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Nikon D300 Issues


a.j._olmscheid

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Hello everyone,

 

I'm a photographer at the Minnesota State Capitol, recently the House and Senate photo departments have

purchased 9 new Nikon D300's four out of the Nine will have to be serviced because of two issues. That is

a 40% failure rate. One issue is the allusive black frame. For some reason more than one of our cameras is

producing a black frame. The next issue is a false "battery empty" warning, which in turn shuts off the

camera. Please check out this posting that I found:

 

http://www.notebooks.com/2008/01/22/d300-false-low-battery-warningsworthless-dslrthanks-a-

lot-nikon/

 

In order for Nikon to realize they have some bad cameras out on the market people need to start posting

and blogging about this issue. I have to say though I am really happy with the D300 color and ability to

shoot in low light situations. However, photography is all about capturing moments that will most likely

never happen again. It is my job to capture those moments. Nikon is making it very difficult to do my job

with their faulty cameras.

 

Thanks for reading,

A.J.

 

 

"All things are photographable."

Garry Winogrand

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I have not seen either of those issues with the one D300 I have. Must be very frustrating to get a couple of bad ones. Get them serviced right away, or better yet just return them if the vendor will take them back. Nikon will hear about it when they get the cameras back and have to fix them.

 

I am sure these problems will be worked out in time. Make sure you post back the resolution.

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This is the first issues I've heard about the D300. You must have got a bad "batch" Mine works great and there are thousands of people on the internet raving about it. You would think if they were getting high failure rates you would be hearing about it all over. Angry customers are much more vocal then happy ones. I certainly hope they corrected the problems quickly.
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I have used two different D300 bodies extensively: one I bought myself from a local camera store here in California and another one on loan from Nikon USA (in New York) to photo.net for us to produce the D300 review:

http://www.photo.net/equipment/nikon/D300/D300-review

 

I did not have any problems with either sample. My own D300 is almost 3 months old now with 6000+ images. I cannot be happier with that camera. Since I moderate the Nikon Forum here, I pay attention to all threads posted to that forum, and I am only aware of a few isolated D300 problems reported.

 

I think A.J. might have run into a bad batch. Hopefully Nikon will replace them promptly and look into this problem. As with any piece of new equipment, it is your responsibility to perform some basic testing before depending on it for critical work.

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Like Shun, I have used also two D300, one loaned from Nikon and my own one. I didn`t experienced any problem. I can`t say more.

 

Please let me be a bit damn with your post. I understand you are probably burned out with your experience, but this kind of post needs to be absolutely clean. Many people could not catch the reality from this kind of posts.

 

Four out of nine isn`t a 40% failure rate: is a bad bunch of cameras. D300 are made at a 60.000 units per month rate, thought. Do you really think there are that percentage of failed units?

 

After 25+ years shooting and working with tons of Nikon gear, I have certainly experienced some problems, but I cannot consider that this few ones make my lifetime work more difficult.

 

About your link, it`s funny to read that this guy is starting to lose faith on Nikon because his SB-28 who "... haven`t touched for a while... seems to have died while in storage". For that reason we must lose faith on Energizer, Duracell, Metz, Sunpak, Toshiba, Compaq, and many other manufacturers who use batteries and condensers into their products who "died while in storage".

 

Does Nikon fix that problem? If so, how fast? IMO we must be really hard with Nikon if they don`t fix that problems for free and in a short time. Has been this your experience?

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Wow, lots of responses! Well Nikon was very nice, but was not convinced that it was really

a faulty camera issue. They want me to send my cameras in for repairs. However I would

like to see if I can just return them to the store where they were purchased.

 

Also, there are many others with my issue if you go to

 

http://www.nikonians.org/forums/dcboard.php?

az=show_topic&forum=149&topic_id=115109&mesg_id=115109&page=

 

this is on Nikonians website. People who love Nikon are getting very upset over there

D300's. Also, when I mentioned to Nikon about other people having problems and they

are posted on the internet in various sites, forums, and blogs, they would not want to

believe me.

 

Also to Joe Angel about the bad batch of cameras. I agree it was a bad batch of cameras

and I was simply saying that my camera failure rate was 40% not all of Nikons Cameras are

going to have this high of a failure rate. On second thought maybe they could. Anyways, it

is very horrible when you buy 9 cameras and 4 of them fail right away.

 

Good Luck

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Guess what guys and gals two more d300's have experienced flawed issues. I'm pretty sure

it's not a batch issue because they all have different serial numbers and also they were

purchased from different stores four locally and the rest online. Out of the cameras here I

have had a 66% failure rate, 6 out of 9 failed. 6 down 3 to go.

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>>> I'm pretty sure it's not a batch issue because they all have different serial numbers

 

>>> Are you sure there is no pilot error involved here?

 

Makes you wonder considering the large volumes of D300 cams being produced coupled with

large preponderance of favorable experiences reported over many sources on the net.

www.citysnaps.net
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Listen guys I'm no idiot when it comes to taking pictures. Meaning no user "pilot" error. Have

you looked at any of the links I've posted. The issue is still being resolved and while it's being

resolved their have been more d300's in my possession that have failed. I will post what

happens when it is resolved and I have a working camera. I shoot hundreds if not thousands

of pictures everyday and this issue has never happened to me until I started using the d300. I

will also mention that I have had no problem with the D3. I have used Nikon my whole life

and have been loyal, however situations like this makes one want to jump ship.

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<I>

</I>

Ok here's some more news from Nikon, from the photographer that works at the

Minnesota House of Representatives. He's had the same problems and has shipped his to

Nikon, through Nikon Professional Services. This is part of his email to me:

<P>

I did get a call from a Nikon Pro Service person and they wanted the electronic images e-

mailed to them so they could do some checking. They thought it may be some sort of

circuit breaker that might be turning off the camera when the lens is doing what ever it

does. Anyway I'm hoping they can track down something and solve the issue.

<P>

Well that all that has been resolved as of yet. I'll let you guys know more when it happens.

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Well, I'm convinced this must be 100% AJ's fault. There's just no doubt in my mind. The man is a novice. Chances are he either: <p>

 

1. Drops his cameras into <a href=http://www.jpgmag.com/photos/95482>holes in the street where folks are working</a>.<p>

 

2. Lets big guys <a href=http://www.latimes.com/sports/la-lakers14feb14-pg,0,3573331.photogallery?index=3>bounce the ball on his cameras</a>.<p>

 

3. Allows those guys to actually <a href=http://dailynews.mycapture.com/mycapture/enlarge.asp?userphoto=0&image=17779646&thispage=1>dunk the ball on his innocent cameras</a>.<P>

 

So which is it, AJ ? What are you doing wrong out there ? :-)

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Is it possibly a climate issue? Coming in out of cold weather too rapidly?

<p>

AJ is in Minnesota.

The <u><a href="http://www.nikonians.org/forums/dcboard.php?%20az=show_topic&forum=149&topic_id=115109&mesg_id=115109&page=">link in his 'similar' story on Nikonians</a></u> mentions being outside in a car in cool overnight weather.<br>

<p>

Maybe condensation is shorting something and tripping that Nikon 'circuit breaker'.

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That is most likely not the issue. The d300's that I have used at the capitol are owned by

the Minnesota State Senate so I'm not allowed to take them home. Also, due to cold

weather not many events happen outdoors at the capitol this time of year. This year I have

only taken the D300 out in the subzero elements once and the issue happened that day

(not outside though). However, the problem still persisted on days where the camera did

not go outside. Therefore, I do not believe it has to do with bringing it out into cold

weather.

 

Thanks everyone for the comments and concerns.

 

I promise to post the resolution when everything has been solved.

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All I can say is ... WOW!

 

6 out of nine. 66.66%. I would wonder if the same lens is used all the time. Perhaps not the same EXACT lens, but the same one handed out to all who get the camera to use for the state. Like everyone gets the D300 and a 80-200mm . There MUST be something consistant going on for THAT high of failure.

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Personally, I don't doubt the failure rate that the OP is posting, based on my personal experience. I shoot mainly wildlife and have a 500 AFSG-VR mounted most of the time, with and without TC's. I've also experienced these issues with a 300 2.8 VR, 300 f4 and 28-70 AFS.

 

Body #1 (serial # 997) refused to focus at all when picked up at the store. It was replaced right then and there.

 

Body # 2 (serial# 1597) worked great for 2 weeks and then AF slowed to a crawl, hunted severely and then the body began exhibiting the DBS / lockup and shooting black frames at 1/8000 of a second, with no other EXIF information. Again, this was replaced by the store after approval from their Nikon rep.

 

Body # 3 (serial# 5999) worked perfectly for 4,988 images and then began exhibiting the exact same issues. I sent this to Nikon Melville and it was replaced.

 

Body #4 (serial#25997) worked perfectly for 5,016 images and then experienced the same failures as 2 and 3. It is currently at Nikon.

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