How often does your Nikon fails?

[benny_spinoza]

I have two Nikon film cameras, the original FM and an F6. Both have never "failed", although the light meter in the FM finally gave out after about 20 years. I suppose DSLRs would be more prone to failure than film SLRs.

[brad_w]

In the last four year of PJ work, I've gone through:

D70s(1), D1H (1), 17-35 (2), D2H (1), D2Hs (1), 80-200 AFS (1)

 

Everything above was economically repairable except the D70s. All the Nikons shops I've worked in send a few cameras and lenses into

NPS every 4-6 months. Personally I don't consider fixing the occasional black frame or 1/3-stop shot-to-shot variations in aperture to be

worth the down time. Not starting a flame war here, but my personal Canon gear, every bit as battered as the shop's gear, has had one

20D shutter failure and that's it. 16-35, 20/2.8, 70-200,1D and a 2nd 20D have never missed a beat. Just sayin'.

[Sanford]

Every single one, after the all mechanical FM, had to go back for repair! OK, I dropped the D50 so I can't blame Nikon for that,

but the rubber thumb pad did peal off.

[michael_bradtke]

My film bodies have never failed. My D100 went back to Mikon twice. My D2h has been back to Nikon twice. We will just have to wait and see about my D300

[tri-x1]

If you D70 had 55,000 clicks on the shutter I believe that is just about what the shutter was tested for. Of course some fail sooner and some fail later. I've owned three Nikon Fs purchased new--including one with the 36 exp MD--, a Nikkormat FTn, a Nikkormat EL, a Nikkormat FT3, an F3HP, F4, N90s, F100, 2 FMs, an FE, a D100 and a D300 since the late 1960s. The only camera that actually failed was the FE.

[alvin_wong]

<p>Carlos, do you want anecdotal evidence, or statistical evidence for your claim? In all honesty, only Nikon and a sampling of repair shops can give you the real answer you want; that is, the MTBF for Nikon digital SLRs.</P><P>Just remember that while all of these accounts may be interesting, they are merely anecdotal.</p>

[carlos_rodriguez3]

Yes, of course is anecdotal. There is no science here, but sill is very interesting.

 

Something noteworthy: 4 of 15 failures mentioned here have been f100 and d70. The same cameras I mentioned. It coudl be self filtering answer, but still interesting

 

The D70 is mentioned in the net to have a frequent card reader failure. That was one of the problems it had.

 

Maybe it was just the 55,000 pictures I took with it, as Waine mentioned.

 

First problem with the D70, the LCD went nuts, strange colors, etc. Second problem, mirror blocked up´and card reader occasional failure. The mirror problem can be caused by 55,000 pictures. But the LCD and card reader problem cant be caused by it.

[ShunCheung]

The D70 has the infamous BGLOD problem, but there is nothing really wrong with the F100. Both the D70 and F100

would naturally be mentioned a lot because they were very popular cameras at their respective times. Early in this

decade (2001/2002), the F100 was Nikon's best selling (film) SLR bar none, and the D70 sold over 1 million units in

barely a little more than a year in production (replaced by the slightly improved D70s) simply because it was the very

first "affordably" DSLR sold at below US$1000.

 

In comparison, the F6 is rarely discussed in this forum and I seriously doubt that a whole lot of us have the D3.

photo.net got a 2nd D3 for testing last month. Based on its serial number, it looks like Nikon has manufactured

about 70K to 80K D3's in roughly a year; that is less than the production count for the D70 in a month.

You wouldn't expect a whole lot of defects reports on those less common cameras.

[carlos_rodriguez3]

You are correct. We could say, for example, 1 in a 1000 Nikon d70 will fail in two years, and the same ratio for a Nikon F6. But, if the Nikon solds a million D70 against a 1000 F6, that would mean 1000 D70 reported against 1 F6

 

Now, I just sold my reapaired D70 and I will purchase a backup in the near future. In my opinion the D70 in was a not very good product, so I will avoid any used D70. Maybe a D40 or D50 backup for my new D40x, but no D70s. After my experience with it, is the logical step.

 

Of course, the question is How long before my D40x fails? How much time do I have to buy a backup?

 

Carlos Rodriguez

[michael_hogan]

Carlos -- People who have had problems tend to be very vocal, and in many cases what you see and hear is not representative of the actual failure rates.

 

The only way to know the real failure rates would be if Nikon (transparently) disclosed their service and production records..

[eric_bowles]

My D70 failed within the first 60 days of ownership - due to being dropped - so I can't fault Nikon. My N80, D200, and D300 are all going strong with a cumulative 40,000 images.

 

It's interesting to compare the digital models to film cameras. There are a lot more electrical parts that can fail in the modern digital cameras, along with a lot more user options to create problems. The old film cameras were relatively simple and largely bulletprooof in comparison.

 

Also consider the number of images between failures. I have 1 failure in 40,000 images over 4 years. With my film camera, I probably averaged 1000 images a year or less. So my digital experience is equivalent to more than 40 years of film images.

[Rich B NYC]

I've used Nikons since 1980 and have yet to experience the failure of a body, lens or accessory. Although I'm not a professional, I do use my equipment almost daily.

 

During that period, I've owned about 10 film and/or digital bodies and probably 10-15 lenses, as well as speedlights and other Nikon items.

 

I still have my first FM body that I bought new in 1980 and it continues to function perfectly. It has been re-foamed, but not otherwise serviced.

[jasminabalic]

Few photographers that I worked with, and myself had failure of D70s....it was showing error on display, all of them were showing problem with blades....you couldn't do anything anymore....plus, some of them had shutter problem...I have to add that we were taking per day with them about 2000 frames...

Now I have D300, and so far, I am very pleased....

[paul_k1664875007]

Started shooting with Nikon in 1979, still have the F2AS and FE I bought then, no failures other then due to abuse (the aperture ring on

the FE body doesn't run smoothly because of a bent prism house, not really a problem because I usually don't close down the aperture

too much)<p>

 

No problems with the other F2, nor the F801/801S/F90/F90X (two)/F100/D1/D1X/D70s/D2X/D3 bodies used since then, nor with the vast

majority of manual and AF lenses used (only had one issue with greasy aperture blades on a 2.8/55 Macro lens)<p>

 

Lately ran into two issues: VR on the 200-400 seems not to work well, and D1H doesn't work with a CF card inserted<p>

 

Not really urgent problems as the 200-400 is used for sports and with the high shutter speeds used the VR is not essential, and the D1H

has already been a back up for several years, so repairs are planned maybe early next year<p>

 

All in all not a bad score for 29 years of not always gentle professional use under not always exactly ideal conditions<p>

 

[url removed per photo.net policy: <a href="http://www.photo.net/site-help-forum/00R1uZ" ><b>Photo.net policy on 'signature' lines/links</b></a>]

[ellis_vener_photography]

The rewind shaft on the first F4s body I owned snapped the second day I had it. The camera store I bought it from replaced the camera , no questions asked.

 

Fresh Duracell AA batteries leaked in my last F5. Duracell paid for the repair.

 

No other failures to report.

[aaron l]

I had my D70 lock up twice in all the time I owned it. All I did was turn it off, turn it back on and was good again for another 20k shots. So that's irrelavent, far less worse than my PC. The rubber grip on my D200 has started to peel away and whatever the little lever on the top of the F-mount is getting sticky. After 60k shots, touring Asia, north Africa roasting the whole time and Greenland below freezing the whole time, a few rain and snow storms, plenty of heavy mist from waterfalls, I'd say only rubber grip and partially sticky lever is amazing. How many other electronics jam-packed with sensitive technology lasts through those conditions?

[lisa_b4]

In 30+ years of using Nikon (started with my Grandpa's used Nikkormat FT2 when I was 12), only one failure--the

shutter on one of my FM2's broke, but I always carried 3 FM2's with me: one for B&W, one for color, one for

slide. Sent it in to Nikon and got it back within 2 weeks--brand new shutter and CLA for $125--I still have that

body and it works just fine. I've owned a Nikonos IV and V, FT2, FE2's, FM2's, FA, F3's, a F4, and an F100. For

DSLR's, to date I've had the D70 and D200, and so far (knocking on wood......) never had a problem. I'm not a

pro, but I usually work and travel in fairly extreme environments. While I don't baby my gear, I do take care of

it. Nikon reliability is one of the main reasons I've never seriously considered switching to another brand.

[alex_lofquist]

I guess that I've been lucky. My F4S has never failed and my F5 has a minor glitch in that the frame counter in the eyepiece has lost an LCD segment. (It is hardly enough to bother with,)

[Albins images]

The old F801 was troublesome. It would lock-up for no apparent reason (varying battery output? static electricity?). It was repaired by Nikon for a (then) lot of money, to no avail. Still liked the camera.

 

My F4 is not as reliable as I had hoped. It does not meter well with long telelenses, TC's and/or extension rings. And I had it go 'dead' on one or two occasions "for no apparent reason"...

 

The F3T and D200 have been very trustworthy. And there I'd almost add "up 'till now".

[dan_brown4]

I've been buying and shooting Nikon for about 15 years. N90s up to a current pair of D200's. Never had anything fail or cause any

problems until recently, when my new 16-85VR lens went insane (chatter, whir, click, no worky-worky). It's at Nikon USA now for

warranty service. Will be interesting to see what happens.

[jerry_schuler]

I had a bit of a problem my my 50mm AIS 1.8 lens after I droped the camera on the hardwood floor. But the camera was OK.

[albertdarmali]

I am still using my D80 and I have taken I think more than 12,000 shots so far, and never once it made any problem/error at all. I am glad that this model doesn't have the D70 BGLOD or similar issue.

 

Same with the Ai/Ai-s lenses that I am using too. I think it's pretty hard to make them break unless some sort of incident is involved.