D600 Dust/Oil/Lubricant Issue discussion/Discontinuation and price reductions

Msmoto

@Fredericko

Rather than be bummed, I think I would be happy they checked it out thoroughly. 600 clicks is a day for some of us. Let us know how it looks at 2500 clicks.

Fredericko

@msmoto

Yeah thats what I thought as well, they probably did a time lapse or just clicked it that much to check if they'll see any spots. I will definitely let you guys know for any updates but I hope you wont hear from me anymore

Sato

So I ordered a Giottos Rocket Air AA1900 to remove dust from the sensor, Got it delivered on on the packaging it says: Not recommended for cleaning CCD Sensor's.
No I'm smart enough to do a Google search and found a few discussions on forums that either ended in 'there just trying to cover there ass' or 'That' s because the air the rocket air blows out is unfiltered and might introduce additional dust to your sensor' And that last one comes with recommendations for filtered air blowers.

So I'm wondering what you lot would advise me to do: Just use the rocket air in a not so dusty room or order one off these filtered air blowers?
Didn't want to open a new topic for this and as it's D600 related I placed it here.

spraynpray

I wouldn't hesitate to use what you've got Sato. Even if the blower pushed some dust through it is likely that the air pushing it will dislodge plenty of other dust and of course the dust it pushes through may not stick. Don't over think it!

TheGipper

So I've had mine for about a month now, and it's had over 5000 clicks (serial no. 606xxxx). Nothing appearing in my images yet, but for curiosity's sake I shot a blue sky at F/22 and ran it through Levels. Of course, it's pretty filthy, but a lot of it comes away with an air blower (mine's not a Giottos, I can't remember the brand, got it in Germany). My previous DSLRs have looked almost as bad and I wet cleaned them periodically. I do change lenses quite a bit throughout the day.

So, as no dust is obvious in my images (nor at F/22 for that matter, unless I run it through Auto Levels) I think I'll hold onto mine. I really had to try hard to make the dust show up, so that must be a good sign.

Btw, hope no one minds but I managed to get some half decent images with the camera in Florida recently.

*LINK REMOVED*

adamz

sorry TheGipper but for sharing photos please use PAD thread - and You have some nice photos there to share with all of us, as advertisement is against forum rules: http://forum.nikonrumors.com/discussion/298/forum-rules

TheGipper

Ok, sorry!! Will do!

JJPhotos

This is the last shot I took on my D600 before boxing it up and sending it to Nikon for them to deal with. There's obviously a few dust bunnies there (which are on almost all DSLR sensors if you actually use the camera outside a cleanroom) but the large accumulation of donut rings in the top left suggests that the real problem is oil and not dust.

I'm not generally bothered about wet-cleaning either but having to do it every 1000 shots or so is not acceptable.

The file I put on flickr has the EXIF intact and is resized to 2048 so you should be able to see a bit more detail if you wish.

spraynpray

No relevant Exif there Jamie but I would guess they were around f11 or larger judging by the shapes?

11K and still making dust though - wow! Did you try blowing them out?

Fredericko

@JJPhotos

That is unacceptable, what is the serial number and when did you buy your D600? Did you ask for a free shipping label. Nikon should respect legitimate complaints by their customers...

JJPhotos

Yes, I tried blowing them off. It's definitely not dust; it's oil or some other liquid-based contaminant that is the problem. The regularity of the circles, the fact that they are often lighter in the middle and also that they appear so consistently and so prominently along the top of the frame, particularly the top left, must rule out ordinary dust bunnies.

I got mine back in September and have cleaned it a few times but the problem is recurrent. It's a 6003### serial number. Nikon UK provide a postage-free (and insured) service using parcel_force so I utilised that.

mihaiile

Hello,

Just to keep update of my story described here http://forum.nikonrumors.com/discussion/comment/22926#Comment_22926

It seems that I received the camera on Friday (I leaved it at the shop on Monday for them to send it to nikon in Munich) so it was pretty fast and it came with the sensor clean. The thing is they cleaned it only and not even took a test shot, they did not change any part inside the camera. Just went to menu, raise mirror, clean, turn off and send back. A little disappointed about this service, let's see how it will turn out from here, I activated the sensor auto clean function on camera shut down so hopefully it will remove any particles as they fall on the top left part of the sensor (well actually I know, the bottom part inside the camera). And I still have to reach 1000 shots since I purchased the camera.

spraynpray

@JJPhotos: Jamie, you said: "Yes, I tried blowing them off. It's definitely not dust; it's oil or some other liquid-based contaminant that is the problem. The regularity of the circles, the fact that they are often lighter in the middle and also that they appear so consistently and so prominently along the top of the frame, particularly the top left, must rule out ordinary dust bunnies."

But the fact that they are lighter in the middle doesn't have to mean it is liquid. That is why I went looking for your exif data to see what aperture you used. Somewhere on this thread or forum recently somebody posted an interesting link to an article showing the effects of aperture used on the appearance of dust particles on the sensor and it supports your contamination probably being dust. Maybe you aren't getting a rocket blower close enough to the dust?

SEPC

My D600 was returned to me today from the Nikon Service facility in California. They replaced the shutter mechanism, cleaned the low pass filer, and then checked operation, focus mechanism, etc. I had a few sensor spots, then used the cleaning option on the camera and literally had an EXPLOSION - or so it seemed - of spots on the sensor, many of them very dark. This was at about 1300 shutter clicks. Any spots on the sensor was odd as I've only used one lens and have not been changing out lenses.
Nikon has been very responsive to me - they provided a shipping label when I asked for one (politely), and expedited the repair because I'm getting ready to travel.
If I experience subsequent problems, I'll post. If not, then no news from me is good news.
The camera serial # is in the 3 million range.

JJPhotos

I'm not sure why the exif got stripped. It was taken at f22 but I had shots show up at f11 a few months back (in an ordinary landscape shot - not a blank wall).

smadman

@SEPC

I'm just a little unsure of your posting -- did you have the explosion of spots BEFORE you sent in the camera or just now, after you've gotten it back?

smadman

@Fredericko, @SEPC

Thanks soooo much to both of you for the information you've provided so far. But PLEASE o please...don't leave us stranded here! It's really important for us to know the outcomes of your respective repairs whether positive or negative (I for one am particularly interested in success stories) -- so if you can possibly swing it, it would be great if you could post an update to let us know one way or the other how things are shaping up. Don't wait too long or you'll forget about us!

Fredericko

@smadman

I checked my sensor after approx. 200 shots and 3 lens exchanges, I saw 3 spots which were easily removed by air blower so its definitely not oil spots. I guess I need to clean my house more since all the lens exchanges were all done inside the house. I will definitely update you guys if I see anything out of the ordinary. I havent had time to use my D600 outdoors and was just taking family portraits which are at wide apertures. JJphotos sample picture was just unacceptable for nikon to let D600 pass QC and I hope nikon has someone reading this forum since this is very helpful in letting them know the extent of the problem. Just imagine 13 pages in just the D600 oil spots topic alone.. tsk tsk tsk.. Nikon wake up!

JJPhotos

Here is an update.

I got the camera back from Nikon UK today. The note accompanying the camera stated;

'Thorough cleaning of mirror box, mirror mechanism and sensor area. Performing precautionary measures to reduce entry/dispersion of dust particles.'

There is then a statement about the impossibility of eliminating the ingress of dust altogether etc.

Finally, under 'Parts Fitted' is 1F999-708.

I believe that this may be the shutter plate so it looks like the shutter has been replaced. The only thing that makes me uncertain is that the shutter count is 100 or so shots higher but this could just mean that the shutter count was not reset when the new part was fitted.

I have taken a couple of test shots and all seems well. I will post my findings after another 1000 or so frames.

smadman

@JJPhotos,

Thanks so much for the update...I'll definitely be interested to see your next posting!

smadman

Can anyone else share their post-repair stories with us here? It sounds to me like this shutter replacement procedure might have fixed the problem for real, but I'm really hoping to hear about some more experiences before I go and throw down my hard-earned cash for a new D600...

Msmoto

I am still waiting on the D600 inventory to be declared free from products which may have been produced before they figured out the fix.

If anyone has recently purchased a D600 and it has no significant dirt/oil problems, it would be nice to hear about this.

flight3

I just spoke with a person at my local photo store yesterday and he said that customers are still seeing the problem....but he told me (with confidence) that the problem goes away after 1,000 photos. Too be honest I don't believe that is the case with most if not all of the D600's. I have also been reading reviews on Amazon and customers are still complaining about the dust/oil problem. I think that it is best to stay away from the D600 unless Nikon announces an official fix.

[Deleted User]

In my case Nikon service center cleaned my D600 and replaced the shutter, this was after about 2000 shots. Now 1000 shots further I still have the normal dust I also had with my D70, D200 and D300 and I can handle that. If you can't, don't buy a DSLR, because we Always have dust with DSLR's. Maybe 1000 shots further I have oil spots again, but that is maybe and no information at all.

@ flight3 We never get a message from Nikon that they solved the problem, because the first batch they tossed into the world, had as we know now, a problem and were very dirty, but there were also many good ones, without a problem, nobody knows how many has and has not the problem.

There are also a lot of messages from people who said they had the oil problem, but it also could be normal dust due to .... fill it in. I also read very long threads with messages telling, perhaps it is ..... and many many messages from people who did not have the D600, but had opinions that they were certain that ...... etc. etc. In short, no real information.

I know how to clean a sensor and I can say, the D600 is a fantastic camera, no full frame camera like it for this amount of money and exactly the one I was waiting for.

I will put a photo on PAD in a moment which I took with the 70-200mm f/2.8 on the D600.
The settings are ISO 3200, 200mm f/5.6, 1/200 imported in Lightroom and no PP.
Look at the details and you see that the PP you have to do is simple in LR.

Msmoto

As a note, my D4 had oil all over it at 10,000 clicks. I cleaned it as per Peter Gregg, and no more oil.. A few dust spots which diapered with vigorous blower, again the technique of Peter Gregg. With over 20,000 clicks, no problem.

I am cautious about changing lenses, almost never in outside conditions unless very protected. This is not always possible, I understand.