joshschutz Posted June 13, 2007 Share Posted June 13, 2007 i have had my nikon d70 for almost 4 years now. i have gotten more than enough use out of it. right now i'm at about 45,000 clicks on the shutter. yesterday i was out taking some shot of some friends kayaking. it started to drizzle some, i have been in much worse with that camera. during all of this, the camera pulled up an 'err' message. i tried messing with it for a while without taking the lens off. when i eventually pulled the lens off i noticed that the mirror was locked up. the sensor was still covered by the slide. the mirror will move with my finger. when i click the shutter the slide for the sensor moves but the mirror doesn't. did i reach my maximum shutter clicks. is this what normally happens. i think i might take it into a dealer today to see what they say. thanks in advance for your help. i think it's time for an upgrade anyways. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
larrybc Posted June 13, 2007 Share Posted June 13, 2007 There is no "maximum shutter actuations" threshold where the camera will shut down. There is only a MTF (mean time btwn failures) rating. Whether your camera exceeds or falls short of that number is dictated by the luck of the draw. It sounds like your mirror actuator is broken. larsbc Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dave_petley2 Posted June 13, 2007 Share Posted June 13, 2007 buy a d 200 it is time for one Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
patertech Posted June 13, 2007 Share Posted June 13, 2007 45K in four years is not that much. Nikon has announced the D200 "A double-bladed shutter unit tested to well over 100,000 cycles" Get D80 or D200. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joshschutz Posted June 13, 2007 Author Share Posted June 13, 2007 any idea what a mirror actuator will run me. i'm thinking my camera is totaled and time to move on to the d200. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
michael s. Posted June 13, 2007 Share Posted June 13, 2007 The stuck mirror reminds me of a behavior my D70 exhibited at the beginning of what turned out to be the BGLOD failure. That is a problem Nikon <a href=http://www.nikonusa.com/email_images/nikonusa/service_advisory/d70.html>repairs free of charge</a>, whether within the original warranty period or not.<p> But my camera's symptoms were not quite the same, so a visit to a well-informed Nikon dealer sounds like a good idea. Perhaps also call Nikon USA. <p> Good luck. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ShunCheung Posted June 13, 2007 Share Posted June 13, 2007 I am not sure that Nikon officially provides a "life expectancy" for the shutter in its consumer DSLRs. The general guess is somewhere around 75,000 actuations. 45K seems pre-mature but not totally out of line. Since you seem to be in the US, you can send the D70 back to Nikon USA for a repair estimate. If the estimate is high, you can always refuse repair and only pay for return shipping. As far as I know, and this is somewhat a guess, any shutter replacement will run in the $200 to $300 range. For a DSLR that is 3+ years old, IMO that type of repair cost is somewhat hard to justify. This may be a perfect excuse to upgrade/replace anyway. :-) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
msd52 Posted June 13, 2007 Share Posted June 13, 2007 I echo Michael S. If your camera was an early edition it could be BGLOD. Nikon fixed mine free of charge AND fast. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
j_sevigny Posted June 13, 2007 Share Posted June 13, 2007 I don't think it's very constructive to answer questions like this one with "you need to upgrade to a more expensive camera." There's nothing wrong with a D70. It takes excellent pictures and if Josh's can be repaired, it will continue to take excellent pictures. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tonybeach Posted June 13, 2007 Share Posted June 13, 2007 This happened to my older D70 at about 50,000 actuations. I pulled the lens and battery and replaced them and I can't remember what else, but after a few anxious moments of struggling with various combinations I got it to come back to life. That camera now has over 70,000 actuations and is still going strong. At the time I realized I needed to have a back-up camera and bought another D70. In retrospect, I wish I had just applied that money to the D200; but at that time D200 cameras were hard to get. I now own a D200 along with one of the D70 cameras (my son uses the other one, but he wants me to upgrade to a D2x so he can switch to the D200, which he prefers because of it's shorter shutter lag). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joshschutz Posted June 13, 2007 Author Share Posted June 13, 2007 anthony did you have a specific order of doing what you did. i'm living in the mountains so its hard for me to get to a dealer. any more information you have would be well appreciated. thanks for the suggestions. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ShunCheung Posted June 13, 2007 Share Posted June 13, 2007 It sounds like what Anthony did was to remove the battery maybe overnight to let the camera reset itself. If your D70 was exposed to rain or water, there could be some short circult. It would make sense to remove the battery and let everything dry overnight. You really don't have much to lose. If that doesn't work, I would suggest sending it to Nikon for a repair estimate. In case it is indeed BGLOD, they might even fix it for free. P.S. It was Josh himself who originally brought up the idea for upgrade. He actually mentioned that twice. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tisbone Posted June 13, 2007 Share Posted June 13, 2007 as far as I know, if your shutter dies, the mirror would still operate normally. and I've read a few threads about d70's shutter life - in most cases they died "well over 100 000 actuations" (120k or so), so the d200 system doesn't sound like much improvement..my d70 turned 50k last week and I'm starting to look for a 'younger' used one to replace it, just in case ;)I've had a couple "err"'s, but taking the battery out helped. never had a mirror lock problem, so can't help you on that. hope you can get it back to order. good luck! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
michael s. Posted June 13, 2007 Share Posted June 13, 2007 Not sure what Anthony did, but I had the battery out, made sure the battery was fully charged, camera switched off (of course). I believe I waited some hours before trying to fire up the D70 again. Don't remember if I took the lens off the mount ? In any case, that 'reset' did get me some more exposures after the first symptoms of BGLOD, but then my camera crashed completely. Nikon repaired it without charge, but at a somewhat leisurely pace, as a needed part was evidently back-ordered at the time. I was well beyond the warranty period when this happened. I am still using the camera. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
elliot1 Posted June 13, 2007 Share Posted June 13, 2007 If you can't get it to work, send it to Nikon. They will give you an estimate for the repair. If it is too expensive, you do not have to service it and there is no charge. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
l_hughes Posted June 13, 2007 Share Posted June 13, 2007 Help - I've been reading this thread because my husband has a Nikon 100D which has just started throwing and error code "06" and the shutter won't work. He has tried resetting it by removing the battery for quite a while, charging it, and then going through setup again - also removed the lens and reseated it. But he is still getting the error. He plans on taking it back to the camera store tomorrow, but I'd like to know whether this sounds like something that should be repaired for free or not. Thank You. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tonybeach Posted June 13, 2007 Share Posted June 13, 2007 For me it was about a year and a half ago, so I cannot recall specifics. I do seem to remember taking the battery out and putting it back in with the lens off and then pressing the shutter button when the camera powered up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bsd230 Posted June 14, 2007 Share Posted June 14, 2007 Usually one of the most noticeable symptoms when a shutter is going out is a strange banding that occurs in the photos. Usually about 1-4 bands that run across the image as the shutter drags in those areas just long enough to affect the exposure time in that area. It's hard to say if what you are experiencing is that problem but it's a good camera so it worth getting check out. If it's not the shutter and the repair will be 200 or more with 45k on the shutter as well it might be worth looking into a replacement. Like the D200 or D80. As far as the "normal life expectancy" of the D70 shutter will vary some but I would say normal life would be between 50-70k. Some may last over 100k but I wouldn't hold my breath there are always the few that exceed expectations. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tonybeach Posted June 14, 2007 Share Posted June 14, 2007 Brian wrote: Some may last over 100k but I wouldn't hold my breath there are always the few that exceed expectations. My reply: There is a guy at DPR named "PerfectPoms" who mashed his shutter all day long and went through four shutters on two D70 bodies. His average was 100k on the D70. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
douglas_green1 Posted June 15, 2007 Share Posted June 15, 2007 Of course, if his D70 is broken with a repair estimate above $200, it might very well only be time for a D80, not a D200. But that's a question only Josh and his bank account can answer. I would not put more than $200 or so into fixing a D70 at this stage of it's life. Consider that a fully working used D70 body in excellent shape can be bought for under $400. But if it could be repaired quite cheaply, it's worth doing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
plasma181 Posted June 16, 2007 Share Posted June 16, 2007 For harsh conditions, I take my FM-10. Rarely do I get an error message. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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