Nikon Success Story... :)

[IgsEMT]

Just something I had to deal with in the last few months and wanted to share with TPF community.

About a year ago, I purchased d700. It was a primarily a replacement for D2x. All was great for about 6 months... I'm on the job, as on-camera flash start firing on its own, I switch the flash and it was the same issue. So I go to my back up D2x, start working with it, all is well for about 20 minutes until I heard a loud crack in the camera. I grabbed my 300s and finished the job with.
I ended up sending D700 and D2x into repairs. D2x's shutter broke, repair was to cost $450, Opted out on it - that camera had over 300k+ frames, it served me longer then I expected. My 700 came back from repairs... I tried it out, packed and send it RIGHT back to them - it wasn't fixed.

Finally got the camera back 2nd time, (it's around April-May), works great.
Comes the summer, again the same issue, AGAIN I send the camera in... I'm waiting for about a month, b/c the parts are back-ordered. I get the camera back, it works for less then a month until two weeks ago.

Two weeks ago, one of the studio's I work for, booked me for three days straight (two of which was his family), and that's where all hell brakes loose with d700. Although not obvious at first and NOT to the client especially, D700 was acting out. Between the flash doing its own thing and exposures ALL OVER the place, something was cooking that shouldn't have been - it was as if the parts came from Nikon while brain from Honda, everything was out of sync. The gigs went by fine (Thank G-d for backup gear), owner of the studio was happy with the result but did provide me with enough proof that I could take to Nikon repair saying "look at these images, all shot manually, distance didn't change, why the hell are exposure vary by 2 stops?!"... So I did.

I took a nice drive to Melville, NY (about 1.5-2hrs from my house): The sup'v of the repair shop pulled my record and was surprised that its the 4th time the camera went back to repairs.
Next day I got a call (this past Friday) that they are sending me a brand new replacement d700.

Morals of the story:
If it broke, send it to repair and stay on top of them.
If you're booking, BACK UP IS A MUST!

The replacement came in today (Monday), already charged, preset and ready to go.

 

[molested_cow]

Not sure if this is a "success" but I'm glad that you got what they should have given you on the first time... a working camera.

 

[IgsEMT]

That's the successful part I got the gear in working order.

 

[Sw1tchFX]

This sounds more about a story of failure to me. Really sounds awful.

 

[IgsEMT]

This sounds more about a story of failure to me. Really sounds awful.

Circle of life.
I bought the original 700 around my bday and a year later got the brand new one.

On side note, just got a call from one of my buddies, he's sending his 5dm2 back to Canon to repair the PC plug. In the last 2 years that he had that camera, it went back to Canon probably 4-5 times, for the same plug-issue.
Perhaps this time he'll make enough stink to get his camera replaced.

 

[gryffinwings]

Lemons do happen, it's a good thing that Nikon has good warranty service, even if it takes time sometimes.

 

[Sw1tchFX]

This sounds more about a story of failure to me. Really sounds awful.

Circle of life.
I bought the original 700 around my bday and a year later got the brand new one.

On side note, just got a call from one of my buddies, he's sending his 5dm2 back to Canon to repair the PC plug. In the last 2 years that he had that camera, it went back to Canon probably 4-5 times, for the same plug-issue.
Perhaps this time he'll make enough stink to get his camera replaced.

Who the hell still uses a PC outlet on a camera body?

 

[IgsEMT]

Who the hell still uses a PC outlet on a camera body?

Photographers who shoot with off camera light(s).

 

[tirediron]

This sounds more about a story of failure to me. Really sounds awful.

Circle of life.
I bought the original 700 around my bday and a year later got the brand new one.

On side note, just got a call from one of my buddies, he's sending his 5dm2 back to Canon to repair the PC plug. In the last 2 years that he had that camera, it went back to Canon probably 4-5 times, for the same plug-issue.
Perhaps this time he'll make enough stink to get his camera replaced.

Who the hell still uses a PC outlet on a camera body?

I prefer my PWs, but I still carry (and use) PC cords on a regular basis.

 

[Sw1tchFX]

Who the hell still uses a PC outlet on a camera body?

Photographers who shoot with off camera light(s).

Pocketwizards? It's not 1992 anymore. The only place where it's reasonable anymore is for leaf shutter cameras such as hassy's and view cameras.

 

[ginoo]

dude i'm pretty sure you had bracketing on... i thought my d3 was fooking up because of the same thing... i'd shoot on full manual and my exposures kept changing. hold down bkt and make sure it's at 0. let me know if this solves your problem

 

[IgsEMT]

dude i'm pretty sure you had bracketing on... i thought my d3 was fooking up because of the same thing... i'd shoot on full manual and my exposures kept changing. hold down bkt and make sure it's at 0. let me know if this solves your problem

Bracketing is always set to 0.
I never changed it. It's one of those options, if I need I'll do manually.
I'm just glad they gave me a new body.

 

[MLeeK]

I see your positive story here. I don't know if I'd have waited for the 4th repair, but they stepped up and did the right thing when you brought it to their attention.
I've heard good things with Nikon repair and had awesome luck with Canon services. Tamron is the bane of my existence.

 

[Bukitimah]

It is terrible that the same camera fails 4 times! I would be very unhappy if they didn't get it fixed the 2nd time. The story ends well and hope you have a great time with it.

 

[Heitz]

What's more amazing is that TWO cameras went foul at the same time, and you STILL had a 3rd backup and pulled it off. Hats off!