Fix for D700 battery door

<p>This is the story: You're just thinking what a great camera the D700 is, and then you change batteries one day and catch the battery door with your hand. You hardly feel it, but when you look at the camera the battery door is hanging off at a strange angle. On closer inspection you see that the hinge is broken off on one side and that Nikon have chosen to make the hinge out of crappy PLASTIC. Not only that, but such a thin piece of plastic that breakage is almost inevitable. Bah! Well maybe a dab of superglue will hold it? That seems to have done the trick....... until 2 weeks later when the battery door falls off again.</p>

<p>You search the web for a spare door. They're surprisingly cheap, but then you see that they have to be shipped from the States because nobody in Europe stocks the darn things. The price immediately doubles with shipping charges and you begin to think about alternatives.</p>

<p>This was the lead up to modifying my D700 battery door. I decided that what was needed was a hinge pin that wouldn't snap off like a dry twig. A metal pin seemed the obvious answer, but Nikon (bless them) had left so little plastic available that the design needed to be quite cunning. Anyway I think I've cracked it - if you'll pardon the pun.</p>

<p>The new pin starts life as a short length of 2mm diameter rod. I used a small section out of a stainless steel bicycle spoke, but brass or mild steel would do just as well. The cunning bit is to file a flat in the middle of the rod to take the remainder of the plastic door - see attached drawing. The flat needs to be filed to nearly half the diameter of the rod. Next file the old plastic lugs off the battery door (actually the breakage had done half of this job for me!). Then use a triangular section needle file to file down the plastic where your new pin needs to mate with the door. This needs to be done slowly and carefully while regularly offering your new pin up to the door for fit.</p>

<p>When you have a good mate of door and pin, epoxy the two together, filling the underside of the webbing next to the pin with a nice pool of adhesive. I suggest you use decent slow cure epoxy and not that quick-set rubbish. Allow to cure, trim away any excess epoxy runs and fit the door. With care and luck it'll work better than the old door ever did and won't break again in a hurry. It should also look hardly any different from outside the camera.</p>

<p>The work took me about 2 hours, but I consider it was worth it to know that I now have the strongest D700 battery door in the world. Unless you know different.</p>

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<p>Here are some pictures of the modified battery flap.</p><div></div>

<p>Well now you've created a metal battery door hinge connected to a plastic frame. Now more damage can happen if the door is bumped. Cheaper to replace a battery door than the entire battery chamber housing...</p>

<p>Dave. The battery door is meant to unclip and pop off. Unfortunately, with Nikon's original choice of materials it was a toss-up whether the battery door unclipped or the pins broke. </p>

<p>I'm not following your logic anyway. How could a plastic door (even with metal pins) cause damage to the diecast metal body that it fits into? The door would have to fall into the battery chamber and be rattled around in there to damage it.</p>

<p>The design I've created is very similar to what Canon used on the Eos 5D - metal pins set into a plastic cover. Except that Canon did the job properly in the first place and spring-loaded the pin for removal, unlike Nikon's friction fit half-baked design.</p>

<p>Joe,<br>

Thnx, Ill copy this post to a place for savekeeping on my PC ... :-) <br /> BTW, Last moth i orederd two of those doors from a Honkong firm through Fleebay, those guys sent everything free of charge around the world.. ( in this case The Netherlands), but your solution is better because its still cheaper and will probably last longer ( mine were for my D300, but they are the same door...) but now I cannot find them anymore on Fleebay...<br /> This guy : rongyuanxie : sends them for $1.99 though from the states ( unless you want express mail, then it goes to $30,00 ...) .</p>

<p> </p>

<p>I checked Bocaphot.com dba Precision Photo carries this item fits Nikon D700/ D300s/ D300 and D200 cost is $16.46 USD and shipping to 97 countries. For those reading this thread who have suffered a similar fate and don't have the skill or interest in DIY repair.</p>

<p>Well done and a bit resourceful! Thanks for sharing!</p>

<p>Joe, if the battery door is ripped out of the hinge slots, damage could occur and you may have to send it to Nikon for an out of warranty repair, which could result in an expensive repair. Again, Nikon designed it this way for a reason...</p>

<p> Nikon designed it this way for a reason</p>

<p>Dave, could this reason be "Selling Doors" :-) :p</p>

<p>I think nobody is served by such a weakness on such an important part ...</p>

 

<p>Dave. Have you even seen a D700 camera and the way that the battery flap fits to it? You would have to hit the thing with considerable force to actually damage the camera - in which case one of three things might happen:<br /> 1) the door will fly off intact; 2) the epoxied pin will separate from the door; 3) the plastic door will break at some other point and - worst case - a bit of paint might get scratched from the metal (repeat METAL) seating of the battery door.</p>

<p>I really can't see any sensible scenario whereby the modification I've suggested will do anything but increase the robustness of the camera. If the philosophy of making everything breakaway to protect other parts was followed to its logical conclusion, then the entire camera would be made of foam rubber and papier-mache.</p>

<p>The door as supplied by Nikon is a flimsy affair that looks as if it was lazily re-used from a much cheaper camera. In fact the finish of the door doesn't even match the rest of the camera at all, which increases my suspicion that this was a recycled "quick fix" design. To credit Nikon with considering the protection of other parts of the camera in its "design" is extremely charitable.... or extremely naive.</p>

<p>Wow, that seems like a lot of work to fix a battery door. Honestly if i were in the same predicament I would have just bought a box of band-aids and kept them in my bag for a quick fix. Cheers to your ingenuity!</p>

 

<p>Rodeo Joe, Nikon has been designing and building cameras for a lot longer than you've been using them. I worked for a few years as a manager at a camera repair shop, and I've seen just about every kind of damage a person can inflict on a camera. Believe me, you will understand what I am talking about, when you find your newly modified battery door was left open, and you either dropped the camera or it was bumped, and the solid metal hinges on the door have now ripped away the plastic slots they slide into on the body. And now you have a very expensive repair on your hands, when before, due to the smart Nikon design, it would have been absorbed by the door hinge, and it's only a $15 part from Nikon, easily installed by the user... Instead you may find that the entire lower body assembly is now in need of replacement which could be many hundreds of dollars...</p>

<p>Uhmmmm!!!!!!??? <br /> "when you find your newly modified battery door was left open, and you either dropped the camera"</p>

<p>while you are crossing the street and an 18 wheeler runs over your camera with the battery door opened.....</p>

<p>All those things may happen.....<br /> I dropped mine 700 from a plane a week after I bought it..... I was lucky that the plane had landed already....</p>

<p>And Rodeo..... GREAT job.... But man, you must have too much free time on your hands..... hehe! :)</p>

<p>Hey Joe , just for the record.<br>

Found a website from Nikon themselves ( Dutch Version, dono about other countries), they sell this door at Eur. 13 and you can order online from them at normal P&P rates... I guess your local Nikon S&S would also suply them ?<br>

Anyways, here is the Link for Nikon Netherlands strraight to the "door" .. :-) ... : <a href="http://www.nikonservice.nl/shop/product_info.php?cPath=28_29_66_82&products_id=401&osCsid=46622c23550aab561481d36d80f9c5f5">http://www.nikonservice.nl/shop/product_info.php?cPath=28_29_66_82&products_id=401&osCsid=46622c23550aab561481d36d80f9c5f5</a></p>

 

Bringing ancient threads back from the dead appears to be in fashion. So.....

 

Just for the record, my modified D700 battery door is still working fine nearly 6 years on, hasn't caused apocalyptic damage to the camera, and shows no sign of the epoxy join falling apart. 2 hours of filing and glueing well spent I reckon.

I am really careful when I open the battery door and cf card door and load an unload a card. They aren't made for abuse. I have never had them open in the bag and I often carry a camera bag 2 -3 hrs a day. Same for my d200. Both working fine after tens of thousands of activations.

I'm careful too Bob, which made it even more galling when a simple catch of a sleeve, or something similarly slight, broke the hinge pin. The force required to snap the door was so small that I really didn't notice it until I saw the door hanging off.

 

The D700 battery door is designed to snap out of it's mounting. The trouble is the word "snap" is taken too literally and even if you try to gently ease the door off it's likely to break. I believe there's an external power supply available that requires the battery door to be removed - well good luck with that!

My problem with that body isn't the doors, it's the single/continuous/manual focus switch that when I have the camera on a tripod or camera stand I STILL can't change it without contorting to look at it. Plus I find it can get bumped in the bag. Now when is the d810 replacement coming out???? Joe, i understand, I like to shoot in a nearly dark studio illuminated by modeling lights only so at my computer, it's pretty dark, especially if the soft boxes have egg crates which they usually do. But I keep a vertical grip on the camera so the door is covered unless I am removing a battery. Never thought about it, but I guess that could be a way of protecting the door. You really made me look at the body. I have been using it so long, it is like my 3 weight fly rod that is so light you just think the fly out and after all these years, using the controls on the body are so automatic, I don't look much at the camera. After my move and not using the Buff cyber commander had to think about how to do things. After using them a lot again, I was trying to think how I navigate and couldn't because it just happens autimatically while I am concentrating on the shot at hand. Not good if I have to explain it to someone.