D70 Serial # & the BGLOD

[dottie_cain]

Does anyone know the spread of the D70 production run/serial number

sequence that is effected by the BGLOD flaw?

[vivek iyer]

It does not matter, IMO, as Nikon will officially fix any D70 sample that has died a BGLOD.

[Richard Williams]

Well, it might matter if the thing dies just before your Shot of the Century (which can happen to any camera, of course, but is rather more likely if it contains a ticking time bomb). The usual production cutoff often repeated on the net is 'pre September 2004' for the affected cameras. I've no idea how accurate this is.

[anis]

I guess a pre-emptive fix by nikon might be really worthwhile as atleast we can schedule the repair...

 

Anis

[vivek iyer]

That would be a product recall. They did not do that with the D2H (instead they came up with the D2Hs, a tacit admission by itself, IMO).

 

They did not do that with the > 1 million D70 cameras. They have come up with a D70s.

[bill_kleimen]

I am not a pro but I like to take my camera with me wherever I go. (I have never had a film body Nikon fail me in the past) I don't normally carry a backup body with me and only have film bodies I could use as a backup anyway which would require I carry film etc. I would like to know if my D70 was part of the defective batch. I would rather sell a time bomb and get a D70s than have the D70 fail me on a vacation. How can I tell if mine will die with the BGLOD? What serial numbers start after the rumored September 04 production resolution?

[anis]

Yes. That would be a product recall. Companies need to worry what they need to worry about. If it is a widespread defect then one way or another they will pay the cost. 1000$ might not be a lot of money for them, but it is quite a bit to warrant a concern about getting it fixed.

 

Anis

[cindy_r]

Hi Dottie,

I just spent $200 for repair of the #7004792 purchased in Singapore March 27, 2004 from the Harvey Norman camera dept. I contacted Nikon, but they dodged the question and would not admit to any fault and said my warranty was expired. Tough luck. I found 3 guys in Singapore on one website who all got 700000 series D70' and they had all failed exactly the samne way as mine. (search on Niko D-70 GLOD)

 

My camera began to give unusual exposures and bad shutter timing within maybe 6-8 months of purchase, but I figured it inexperience with a digital camera. I never doubted the Nikon camera. At least not until it catastrophically failed at the photo opportunity of my life. Very, very embarrassing.

 

I became sure it was the camera, not me, when I got wildly changing exposures, sometimes even when the lens cap was on!, the shutter would malfunction at times, sometimes the camera would not turn on at all. Sometimes I had the ERR message, other times the green light would be on. Finally it would not turn on for two weeks, then the erratic and bizarre problems came back. The camera is now working fine with all new electronics. I am glad to have it back, but am terribly disappointed with Nikon for not addressing what appears to be an integral fault with some of the software in the early D70's. I do not expect to purchase any more Nikon products because of this. I have been a super loyal owner for 25 or more years, but theysold me a defective product and would not admit it. I hope this helps.

Cindy Rasche

[lukas_kisiel]

Please don't spread rumors that every D70, before or after certain date, is defective. Yes, yours might fail. Welcome to the world of consumer electronics! Nikon, Canon and others know that some of their cameras are going to be defective and they still ship them to retailers. It's cheaper for them to fix or replace defective ones than invest more money into state-of-art, even-higher-precision manufacturing processes and higher skilled labor.

[vivek iyer]

Pawel, No one is spreading rumors. These are facts admitted by Nikon themselves. Do note that only two models- D2H and D70 are under discussion.

 

The problem comes when Nikon admits to these defects quite late. What happens to those who had to pay themselves to fix these defective products? Would Nikon refund those "repairs"? In the future, when they sell a camera would they sell it with a disclaimer like, "prone to die without any reasonable cause, buy it at your own risk" ?

[ilkka_nissila]

A lot of people seem to claim that they are all going to die sooner or later. This is nonsense. Nikon's note said that on rare occasions they may fail. I know several D70 owners personally outside of the internet (about 10) and not one of them has had this problem.

[vivek iyer]

Let us wait and see when the cameras of those waging a campaign here would fail.

[lex_jenkins]

I think the point Pawel was trying to make, in response to Dottie's concern, is that there doesn't appear to be a definitive way to determine the probability of a D70 failing based on serial numbers.

 

There was a widespread "report" (I'm being generous and not calling these rumors) that the D2H failures occurred only in cameras up to a certain serial number. My D2H has a later serial number so according to popular mythology it should not fail. The only reason I'm sending it to the shop is to have a hot pixel fixed (remapped, I suppose - I doubt they'll replace an entire sensor for one bad pixel).

 

Unless Nikon has conducted an internal audit to determine whether these problems were confined to a particular production run or whether it is an inherent or randomly distributed flaw that shows up in only a few cameras, we won't know because they probably won't publicly announce it.

 

As an example, years ago I owned a Subaru. A 1980 model, I think. It was highly recommended by a friend who owned the same model and Subarus in general seemed to be well regarded by owners. Mine was nothing but trouble.

 

Several times the car just died while driving, usually while I was cruising conveniently in the left or middle lane of a highway in busy traffic. I took it to the shop under warranty, they claimed nothing was wrong and returned the car without saying whether they'd done any work on it at all.

 

Then the front wheel drive mechanism failed. It turns out that the rubber boots around the constant velocity joints are vulnerable to damage on some front wheel drive cars. (This isn't confined to Subarus - I've seen Hondas with the same problem.) Usually a front tire kicks up a piece of gravel or road debris, punturing the CVJ boot. During high speed driving the grease heats up enough to spin around pretty vigorously. Little by little it nibbles away at the puncture, enlarging it to a slit at which point all of the grease is slung out. Then the CV joint is running dry and quickly wears out. The failure can be catastrophic - if enough play has developed in the worn joint the car can go out of control in a turn.

 

I took the car in for warranty repairs for this problem two or three times. Finally the dealer said it wasn't a warranty issue and they would no longer repair it at no charge to me despite the fact that the car was still under warranty.

 

While waiting for my car to have its CV joints repaired for the fourth or fifth time, I walked past the bulletin board in the shop itself so I could get a drink at the only available water fountain. Being bored, I stopped for a moment to read the notices on the bulletin board. One of the most prominently displayed notices was an internal memo discussing this CV joint failure and an unpublicized "recall" policy. In other words, Subaru wasn't going to publicly admit to any problems. But whenever a car was brought in for any kind of service, even an oil change, the CV joints were to be checked and repaired as necessary. The notice indicated this was an indefinite policy and was not limited to the life of the warranty. I pointed this out to the service manager and they fixed the CV joint at no charge.

 

Sure, I managed to squeeze 150,000 miles out of that pig before finally selling it for scrap. I just got tired of pouring money into an ungrateful heap. (It had many other problems.)

 

Anyway, even if Nikon has narrowed the problem down to a specific production run, don't expect them to publicly acknowledge it. Be grateful they've publicly owned up to the problem at all and are willing to fix it at no charge. That's a lot more than some companies will do.

[vivek iyer]

Lex, Your Subaru tale clearly illustrates the problem. Why charge the unsuspecting Joe for a defect, in the first place?

 

Fuji apparently fixes the S2s when they die (sensor dying)after couple of years or so without any charge.

 

Konica-Minolta recalibrates older flashes to match 7D, etc.

 

I do not know of any others.

 

Sure, mass produced dslrs are bound to have defects depending on the state of the art of the QC. Taking care of those in a timely fashion is bound to help the manufacturer

[anthony_wikel]

What exactly is BGLOD??

 

I may very well be in the wrong forum but I'm a bit frustrated and just looking for some knowledge.

 

I have a D70 that I bought in December of 2004. Last month I got the ERR on my display and the shutter froze up on it. I sent it out and just got it back 3 days ago.

 

Nikon sent a piece of paper back with my repaired body stating that they updated the software while they were fixing it.

 

Today I turn it on and attempt to take a photo and it would not auto-focus. So I just figured maybe I had messed up a setting and started investigating. Well I could not check to see if I messed anything up because I could not get the menu to come up. Finally I just decided to take a photo with the manual focus, I noticed that the window would not close the picture and go back to the black screen, the photo I shot stayed in the window until the next photo I took (and then that one stayed, etc...) The photo could not be advanced nor could I go to the previous photo. I can take pictures with manual focus I just can not use any of the buttons on the body. Has anyone ever heard of or experienced this problem before. Is there anything I can do about it or do I have to give my camera up again for another month after 3 days of having it back??

 

Tony W.

[vivek iyer]

B.G.L.O.D = Blinking Green Light Of Death.

 

Your had it and appears to have not been fixed properly. Send it back.

[bailie photography]

A quick search on dpreview.com shows that BGLOD can't be attirbutable to some specific range of serial numbers.

 

My D70 die yesterday due to BGLOD problem and my serial is 7xxxxxxx.

Others who posted on dpreview have serial no.# starting at 3xxxxxx, 2xxxxxx, and 4xxxxxxx.

 

It appears to be more on production date before July 04. The latest purchase date I'm seen is September 2004. No one appear to have BGLOD with purchase date after Oct 04.

[jim_beam4]

I bought my D70 on late December 2004 from B&H Photo. Serial number is 318xxxx. It has not "yet" failed, but I am very concerned about it becoming a brick while i'm on the field.

 

I have been in contact with Nikon technical support and they have been vague on this issue. I want to be sure my camera is not one of the affected batches, but they answered me the following:

 

--------------------------------------------

 

Customer (Jim Beam)

09/29/2005 09:13 PM

> Quote from FAQ:

>

> Q: My camera has not presented any of the symptoms identified in this

> service advisory. May I send it to Nikon for evaluation?

> A: There are a *number of variables* that can affect when and to what

> extent the actual operation of *potentially affected cameras* may

> become noticeable. If your camera has not shown signs of

> inoperability, you may continue using it.

>

 

I would like to know if mine is one of "potentially affected cameras", mostly because I dont want it?s operation to become affected to any extent, and I dont want to be expecting it to fail. So... if there is a known issue, and you have identified that "select

electrical components in a limited number of D70 cameras may, in some instances, fail affecting camera performance and/or operability", why dont you fix ALL the affected cameras instead of having us waiting each one of them to fail. You could at least (not instead) let me know what are the production batches/dates (serial numbers) of affected cameras to be aware.

 

Thank you.

 

Response (John Doe)

09/30/2005 11:08 AM

We apologize for the concern this problem with the D70 has caused you. We are currently trying to find out if we could identify the cameras that may be affected by this problem with cameras' serial numbers or some other information. If it becomes clear that we can identify the cameras that may be affected by this problem with serial numbers, we will notify our customers of the serial numbers on the web.

 

------------------------------------

 

I highly doubt they will notify us customers, of serial numbers affected, since this is a widely known issue and they decided to make it public with a ambiguous and vague statement. They clearly don't want to fix all the cameras potentially affected if they can save that cost. Most of the D70 customers are amateurs and may use the camera just ocasionally, so they may never experience the fail on that light use.

 

Seems no one is helping with the recollection of Serial Numbers on BGLODed cameras by the way.