When Did you last have your Camera Serviced?

paulr

We all, I hope service our vehicles but do we service our cameras,usually a sensor clean , Focus check, recalibration and any update on firmwares.
I am a NPS member in the Uk and I sent my camera[D3X 4 years old} back to Nikon Uk for just a service, They checked/ Adjusted the Auto Focus Mechanism Circuit, Cleaned and checked the Image Sensor Unit and updated the firmware, they also replaced the front bayonet for the lens attachment which I did not know was faulty. The camera was sent Monday and arrived back with me Thursday in the same week, the cost £88 00 including carrier fees. All in all a very good service at a very reasonable cost. Now I have a camera in perfect working order thanks to Nikon UK!!!

PB_PM

I like to get my cameras checked at least once a year, but I'm not an NPS member.

D800 - In for service right now (check focus, left focus issue, and cleaning).
D700 - March 2013 (sensor clean, check funky battery issue)

Symphotic

My old D800 went in three times: focus correction and a twice for cleaning before I demolished it on a job. My new D800 is about 4 months old and I'll probably wait for its one year anniversary for cleaning. I use these cameras at sea, so they do get salt spray on the sensor no matter how careful I am changing lenses. I've pretty much given up changing lenses at sea, so I'll probably purchase another body soon. Ive also sent lenses back for repair.

GPB 88 sounds like a good price for the service. I am not an NPS, but I have always found Nikon US to be pretty reasonable in price: free for warranty and reasonable for cleaning. They do not get a camera back in the short turn around you experience. More like two weeks for us commoners.

Photobug

The D300 had it's sensor professionally cleaned once per year and I went five years before sending it to Nikon for cleaning, adjustments, replacement of the "playback button", and sensor cleaning.

I always due my own firmware updates on my cameras. The last time the turn around time was 3 weeks from NIKON USA California.

Golf007sd

I had my entire camera gear service early this year and Nikon service center covered most of it under warranty. I will most likely do the same thing ever other year.

Killerbob

I only have had my D800 for 6 months, but I needed to send it in anyway for AF adjustments/alignment with my Nikon lenses, and they serviced it as well. I clean my own sensors, so I'll probably get into once a year cycles. I live in Greenland, with lots of rough weather, so I'd be surprised if I don't dirty the sensor up on a regular basis...

Benji2505

Had my FF camera in for service in early summer. 5 workdays incl. shipping, all covered under warranty. Two thumbs up for Nikon NY.

macsavageg4

I haven't yet but starting to get the process rolling on my D7K before the warranty expires on it. There is an annoying amount of debris that has managed to work its way into the viewfinder from normal usage. I am also not sure if there is something off in the metering since everything I shoot with it is a lot darker than the D800 with the same lenses etc. I will say this as someone who works daily in the service field I will be raising hell fire to make sure they cover shipping both ways for the repair of this thing.

spraynpray

Good timing for this thread - the focus point selection on my D7000 has just stopped working so I am going to send it in for service along with the grip which has this annoying battery drain issue but I am wondering whether they will automatically check everything or if I have to as them? I'll leave my 16-85 on it as I am underwhelmed with the sharpness of it. I'd like the whole lot checked over thoroughly.

In response to the original question, I normally only send my gear in for service if I perceive an issue - I am surprised at what @Golf007sd did with all his gear under warranty. I can imagine Nikon saying 'well, what's wrong with it?' and me saying 'just check everything' followed by a big bill.

PB_PM

@spraynpray Tell them what you want them to check/do, never assume they will check everything.

Golf007sd

@spraynpray: I took my D4, D7000 and all my lenses, including my 1.7 teleconvertor to the Nikon Service Center in LA. I told them I wanted all the lenses to be calibrated to both the D4 & D7000; hence no front or back focusing issues. During this process they also did a full service on both bodies. The only out of pocket expense was the D7000 & 1.7 teleconverter service and calibration. Total cost was a little over $200. The D4 was under warranty and all the lenses have a 5 year warranty. Very happy with the results. Just a note: I personally walked all my gear into the Nikon service center and picked them up. I was not about to ship over $20,000 worth of gear in the mail nor have them ship it back. Hence, I picked them up personally as well.

DenverShooter

Had my D800E sensor cleaned by Nikon's point of service in Berlin in May after it aspirated a bit of water during a lens change in a frog drowning downpour. Nice folks who cleaned it while I waited. 38 euro's later I was good to go.

Nikon NPS made the whole thing happen with a phone call.

Denver Shooter

Msmoto

@DenverShooter

I suspect, Mike, you could get Nikon to come to your house and do the cleaning....LOL

Now as for me, my response to Paul's thread was...service, huh? I guess unless the camera is totally inoperative I don't do this...like my early Photomic F finder....never worked as far as I knew. My example is not recommended, and may simply be I am too lazy.... I-)

DenverShooter

LOL

Denver Shooter

Symphotic

....Now as for me, my response to Paul's thread was...service, huh? I guess unless the camera is totally inoperative I don't do this...like my early Photomic F finder....never worked as far as I knew. My example is not recommended, and may simply be I am too lazy.... I-)

I never sent my F2 body or any of its finders for repair. They still all work fine after 30 years. The only film camera I ever sent in for repair was my Leica M4P ( to clean and adjust the range finder).

I sent my Minolta CLE 28 mm lens in ( to clean the inside of a lens) and my Micro-Nikkor 55mm (until recently my workhorse lens), for a focusing ring issue after 25 years of use.

Leica and Nikon charged me, Minolta did it for free even though it was not under US warranty.

donaldejose

No routing servicing for me. I clean it myself and send it in only when something is broken but even then I take it to a local camera repair shop and don't send it to Nikon. But I am not a pro who uses his/her equipment hard or needs to rely upon it to earn a living.

catfish

Just got my D300s back yesterday from back to back visits, first time it went in for 'CHA' error (CF Card not recognized) was back in 10 days and $234.00 they had replaced the main board, the power board, aligned the metering, the auto-focus, and put new grips on it. Looked brand new only has 17,000 clicks. However the camera only powered on one time, the next time I went to power it on it did not work at all no matter what battery arrangement I used grip/no grip AA's all el3e's. Nikon was very apologetic put a tech on the line to see if he could help me he apologized so they immediately emailed me a UPS 2 day air return shipping label. They had the camera 15 days trying to replicate the problem and couldn't. Go it back yesterday and there was a long list of items checked, finally they replaced the power board they had replaced the week before just to make sure it wasn't that, checked metering, auto-focus and finally they cleaned the sensor for the second time in 2 weeks and did a general check and clean of the camera all for 'No Charge' and a 6 month warranty on everything they worked on, it seems to work fine now no power problems at all. I can't really say about the metering yet but my auto-focus seems so much faster and accurate than it ever was. I would say that even though I had to send it back -- Nikon really went all out to ensure that the camera was operational this time, really seemed disappointed that I had to send it back. The camera really does feel and look brand new so I am a very happy camper. Thank you Nikon in Melville, NY.

PB_PM

@catfish Was the firmware up to date before you sent it in? If not, maybe they applied a firmware update and that made the AF faster? Also over time dust can build up on the AF sensor (it's at the bottom of the mirror box), and cleaning it off could make it more responsive.

catfish

Yes at least I thought the firmware was up to date at least according to their website although they updated it twice while it was with them but I thought that was because of replacing boards, but not totally sure. As far as cleaning it had never been cleaned that thoroughly before and you could be right about the AF sensor. It is spot on now.

Rx4Photo

I think I'll be sending my D800 and possibly my 70-200mm VR2 in to Nikon in Mellville, NY after this weekend. Something strange happens occasionally only with that lens on camera and I'm not sure which one is the culprit. Twice in the last year with only that lens the camera will go into a phase where the shutter sound is sloppy all of a sudden - then I get an Err message on the top LCD. After that, no pictures can be taken. I turn off camera, change lens to any of my others, and the shutter sound is back to a solid click and no Err message. Puzzling.

I sent it to them back in April after the 1st time this happened and to have focus adjusted. They kept it longer than expected - about 4 weeks. Hopefully this is something that they will consider a warranty assessment since it's only been 5 months since that repair.

Edit...wanted to add that after the 1st repair the camera has worked like an absolute dream for me.

SquamishPhoto

Sounds like your shutter is on the way out.

macsavageg4

Well turns out they basically told me to eat it as far as shipping is concerned. Oh well twenty some dollars later it is boxed and prepped to go get a checkup and cleaning at Nikon. I hope I get my D7K back all cleaned and calibrated.

Rx4Photo

Sounds like your shutter is on the way out.

That's what I'm afraid of. The thought of it doing this again in the middle of something critical makes me cringe. I'm thinking/hoping that they'll take good care to figure it out this time.

catfish

If that is the only lens that this occurs with I would certainly entertain sending that lens along with it.

kyoshinikon

That doesn't sound good... Most of my gear is way overdue on a service. My D7000 with well over 400,000 clicks works fantastic but Id like to get it serviced at least once... It's been fed a sprite and champagne, soaked, dropped, buried in mud, and just overused... Half of my lenses need a calibration too.

spraynpray

I can answer this now: Today.

D7000 cleaned, adjusted and repaired under warranty.
16-85 cleaned and adjusted to factory spec.
MB-D11 repaired to correct battery drain and looseness when fitted to camera.

Invoice value: £0.00 one week turnaround.

Thank you Nikon, impeccable service again.