GAH! Brother took some shots in the snow

<p>Well here in Houston we had some snow yesterday! I was stuck at work and so I told my brother I wanted some pictures taken on my Nikon D60. I am not sure exactly what happened, I am pretty sure it has to do with transition to hot/cold/hot because now I get an error every time I try to take the picture, and I have to press the shutter release button twice. I also get half a picture of a black space with a notch hanging down. Does it just need a cleaning? Or something more? I took a pic of what it is doing... The bottom half of the photo turns out fine, but the top half is black and the display tells me to press the shutter release button again. AND if it does need to be cleaned, can I do it myself? Or should I take it in.. and last question, is there a spot on this website to recommend a camera store locally? Thanks in advance!</p>

<p><img src="http://i323.photobucket.com/albums/nn445/squallishot/DSC_0309.jpg" alt="" /></p>

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<p>Perhaps it could help if you let the camera dry for a few days on a warm place, without the battery or lens. But it seems there's a failure in the shutter or mirror...</p>

<p>Please try a Google search for a Nikon repair shop in your area...if there is one.</p>

<p>After a day or two of letting the camera dry out (not in the oven...) -- you may e-mail Nikon USA</p>

<p>www.nikonusa.com</p>

<p>for a estimate if the camera is still acting up.</p>

<p>Good luck!</p>

 

<p>When I dry it without the lens, do I leave the cover off as well so the mirrors are exposed? I wanted to let it dry out but wasn't sure if it was ok to just leave the camera open like that. I'll let it dry and if it's not OK by Monday I will take it in! Did it have to do with the hot/cold transitions? What can I do to prevent this in the future if I wanted to take photos in the cold?</p>

<p>Elizabeth--my guess is that moisture (snow) somehow got into the electronics---if it isn't OK after the dry out period, you'll need repair assistance. If there is a dust-free area in your home, leave it there with the cap off to aid in drying off. Good luck!<br>

Paul</p>

<p>You can place a lint free cloth or tissue over the exposed lens mount opening to allow air flow while protecting the interior from dust. When I've done this I taped a sheet of lens cleaning tissue over the opening with a bit of masking tape.</p>

<p>Elizabeth<br>

I was recently at Gaylord Hotel in Kissimmee Florida at their indoor ice sculpture and the room it was in was kept at 9 degrees with fans blowing. I kept my D90 inside my jacket to keep warm anytime i wasn't actually shooting a picture. </p>

<p>http://frankmezz.posterous.com/</p>

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<p>If (after you get your camera fixed up) you want to continue shooting winter scenes, find a large zip lock bag. Zip your camera in before going outside, and let the camera 'cool down' 30 or 40 minutes. You should then be good to go. Before returning inside, zip the camera into the zip lock bag again...then let the camera 'warm up' 50 to 60 minutes before you handle your camera. This reduces the chance of moisture condensing when the camera changes from warm-to-cold, or cold-to-warm temperatures.</p>

<p>...and if you have left over film plastic cans, you can put your camera on a couple of film canisters (face down) and the dust won't <em>go uphill</em> to get into your camera's interior.</p>

<p>Actually, you only need to put your camera in a ziplock when you come inside from the cold. That's when the condensation forms, not when you go outside.</p>

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<p>I kept my D90 inside my jacket to keep warm anytime i wasn't actually shooting a picture.</p>

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<p>Actually that's the bad idea. Condensation happens when you put a cold camera in a warm environment. Cameras work fine in cold; the only problem is battery life. The battery is the only thing that needs to be kept warm - i.e. if it's too cold and the battery is failing, it can be removed and put in a warm pocket, than put back in the camera.</p>

<p>To prevent moisture, let the camera remain in the cold environment for as long as is needed. If you stop shooting or are entering warm environment (car, house), put the camera in a plastic bag, throw a few silica gel packs or a bag of rice inside, seal the bag and then enter the warm place. Don't take the camera outside of the bag until you're sure the temeprature of the camera has equalized the temperature of the environment.</p>

 

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<p>(not in the oven...)</p>

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<p>It really does work, if one is careful. Of course I'm not forcing anyone to try it, but if there's not much to lose anyway...?</p>

<p>when i keep my camera inside my jacket the camera never got cold enough to have a problem. worked for me, for the short time the camera was exposed to 9 degrees. Don't forget i was in Florida, upstate NY in January would have been different. :-)</p>

<p>when i keep my camera inside my jacket the camera never got cold enough to have a problem. worked for me, for the short time the camera was exposed to 9 degrees. Don't forget i was in Florida, upstate NY in January would have been different. :-)</p>

<p>That looks like more than just simple condensation. There's weird reflections of solid things, like something is jolted out of place. I think maybe she dropped it or something.</p>

<p>I live in Houston and have used these people with good results.</p>

<p><a href="http://www.professionalcamerarepair.com/Home.php">http://www.professionalcamerarepair.com/Home.php</a></p>

<p>They are on Richmond just east of the Galleria/610 and near the railroad line.</p>

<p>The big problem round here is taking the camera from the aircon to the outside air ... it has ruined any chances of getting shots of the humming birds this autumn with the lens fogging up.</p>

<p>When drying out electronics, you can place the device inside a container with rice, the rice will absorb moisture and will not harm the device. Adding heat or anything (hair dryer/oven) may seen safe, and some things may work after going through it, but it's not a safe process.</p>

<p>I have never dropped it, the sample picture there was just a quick pic of the kitchen countertop in the early morning so it looks blurry.. Actually you can't even tell what it is.. Here is another photo I took the day before.. If after the drying time it doesn't work I think I'm going to call Nikon first and see what they say and if not I could go somewhere local.. Thank you for the recommendation Clive</p>

<p>P.S. I think it is looking weird when I resize the photo, since there is a size limit and the photos are quite big. I am just resizing in paint so it could be due to that. I just noticed this pic looks a little off when I post it here</p>

<p><img src="http://i323.photobucket.com/albums/nn445/squallishot/DSC_0307.jpg" alt="" /></p>

<p>Looks like a foreign object in the camera, since there is both the line, and the little tag hanging down. If you take off the lens, it would be near the bottom, since the image forms upside down (that's how lenses work). That both are out of focus also says foreign object. Remove the lens, choose a shutter speed of B, open the shutter, and have a peek.</p>

 

<p>I'm pretty sure that's a shutter failure. The large black thing going all the way across is a shutter blade. The thing hanging down is maybe an arm that's supposed to be moving the blade out of the way. Perhaps it's supposed to be attached and got disengaged.</p>

<p>If it's a mechanical failure of the shutter, then it will probably be covered by warranty. I don't see how condensation would cause that sort of failure.</p>

<p>There is an excellent slow motion of a D3 shutter in action at <a href="http://regex.info/blog/2008-09-04/925">http://regex.info/blog/2008-09-04/925</a> - move your mouse left and right across the picture and you can get a good view of all the parts involved.</p>

<p>I'm impressed that the camera is smart enough to know the shutter is stuck. If it's asking you press the button it's because the engineers knew that shutters could get stuck once in a while and included a means to reset the shutter. (This is really just a guess on my part.)</p>

 

<p>Having lived and shot in the Northern Great Lakes region for years, I agree that this doesn't look like a condensation-related issue.<br>

I would take it to a Nikon repair shop, but would first try shooting with another lens to rule out a lens issue, and would then use the sensor cleaning mode or a long shutter speed without a lens attached to directly observe the function of the shutter. Whatever is happening should be visible.</p>

<p>Cameras are generally far more cold tolerant than us humans. As pointed out above, it's the change in conditions -- going from the outiside to the inside, that cause condensation. (Also going from an air-conditioned house to a humid hot day will cause the same effect.) Batteries tend to be the only thing that don't do as well in the cold. I'm not talking about Antarctica-cold, just typical conditions for those of us that have real winter with snow and ice that doesn't really end until March. I'd say you possibly have a serious problem with a broken shutter on the camera, and judging by your level of experience, probably best to take it to a local shop to be examined. It wasn't caused by the weather.</p>

<p >For me it looks like something detached itself between mirror and shutter mechanism and is hanging there obstructing light path. Shutter seems to be OK. I don't think moisture caused this nor colder temperatures. Here in Canada we use Nikon gear in cold very often without any problems. Last winter I left D200 in the trunk of my car for 2 days at -20F (about -26C) for 2 days. After battery change it was working.</p>

<p>What the hell!!! Ok so I didn't know I could open the shutter without the lens til I read it here... Yeah call me a noob.. But I just did. I also took a video but it is pretty much just the shutter opening and closing. I took a few photos of what is going on in there as well as what I think the problem is. It looks like a piece of the lens broke off and fell back in there or something... The tab hanging down in the pictures looks like it's a little chunk that broke and tumbled back in there. I thought it was just the hot/cold issue but now I am thinking otherwise.. I did not check over the camera yet to see if there is any outer evidence of it being dropped or mishandled. Could I get a pair of tweezers and pull it out of there? Or definitely take it in? I am tempted to pull it out, IF it is a foreign object which it looks like it is and not jsut something that came loose... The rough surface looks a lot like a rough area on the lens, plus it's curved. Let me know what you guys think and once again thank you for everything! So much!!</p>

<p><img src="http://i323.photobucket.com/albums/nn445/squallishot/CIMG0078.jpg" alt="" /></p>

<p><img src="http://i323.photobucket.com/albums/nn445/squallishot/CIMG0080.jpg" alt="" /></p>

<p><img src="http://i323.photobucket.com/albums/nn445/squallishot/CIMG0081.jpg" alt="" /></p>

<p>I can take more pictures if more clarification or a different angle is needed.. I am just using my point and shoot, I am getting really worried though, I am not taking anymore pics of the shutter because I have the feeling I'm not doing it any good by opening and shutting it with something jammed in there. I'm uploading the video now in case that will be helpful</p>

<p>Seems to me you have diagnosed the problem, part of the lens mount has broken off and is lodged in the shutter curtain. What lens is that?<br>

If it were me, I'd very, very carefully extract the chunk of lens mount out of there with tweezers.<br>

Let us know how it works out.</p>

<p>On second thought- If you're not sure how to safely remove the broken piece of lens mount don't do it as the shutter curtain is a very delicate mechanism.<br>

You may be better off taking it in to have it repaired by a professional.</p>