Just great! Beautiful!
I think I just messed up my Nikon D3 Sensor.
I was cleaning it with the sensor swaps and Eclipse E2 liquid and some of that liquid
got under the low pass filter. Obviously, it doesn't dry or comes out of there....
Pictures look terrible.... That's just great!! (said freaked out me)
What am I suppose to do now?
Sending the camera in is of course an option but it's already over 2 years old and out of warranty. Anyone has had similar experience and knows how much it would be to get that sensor replaced?
(I just don't see how else they could fix it. I think they have to replace the entire
sensor).
Thanks for any suggestions.
By the way I live around 45 minutes away from El Segundo CA where the Nikon's service is located for Western part of US. I will sure drive there but that won't happen until Friday next week....
There has to be a crack in the filter or some other defect for the fluid to get between the sensor and filter. I've never heard of that happening and the D3 filter needs a lot of cleaning over its life cycle. I'm assuming you didn't pour fluid directly on the filter.
I'd put a towel over the camera and put in in a hot area. Towel will absorb any moister.
I'm doing it as we speak. I just open up the mirror, just like for cleaning, and with help of a hair dryer I'm blowing a hot air onto it. It seems to work. It does dry it a little bit but very slowly.
And James R no I didn't pour directly fluid on the filter but I got my swap quite wet (I pour the fluid onto it) but not that much, at least not enough to get it inside the filter.
I mean, I've cleaned my camera's sensor a hundreds of times, literately, and I've never had this kind of problems.....
I keep my fingers crossed..... maybe this drying will work.
I found a post on line of some guy from GB that got his sensor scratched, (the camera was also out of warranty) and Nikon replaced his sensor for 1300 pounds. I don't know what the currency exchange rate is but 1300 pounds is probably around $2000. This is a brand new (great) lens, like 24mm f/1.4
It's scary...
IT WORKED! The drying worked. I'm amazed, and so happy....
Thanks LLondon. This was great advice that initially I thought would never work.
Let see, it took me, from the time I post this massage, up until now.... so about 2 hours of blowing the hot air.
Live is good again
And I saved myself about $475 (according to runamuck) which I'd paid in a heart beat.
Awesome!!!
Thank you all, and I must say again, this is a great place to hang out - lots of cool people.
As a thank you I'll post some great pics I took yesterday at the Mojave desert. It was great and, my word, hot.
Still worth of going. The Kelso sand dunes are just insane.... Too hot to claim them now but I sure will go there late October or November.
Anyone wanna go?
Greg, It's great you got your sensor dried out! However, I just find it so strange that the whole filter/sensor assembly isn't sealed. I just assumed that all sensor assemblies (Nikon, Canon, etc) are always hermetically sealed. In fact, if you watch the LifePixel tutorial, it appears that the filter/sensor should be sealed. I wonder if this was normal or if there is a defect in your assembly.
Omar,
This is perhaps a defect. I don't really know. It seems like it is. I will call Nikon tech support on Tuesday and ask. I don't know if they can do anything about it now, since my warranty expired, but it won't hurt to ask.
If this is a defect I'd imagine they'll fix it for free anyway.
Comes to think of it, if the camera is exposed to a place that has high humidity even with a whether sealed lens the sensor can somehow "suck" a moisture into it. That's no good.... This should be a sealed thing.
I guess I got excited over nothing.... The sensor is dry alright, but there's so much dust behind the low pass filter
that can't be removed it isn't even funny.
Also, there's still little bit of E2 liquid left in 4 corners.
I guess I have to send it in for repair. I wonder if the place RUNAMUCK post a link to, can fix this.
They say they'll replace a low pass filter if it's scratched.... But this? Hm.... I hope they will.
By the way the price to fix this for Nikon D3 is $475 so don't screw it up like I did.
Why did the sealing fail?
Has the camera got very hot? Has the camera had a sudden change it temp say from 70 to 100+.
Just thinking if the camera got very hot in a car that could have melted a seal. Car interiors can go over 140 in just a few minutes. If the camera was taken from a cool AC place out into the heat of the sand dunes that could have done it due to temp shock.
I have shot DSLRs for 5/6 years and NEVER cleaned a sensor myself. At first I relied on routine factory service. Now, the auto clean feature seems to be working. But I, mostly, shoot at F2.8 and faster. If I see a grung on the image I spot it out in PS as part of my post.
Rodolfo Paiz wrote:
Nice images, Gregg. I especially like the first one, and I wonder if the WB isn't somewhat off in the second... the sky looks funny to me.
No the WB was correct. I used the Cokin P series graduate blue filter but the sky came out too blue so I reduced the color intensity in the PS (The sky should be as blue as on the third image but it was too dark-blue)
On my monitor, however, it looks good. But on my laptop's monitor it looks, well, different. I'd say, pale blue.
As far as the sealing goes... Well, I don't know what caused a break in it. I doubt it was a sudden temp difference. I've had my camera in similar situations/environment before and it was all good. Something has happened in the past 2.5 years or it was broken since the very beginning. I just pour little bit more of that E2 liquid now and the problem came out.
I'll talk to both recommended stores here in this thread and the Nikon tech support people, just to see what they say. Maybe this is a quite common thing we don't know about. I know lots of people has switched from Nikon D3 to D3s (I can't justify this move) and now they have the sensor cleaning system, which is useful, so most of them now barely use the liquid or "touch" the sensor with swaps or brushes or something else.
Anyway, I'll all let you know what happened and how much it costs...
(I'm most certain I'll end up paying around $500 to fix this now)
FYI,
I called the Nikon service in CA - El Segundo and ask about the sensor. I explained everything.... and they told me they will fix it, no problems.
I asked how much would be to replace the sensor (not just the low pass filter) and they said this is a $450 job. (the tech support guy actually said that if there's more to it, maybe something needs to be cleaned etc. this will add up to about $500 at most!)
I also inquired about the TAT for such a job and they said it'll take around one week.
I don't understand....someone said that the CA Nikon service holds your camera for months sometimes. I actually ask them, how come they do things so slowly?
The guy I was talking to was actually very surprised and said that this is not true unless the job involves importing a part from Japan. But even then, he said, this would normally take about 2 weeks TAT, not 2 or so months.
The Authorized Photo Service - a place recommended here in this thread from IL told me, they don't really do any sensors replacement etc. and recommended I go to Nikon instead...
This is what I'll do....
However, I just find it so strange that the whole filter/sensor assembly isn't sealed. I just assumed that all sensor assemblies (Nikon, Canon, etc) are always hermetically sealed. In fact, if you watch the LifePixel tutorial, it appears that the filter/sensor should be sealed. I wonder if this was normal or if there is a defect in your assembly.