Repairs are part of my daily world. Getting sensors replaced because someone scratched them is too. So let me be the first to warn you: if you scratch your D800E sensor I'd suggest considering just photoshopping it out on all your images: Nikon's charge for D80E sensor replacement was $1,866.
Of course we called to double check that. And that was the correct price.
How does that compare to the other Nikon cameras or like the Canon 5d's? That does seem like a high cost considering the entire camera is just over $3K.
I always wondered...how long does it take you to check out a camera that comes back from rental? If your catching scratched sensors in that process I imaging you must be doing a pretty thorough check. If you were to ever disclose your process that would be a great help to those looking for ways to verify a used body.
JohnBrose wrote:
How does that compare to the other Nikon cameras or like the Canon 5d's? That does seem like a high cost considering the entire camera is just over $3K.
I haven't had the pleasure with a 5DIII yet, but 5DIIs were $480; 7Ds around $400. D700s were about $550, but the last one we had was over $600. D7000s are just under $500 now, they used to be just over $400.
That sensor price has me talking to MaxMax and Lifepixels. Might be a D800E IR for rent pretty soon
snapsy wrote:
I always wondered...how long does it take you to check out a camera that comes back from rental? If your catching scratched sensors in that process I imaging you must be doing a pretty thorough check. If you were to ever disclose your process that would be a great help to those looking for ways to verify a used body.
It's usually immediate on return: we check the sensor with a sensor loupe and take a f/22 shot of a nearby white wall. But it's very possible one of our outgoing techs scratched the sensor while cleaning it on the way out the door. The customer never noticed anything, but probably wouldn't given normal shooting.
How do you find people are scratching their sensors? Improper technique during wet cleaning?
thanks
I would assume during cleaning, I can't imagine any other way to scratch it. Our experience is most of the time that we know what happened, a bit of "dust" was actually a spec of metal or maybe sand and scratched the sensor when sweeping it off. I assume when we don't know what happened, it was probably the same.
It's pretty rare - we clean a few dozen sensor a day and maybe have a scratch a month.
Roger I am surprised to see you post that low number on replacement for FF sensors. We have had 2 replaced over the years in a 1dS3 and a D3s, and they all ran in the $1200-1500 range with CPS and NPS memberships. Recently an associate had his 1Ds3 sensor replaced (1 month ago) and it was just over $1300. You must be getting a heck of a deal.
I don't think they'll do just the glass, it has to be a sensor assembly replacement.
Oddly, I've never had a D3x, s or 1DsIII sensor need replacement. Mostly because we have maybe 20X more D700 and 5DIIs than the big guys. But I'm surprised the 5DII would be so much less than that.
I guess that's why the price shocked me so. From a business standpoint, if the cameras aren't newly released, it makes more sense to sell the parts rather than replace the sensor.
Maybe I should do a poll: take it apart for parts, convert it to IR, or just replace the sensor
Of course, if I take it apart, I get to take pictures while I do it, so that's probably my vote.
There is the issue of degree with scratches. I've got a self-inflicted scratch on one of my D3s. It's very faint and can be seen with the loupe, but not with the naked eye. It is impossible to make it show up in photos.
1. You didn't ask, but I say IR convert it and rent it out, it's still a useful camera!!! If it were water logged or something, that would be different! Don't sacrifice it yet.
2. There's a company (will look it up later) who makes a kind of spray that forms a mucus like membrane that dries which you can then cleanly lift off to remove dirt without 'swiping'. It was expensive stuff and targeted more towards the astronomy/astrophotographer crowd, but it might be worth looking into.
davenfl wrote:
Roger I am surprised to see you post that low number on replacement for FF sensors. We have had 2 replaced over the years in a 1dS3 and a D3s, and they all ran in the $1200-1500 range with CPS and NPS memberships. Recently an associate had his 1Ds3 sensor replaced (1 month ago) and it was just over $1300. You must be getting a heck of a deal.
Dave
Roger is probably getting not only a trade discount on the part, but is also only purchasing the part, and not sending the camera in to Nikon to have them fix it. A regular person like you or me has to send the camera in and pay the full price for the part and then pay for the labor to replace it on top of that. That's where the cost difference is. Unfortunately, Nikon would never sell a regular person the part to fix the camera themselves. There are some retail stores out there that sell a few replacement parts (focusing screens, screen protectors, etc.) that you can swap out yourself, but never a sensor.
Nikon's policy is to replace the entire sensor assembly.
Generally the low pass filter protecting the sensor gets scratched.
I scratched my D700 filter and had it replaced by Lifepixel for $300 versus $1200 by Nik
I used to go nuts over the dust bunnies, so I kept the cam sensor cleaner to go on & off. I was cleaning 'n cleaning, but no more.
I'm in the habit of turning my cam on in a holster while removing it. So I was redistributing the dust ONTO my sensor since the cam wasn't on it's base (Niks instructions) when cleaning. I believe the dust within the sensor cavity is held down by gravity.
Now I cam clean a couple of times with cam base side down, before shooting. Now far less dust.
Tommy, we can't change out sensors; recalibrating AF and AE after sensor change requires equipment and software you can't get anymore. So that was the price I had for factory replacement.
We do get a corporate discount on the Canon side. It's not as good as CPS platinum, though so the prices aren't lower lower than most people get. Nikon doesn't give corporate discounts so the prices we payed there are full retail. I expect someone with NPS would get a better rate than we do on Nikon repairs.
Anyway, as I mentioned, with sensors so expensive lately we've begun either converting them to IR or parting the cameras out in most cases when a sensor gets scratched. We tend to get sensor replacements when we have trouble getting stock on a camera or if it's nearly new (both apply to D800Es), but I double checked costs on Canon sensor replacements we've had done (before our corporate discount).
5D Mk III was $762
7D is $396
I was surprised the 1DsIII Dave had done was that high, we've never had one replaced, but 5DII sensors were in the $600 range. Maybe there was a lot more labor charge for the 1DsIII bodies? I'd always thought it was the same sensor as the 5D II, but it was never a popular camera with us so I've never had one repaired.
