D3 issues

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Archive 2011 · D3 issues

Matt OHarver
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p.1 #1 · D3 issues

Well just a few months ago I went through this crap with my D3s, now my D3 is giving me black frames. I moved over to Nikon in Jan and now both of the cameras I have bought have thrown black frames at me. Nikon hit me for over $300 for the D3s, this is a Nikon refurb that is just out of warranty and has 23K clicks on it.

Surely this is just bad luck and not what I should expect from Nikon's flagship cameras right? The D3, failed during a wedding today. Needless to say I wasn't pleased, and was glad it was my backup. But still, really Nikon? Below is one of the frames. Frame 23751 on a 300K shutter life? Looks like either another mirror failure or a shutter starting to go.

Matt

MOP_4231 by MattOphotog, on Flickr

Dec 04, 2011 at 05:22 AM

trenchmonkey
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p.1 #2 · D3 issues

Sorry to see this, Matt....you've sure had some horrible 'luck' on the darkside.

Dec 04, 2011 at 01:48 PM

Jammy Straub
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p.1 #3 · D3 issues

I don't necessarily think that's a shutter failure, when I open the image in PS and adjust the levels so I can see some detail, it looks fairly consistent across the frame. If it were a shutter failure of some sort I'd expect to see an area where the shutter stuck and caused a portion of the image to be drastically over or under exposed. Admittedly at 1/50 of a second I suppose the leading shutter could have not opened when it was supposed to and caused such gross underexposure.

Is that the only frame like that?

I'd also look at the lens and see if the aperture was haywire, maybe there's miscommunication and the lens is hitting f/22 when it says it's hitting f/2.8.

Sorry for your troubles, it's very atypical

Dec 04, 2011 at 04:40 PM

Matt OHarver
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p.1 #4 · D3 issues

Apparently the worst luck. If I weren't so happy with other aspects of Nikon system, I'd dump them now. Very frustrating, I've put over 1 Million clicks on various Canon 1 series over my time, and never had a mirror or shutter failure. To have two in the first 10 months of my Nikon experience isn't putting reliability on the forefront of my thoughts for Nikon.

Matt

Dec 04, 2011 at 04:46 PM

Matt OHarver
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p.1 #5 · D3 issues

Jammy Straub wrote:
I don't necessarily think that's a shutter failure, when I open the image in PS and adjust the levels so I can see some detail, it looks fairly consistent across the frame. If it were a shutter failure of some sort I'd expect to see an area where the shutter stuck and caused a portion of the image to be drastically over or under exposed. Admittedly at 1/50 of a second I suppose the leading shutter could have not opened when it was supposed to and caused such gross underexposure.

Is that the only frame like that?

I'd also look at the lens and see if the aperture was haywire, maybe there's miscommunication and the lens is hitting f/22 when it says it's hitting f/2.8.

Sorry for your troubles, it's very atypical

Not the only frame like it, to me it appears either the mirror isn't going up and down correctly (which was the failure of odd black frames in my D3s a couple months ago) The same lens went directly on another body and performed flawlessly the rest of the night. I shot about 20 frames off in succession after I noticed it, and not a single one was anything other then black or a little strip of the area I pointed it at. After it sat in my bag a bit, I got it back out between wedding and reception and it worked again, for a bit, then back to the same thing. It's going to go off to Nikon overnight tomorrow.

Dec 04, 2011 at 05:36 PM

jmcfadden
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p.1 #6 · D3 issues

I Always use a Platinum Credit card to make these purchases since it will double whatever warranty the purchase carries. Came in real handy when the shutter failed on my D100 and at that time was 600bux to replace. Visa paid within 30 days too

Dec 04, 2011 at 05:52 PM

rhyder
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p.1 #7 · D3 issues

Matt OHarver wrote:
Apparently the worst luck. If I weren't so happy with other aspects of Nikon system, I'd dump them now. Very frustrating, I've put over 1 Million clicks on various Canon 1 series over my time, and never had a mirror or shutter failure. To have two in the first 10 months of my Nikon experience isn't putting reliability on the forefront of my thoughts for Nikon.

Matt

Sorry to hear about your experience. You've had some bad luck, but I wouldn't be so quick to cast aspersions about Nikon's reliabilty. I've been using various Nikons since 1973 and never had a single problem with a body. In fact the only problem I've had was with a sticky apeture on one lens.

Dec 04, 2011 at 07:54 PM

runamuck
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p.1 #8 · D3 issues

I'm betting on the card being kaput. I did a levels in PS and what is on the photo is neither shutter nor mirror.

Dec 04, 2011 at 08:03 PM

davenfl
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p.1 #9 · D3 issues

He is not casting aspersions, the man is talking about his real life experience with his total body of Nikon ownership, two of their best pro bodies and two failures at very low usage. I interpret that he is reaching out to other Nikon'ers to confirm his decision to switch if nothing else. I own extensive inventory of both Canon and Nikon bodies for my business, both are good. Nikon however has had it's issues of the years just like everyone else. Matt you will get through this and you made a good decision which hopefully will be born out over time.

Dave

Dec 04, 2011 at 08:11 PM

Jammy Straub
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p.1 #10 · D3 issues

runamuck wrote:
I'm betting on the card being kaput. I did a levels in PS and what is on the photo is neither shutter nor mirror.

Hadn't thought of that possibility. I do agree it just doesn't look like a mirror or shutter issue, the exposure it too even.

Dec 04, 2011 at 08:15 PM

Matt OHarver
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p.1 #11 · D3 issues

davenfl wrote:
He is not casting aspersions, the man is talking about his real life experience with his total body of Nikon ownership, two of their best pro bodies and two failures at very low usage. I interpret that he is reaching out to other Nikon'ers to confirm his decision to switch if nothing else. I own extensive inventory of both Canon and Nikon bodies for my business, both are good. Nikon however has had it's issues of the years just like everyone else. Matt you will get through this and you made a good decision which hopefully will be born out over time.

Dave

No I'm certainly not. I've shot many systems, I shot Olympus for many years before moving from film to digital, couldn't get used to the 4/3 format so I went to canon for 5 years, then frustrated with the 1DMKIII camera and 300MM I moved over to Nikon and have been thrilled, but two failures like this have me scratching my head. The CF card in it is a 2 month old Sandisk extreme UDMA card, I hope that isn't it. I've ruled out the lens and contacts, since it worked perfectly on two other bodies and performed during a photo shoot today.

I came home after my photo shoot downloaded my camera and grabbed the D3 to see what it would do. It wouldn't do anything. not even power on. I grabbed the battery and tossed it on the charger and it won't charge, won't do anything. 2 month old Nikon branded battery, bought from Nikon store. I charged it on Thursday, and used the camera for 85 frames Friday night. Charging my other off brand battery now to see what happens. Will update.

Dec 05, 2011 at 12:25 AM

Derek
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p.1 #12 · D3 issues

that can be a lens contact issue, had it on 3 of my D3's, they need the lens and body to adjust the contact pressure (it may be specific to that lens on that body, lens can be fine on another body)

usually shows up as f0.0 in the exif

Dec 05, 2011 at 02:43 AM

Matt OHarver
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p.1 #13 · D3 issues

Derek wrote:
that can be a lens contact issue, had it on 3 of my D3's, they need the lens and body to adjust the contact pressure (it may be specific to that lens on that body, lens can be fine on another body)

usually shows up as f0.0 in the exif

Aperture shows up as F2.8 in all the black frames, including the one posted here.

Matt

Dec 05, 2011 at 03:36 AM

oobie
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p.1 #14 · D3 issues

I also had to replace the shutter on my D3 when it had less than 70k clicks on it. I had the random funky pic like you showed before it finally completely quit. I believe it was less than $600 to fix though. Other than replacing the shutter, my D3 has been completely reliable.

Sorry to hear about your issues. Best off fixing it and your camera will be good to go for another good long time.

Dec 05, 2011 at 04:10 AM

Alan321
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p.1 #15 · D3 issues

Matt, maybe you're just jinxed

I had a similar curse put on my Canon gear by someone. Problem after problem. I hope things come good for you.

- Alan

Dec 05, 2011 at 05:10 AM

hans98ko
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p.1 #16 · D3 issues

Matt OHarver wrote:
Not the only frame like it, to me it appears either the mirror isn't going up and down correctly (which was the failure of odd black frames in my D3s a couple months ago) The same lens went directly on another body and performed flawlessly the rest of the night. I shot about 20 frames off in succession after I noticed it, and not a single one was anything other then black or a little strip of the area I pointed it at. After it sat in my bag a bit, I got it back out between wedding and reception and it worked again, for a bit, then back to the same thing. It's going to go off to Nikon overnight tomorrow.

Matt OHarver wrote:
I came home after my photo shoot downloaded my camera and grabbed the D3 to see what it would do. It wouldn't do anything. not even power on. I grabbed the battery and tossed it on the charger and it won't charge, won't do anything. 2 month old Nikon branded battery, bought from Nikon store. I charged it on Thursday, and used the camera for 85 frames Friday night. Charging my other off brand battery now to see what happens. Will update.

Base on what you wrote:

"I shot about 20 frames off in succession after I noticed it, and not a single one was anything other then black or a little strip of the area I pointed it at."

and

"I came home after my photo shoot downloaded my camera and grabbed the D3 to see what it would do. It wouldn't do anything. not even power on. I grabbed the battery and tossed it on the charger and it won't charge, won't do anything."

I would say it is 99.99% your battery that is causing the problem and not your camera or lens.
Continueous shooting at 20 fps and not able to charge are the key words to your problem.

You either was using an old battery or the battery that came with your camera were close to expiry when it was shipped to you.

Try using a new battery with a known date code that is printed on it and see if you still have that issue. If it does not than you might have wasted the repair cost of $300 on your D3s or another $300 on your D3 without performing self trouble shooting.

The same problem on your D3s and D3 might have been caused by you using the same battery on both cameras.

Hope that is the case and you will safe yourself $200 by getting a new battery for about $100 instead of sending in your camera for repair and not able to use it for a couple of weeks.

Dec 05, 2011 at 06:32 AM

glenn1
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p.1 #17 · D3 issues

Have you tried to seelect mirror up for cleaning in the menu,if the mirror's faulty it won't let you select it,just a thiought ,i might be wrong

Dec 05, 2011 at 11:31 AM

Dwight3
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p.1 #18 · D3 issues

IMHO it's not the battery or the mirror. I took the photo and raised the brightness in an editor. There's a whole frame picture there, which rules out the mirror not being fully up. The picture is seriously underexposed. I've never had a battery problem but I don't see how it could produce consistent underexposures. It could be the shutter. It could be that the aperture is closing down all the way.

Dec 06, 2011 at 10:30 PM

HerbChong
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p.1 #19 · D3 issues

what kind of lighting were you shooting under for each failure?

Herb...

Dec 07, 2011 at 04:13 PM

Matt OHarver
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p.1 #20 · D3 issues

The lighting was ambient, no flash allowed during the ceremony, I went through and checked all of the files, each says the correct aperture and ss. I shot a session last night with the camera and lens combination with a new battery I picked up locally. And both performed flawlessly. I'm shooting basketball tonight and I'm going to use the same camera and lens combination as a wide angle baseline to see what happens. Will let you know.

At this point I believe it has to be a battery issue until I see it occur again. I shot a full studio session with it last night with not a single issue.

Dec 07, 2011 at 06:20 PM

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