Nikon D810 Shutter Curtain defect.

james_doiron

Hi all I not sure if this was posted before but I did find a post similar on the old NR Forum. My problem is with Nikon Service department as they are accusing me of breaking my new D810. I bought my new D810 as of October 2014 and in November if gave me some ERR and blank shots but it corrected it self so I kept on shooting. On Christmas day it shot another blank shot but then again it went away I was thinking on getting it checked out but I hold off doing so as I had my D4 in for service so when I was out shooting the shutter slowed down and completely stopped and the ERR did not go away at all I did everything remove the battery and cards. So I decided to send the camera in and then Nikon responded with a image to Vistek where I bought the camera with a picture of the shutter curtain turned on a angle with a tear in the bottom of it. Nikon is accusing me of poking something into the curtain which I called them and gave them a piece of my mind. I told them on the phone I owned a D70, D70S, D200, D300 and a D700, D4 and now the D810 and I why would I do something as stupid as this as there is no reason to do this as if you even wanted to clean it you got the shutter lockup in settings? So I just wondering why they are refusing to fix it and had anyone else had a similar shutter defect. Sure I had a shutter die on me in my older cameras but that is due to age of the camera and shutter count but the D810 is brand new? I have no problem paying for service if it was my fault and to accuse me of something I did not do and I even told them to open it up as it may prove what happened but they are refusing to open it.
Any help would be nice do I keep to screaming at them as I never ever had a issue with Nikon like this ever.

James

WestEndFoto

Nikon responded with an image to Vistek? I am not sure what you mean?

Ironheart

James, sorry to hear about your camera. Did you take it back to Vistek, or work directly with nikon support? Either way Vistek should give you a loaner while this is sorted.

WestEndFoto

One mistake that you may have made is to purchase "used gear".

One thing that I am very careful about when buying gear is ensuring that it has not been opened. If I lived in the US, it would be easy, as I would just order from B&H or Adorama. However, their international models do not have warranty support in Canada.

For that reason, I will try and buy something from a store that does not carry what I am ordering so that they have to order it from Nikon. If I am unable to do that because they have it in stock, I will have the store order it and show me the packing slips to prove it came in the day of or just before they called me. I am sure that they could circumvent that if they were really motivated, but they know I am serious so I am gambling that they will not bother.

Otherwise, untold numbers of people have handled the item and perhaps even dropped it before you "bought it new". Who knows who was poking around inside of the camera and damaging the shutter with who knows what while they were trying to sell it to the 75 people that came before you. Not even the store employees will know.

And buying online does not help if the online retailer has a retail presence. How do you know they just didn't grab something that they have been showing for 3 months? Or even if they don't have a retail presence, how do you know it has not been returned after someone dropped the camera and then decided to return it without telling the online retailer?

This is how you buy used gear when you think you are buying new. I will go to any length to avoid that. While I will not completely eliminate the risk of your potential situation, I can go along way towards minimizing it.

Msmoto

How many clicks on the D810?

james_doiron

I asked Vistek for the image of the damage as Nikon sent the image to them as I took the camera back to Vistek for service and they sent it to Nikon. The camera is not used as it's brand new as of Oct 2014 so way less then 5000 images has been taken with the camera.
Nikon is sticking with their story as they are NOT willing to open it as I think could the shutter spring let go and maybe that fell and done the damage to the curtain as I can not see the reason they are not willing to look inside the camera? I am dealing with Nikon Canada as I thinking maybe I should send the camera to Nikon US or a authorized sealer who is willing to open it but will this affect the warranty. I can not believe they will not open the camera as maybe they will see what caused it then we can go from there. As could something dropped in the camera changing lens anything to prove that the camera did not have a faulty shutter.

James

I have a D4 and a D700 as a backup camera as my D4 is the work horse I use for my client

Msmoto

Is there any possibility one of your lenses has dropped a screw or other part into the camera body? I suppose, while this would seem highly unlikely, that something could have come from a lens mount and fallen in, catching the shutter curtain when the mirror was up, resulting in the problem.

Also, it is possible someone with whom you spoke with at Nikon was unpleased with something you may have said, and is indeed creating resistance at Nikon's end.

Sending the camera to a different authorized Nikon service center and getting it repaired, would then give you the evidence required to file an appeal to Nikon for the cost of the repairs. Make certain you have all the parts returned to you.

Only my thinking this morning, so none of it may be worth anything.....

paulr

Hi James Had a similar problem with Nikon some 7 years ago with a 24-70 lens. They were known to make a noise when turning the lens, common on the earlier lenses. Nikon in their wisdom told me `i had dropped the lens and refused to honour the warranty. Lens was days old. At the end of the day I threatened with a law suit and finally Nikon honoured their warranty before it came to court.Needless to say every country has different laws regarding Sale Of Goods Act. At all times I acted in a polite way and never gave my true feelings to Nikon.
Happy to report that Nikon Uk have completely changed their policy and attitude now, and are very helpful in all matters concerning Nikon equipment.

james_doiron

Hi I just looked at my lens and they seem have not lost any parts and they work fine on my D4 as I never had any problems with the lens since I got them.
The first calls were with Nikon & Vistek service and they were trying to fight for me and it was Nikon first accusing me of poking something into my lens curtain. If I had the picture I can show you as it was no pen or what ever they think that could done the damage. I am not familiar with the mechanics of the shutter but my friend sold camera for over 20 years and he seen some shutter springs come off and then end up doing damage to the camera. I may have to get another service department to take it apart and then find out what cause it then if I can prove it's the camera fault then Nikon will have to cover the cost? I never ever seen a company fight over something so stupid as if it was a cracked body and signs of impact on the camera then they can say with facts you dropped the camera but who in their right mind will JAB a hole into the curtain to break it purposely ?

james_doiron

Update
Nikon is going to fix my camera as it's a brand new camera and we just don't know how or why the damage occurred but I was explain the actions of the camera as I was taking images as before it died. Who knows what happened but here is the picture.

https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8574/16441924559_7a4b9b916d_o.jpg

James
thanks for the help .... but still nice to see if I was not the only person this happened to

Photobug

Ouch...hope I never see this damage. It's nice to see Nikon is going to fix this problem under warranty.

Pistnbroke

I suspect they are being difficult because this type of damage may have scratched the sensor putting up the repair cost a lot to them .

Azinheiro

I had a problem with the shutter of my 3 months old D810 last September 2014 while i was shooting pictures in Cadiz, Spain. All of a sudden, no lens change, or change of other camera settings, the camera shutter gave up.
At that time, the Nikon service point in Frankfurt, Germany was unable to repair my D810 due to lack of part. The camera had to be shipped to Nikon, Germany (Dusseldorf). But even the German headquarter had no parts, which had to be ordered from Nikon European headquarter (Netherlands). It took more than two weeks to have my camera fixed.

I believe that the problem has to do with the new material (carbon) used for the new shutter used on this camera model. There was no comment on Nikons side, what was the cause of the defect. Warranty!

james_doiron

Thanks for the reply and yes I hope it did not effect the sensor. Azinheiro it sounds like you and I had the same issue with the D810 as I know this is a new shutter they are using so I don't Nikon is taking in account that there could be defects with the shutter. Just in a Month I notice problems with the camera but I let them slide as November is my busy time for shooting as I should of sent it in on the first issue. I thinking the damage came from trying to shoot images when the shutter came off in so causing more damage.

who knowS

Msmoto

I @james...

Great photo of damage. It appears the damage occurred in a location inaccessible if the shutter were operating properly, in that it would not be visible . I am wondering how many other D810's are affected. Thanks for bringing this up on NRF

Rx4Photo

Whoa!! Just saw the picture. Good example of the kinetic energy going on inside the body during shutter curtain activity.

james_doiron

Nikon took the image of the shutter like this other then that I would of not know what happened as I was thinking it was a electronic error that caused the camera not to work anymore. Now that
Azinheiro had a similar problem with his camera and am wondering how many D810's are out there that had problem with their shutters or is this a isolated issue. Since Nikon agreed to fix is as the camera was only 3 months old itself I am wonder if they are aware of the issue and will they put a improved shutter in there to correct the problem or will this happen again..

Rx4Photo the energy in the camera I explained to them not know what the camera was doing inside I kept on trying to take a photo so you can imagine that what tore it in the end.

James

PB_PM

Camera shutters can, and do, fail at any point during a cameras life. A failure does not mean there is a defect. While the designs of shutters in modern cameras are tested to 100,000's of shots, the shutter can fail on shot #1 or shot number 200,000, it's simply a matter of mechanical luck so to speak.

Ironheart

Mechanical devices are typically rated in MTBF, or Mean Time Between Failures. In this case the arithmetic mean (average) of the failure time/count of several devices is calculated. However mechanical devices can fail at any point for a variety of reasons, hence the warranty..

james_doiron

Got my D810 back Thursday and they replaced the shutter now lets hope this doesn't happen again. Went out to take pictures with it today and it seems like the first day I bought it so hopefully it stays that way and it was just a defective shutter

James

Msmoto

Glad you have it back and hope you have many trouble free days of shooting.

Lrubin

I bought the D810, new, in 12/2014. In August 2015 I sent it to Nikon, NY for repair. They just notified me the shutter mechanism had failed and the camera is on "parts hold". Sounds to me, based on this forum, there are a number of us with this problem.

Linda

jjverdu

My Nikon D810 has a bit more than a year now. I had a problem with Err on the screen and after a blank photo I co uld keep on shooting. It happened quite often and I needed to send it to Nikon. After reparation, I have been working with it for a couple of months and now... I have started seeing the same problem again. Now it has a year... maybe 13 months. Perfect use, no hits or external damages, I treat my Nikon equiment very carefully. I will probably need to send it back to Nikon again. It is a problem with D810 only?. The other time (2 months ago) they told me the problem was the Diaphragm preselection circuit.... Any suggestion?. Thanks

Msmoto

I would suggest contacting Nikon where the initial repair was made and inform them the same issue has reoccurred. It may be they will consider this as being still under warranty, but I cannot speak for them.