, I was unable to find the scratches.


These scratches are not circular, are almost parallel straight lines. (see the photos I attach, the first one under normal light, you wont notice any scratch, next two with the help of my lamp, last one under normal light) There is actually a fourth scratch that crosses the three main scratches at an agle, but that one is a lot more difficult to see, let alone to take a picture of it!!


This is the story, at the store, (a Nikon authorized and certified store) I asked the seller to show me a P7700 and she hesitated as she told me "we don't have one for showing, we only have this one at the showcase, well, I can show it to you" I told her I just want to feel the weight of it. Once I had it in my hands I told her "Im buying it" So she took it out of my hands and started to prepare it for packaging. Then I said, "do you have one unopened?" She told me not here, we have it at the warehouse and it will take a couple of hours or perhaps tomorrow to arrive here, but dont worry, this one is perfect and has not been used at all and we don't show it nor we take it out of the cabinet as I told you before we don't have it for customers to test it at all. In any case you have one year wrranty. So I said, ok, give me that one. So she continued packaging and I got distracted when I realized she was giving a soft cleaning to the lens with a soft microfiber cloth I was about to say "don't!" but was too late, then I thought that's nothing probably that's normal procedure at this store but still was surprised. Well, she gave a general cleaning to the whole body and screen. She showed me the lens and the screen to proof they were all ok. Of course it was impossible to notice at a glance!

Then, I wonder what to do?? Is it worth making a fuzz about it? Is it worth calling Nikon support?

Does warranty cover these kind of scratches?

Im uploading pictures about these scratches. Pictures make the scratches look terrible bad, they look worse than in ral life, believe me. Keep in mind these pictures were taken with my pocketable and cheap Samsung ST77 (I love it!) and with a desk lamp and handheld tungsten lamp pointing at the lens at the right angle. I upload some pictures without the lamp, just the normal bulb lamp at the ceiling in a well illuminated room. So you compare and see the lens seems perfect at a glance under normal light!

Thanks and sorry for the long post!! :(
 

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Happy Holidays!

I don't think it can hurt to reach out to Nikon support - they most they can say is that they cannot help you...
 
Welcome to the forum, Photo bam, and a Merry Christmas to you, as well. :)

I've moved your thread over here to the Nikon forum, so you might get more replies and suggestions over what to do. I hope you can get some resolution on this and enjoy photography! We're happy to have you on board.
 
Happy Holidays!

I don't think it can hurt to reach out to Nikon support - they most they can say is that they cannot help you...

Hi
Thanks for all of you for your advice and time answering me!!

Today I visited that certifdied store and asked them to honor my warranty, they told me yes, but there are two options, either you give us your camera back and we will send it to Nikon for exchange for a new one (or repair) or you take it by yourself to Nikon and ask them for a new one (or repair).

I said what a crappy customer service you have (well those were not my actual words but I wanted to say so that way). So I took my camera to Nikon offices and they took my camera and told me it will either repaired or replaced in about 15 working days. The guy at the Nikon offices told me "your store should have taken care of this issue" I told him "Im coming from there and they told me to either bring it myself or let them bring it to you for me.

He just smiled and said "those people"

Neither the girl at the store nor the guy at the Nikon offices were able to find the scratches eventhough they spent considerable time trying to find them and I helped with my handheld lamp.

To be honest there was a point at which I myself was unable to see them and I wondered if they were magically gone but no, they were still there...

I don't know what would happen.

It was a bit relieving that they did not refused to take it to service once I mentioned a scratch on the lens.
I thought as soon as I mention "the lens got a scratch" they will soon reply "sorry, that's not covered" but no, that was not their reaction, they wanted to find it and see what kind of scratch was that.

The warranty does not mention any about lens scratch

Also, I have previously bought cameras from behind the glass cabinet with confidence as I only buy in photography specialized and authorized centers as they do not show cameras as they do in Wal Mart or Best Buyt where they allow customers to play with them.
Still, it is better to have an unopened camera!

I wonder what would happen!!

Thanks all!
 
While scratches aren't supposed to appear on brand new products, I probably won't be bothered to get an exchange. If the scratch doesn't affect the images, it's not worth my time trying to wait on automated voice systems and yell at robots.
 

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