D700 hot shoe problems

[nick_skartsilas]

<p>And yes you're rigth hammering was not the solution. The problem insists and now it became worse. It happens with SB900 and the Metz 54i d and !! with built-in popup flash when I work triggering SB900 remotely. I want to avoid Nikon service's not confirming the problem because you must work with it for a short period to confirm it. I will remain till the posts here and anywhere became many enough..</p>

[laughing buddha production]

<p>I was looking for a thread like this - glad to get more info on this issue. I shoot with 2 D700's; one about 15 months old (bought when they first launched); and a backup purchased this summer - a refurb.<br /> <br /> I use SB-800's on both and work the head of the flash left and right, up and down, pretty aggressively - change the bounce angle on almost every shot. I can tell the extra pressure over time feels like it's loosening the connection with the camera.<br /> <br /> And in the past couple weeks, I got the same problem you all describe: flash flickers on occasion, firing on it's own, sometimes the flash not firing - and the attendant Pocket Wizard won't trigger remotes (linked to camera by PC sync) as well. UGH. Both cameras seem to exhibit the same issue.<br /> <br /> Thought it might be one of the SB-800s, but all four of mine seem to have this issue, and another photog I worked with last night suggested it's a hotshoe problem - he had the same thing and sent his body into NPS.<br /> <br /> So anyway, just wanted to throw my 2c in here since there are only a couple threads that came up via Google last night. This definitely seems like and issue and I think it's important to get this info out there so others know about it...especially the folks at Nikon.<br /> <br /> I'm sending my cameras out to Melville first thing - hope I can get them back ASAP and give everyone interested in this issue an update. </p>

[gpjoell3]

<p>I have just started to experience this same problem with my Nikon D700 and SB900. I put a SB800 on my D700 and the same thing accured. I took my SB900 and put it on my D300 and the problem went away. I searched Google for a possible solution and I ran across this post. </p>

<p>http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1021&message=33207948</p>

<p>You can take if for what it is worth, but I believe that it has some validity to it. I did not start hammering or chisseling yet, but I am very close to it. I did take a business card and folded it in half. I wedged the card stock between the bottom of the SB900 and the top of the on camera flash to prevent the SB900 from wiggling. The problem stopped and I was able to fire off 50 shots without one pre-flash. Therefore, I am convinced that my problem is with the proper fit of the hotshoe on the D700 and the flash connector. </p>

<p> </p>

[nick_skartsilas]

<p>Ι suspected that this could be the solution but I did not try it. Now I will, cause I am disapointed with this behavior. At my last work I put Sb900 in a bracket connected with a pc cord and pocket wizard on the hot shoe. It worked fine, but i have no TTL, neither AF beam. The built in AF led for low light works very slow and many shots went lost.</p>

[christopherseid]

<p>I am a wedding photographer, and I have 3 D700s too. I bought my 3rd D700 because i kept having this "flashy" problem with my SB900 on my first D700. I think the SB900 is too heavy and its puts a strain on the connection. This is especially true for us wedding photographers because the flash is on the camera all day and we are running and moving alot. I find i had to hold the flash and apply a little front downward pressure to it to make sure the contact are secure when i wanted to shoot with flash...a real pain, (yes, one hand holding camera, one hand putting pressure on the flash). Thus, i went head and purchased a 3rd D700. The same Sb900 works fine on the new D700. This made me to believe it has to be a hot shoe problem. I plan to bring the oldest D700 to Nikon Service...hopefully they can fix it!</p>

[daniel_gasienica]

<p>Confirming the same problem with Nikon D200 and SB-800.<br>

–Daniel</p>

[robert_oneal]

<p>For what it's worth, my d700/sb900 just started this flickering BS last week. i'm on the fence between the pliers trick or sending my stuff off to melville, new york, for god knows how long. i'll say this from experience, canon's pro service blows nikon away. if i could afford triple back-up on my gear, i wouldn't have to work so much in the first place.<br>

thanks for all the info,<br>

rob o'neal</p>

[laughing buddha production]

<p>I also want to add more info. I had a SB-800 D700 problem with my second D700. My first one went in to Melville as noted in an earlier post and they replaced the hotshoe. This one is at the shop here in NY and they can't seem to duplicate the problem. </p>

<p>I did not have the rapid flashes this time, just some random errors in the flash output. I could see when chimping that in TTL mode the exposures were way off, usually too much flash. Then sometimes the flash would NOT fire. Hmmm. Sounds like another semi-loose hotshoe. I wonder if the next symptom will be that short and the involuntary spastic flashing of the SB.</p>

<p>Oh well, the tech is taking another look and I'll keep you posted. Someone else on FM just referred me to a DP review story as well - the home of the plier crimp rescue method. http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/readflat.asp?forum=1021&message=33207948</p>

[jan_eriksson1]

<p>Anyone tried the DeOxit with success? I have got the same flickering problem with my D700 and my SB-900 :/</p>

[dan_kahler1]

<p>I too have a D700 with flash problems. Both of my 800s and a 600 do not fire unless I apply pressure to flash. Ugh! </p>

[frances_knowles]

<p>OMG -- Talk about a rough week! I was out at a shoot last week with my D700 and SB900 -- and started experiencing the flash flicker. Thought it was the strobe. Today -- I'm shooting an event using my SB600 -- and it started again. When it starts to flicker -- I am unable to take a picture until I turn off the strobe -- turn off the camera, and turn the camera back on.<br>

Oh, and this problem occurred in the middle of awards presentation!<br>

Just called Nikon -- and the person I spoke to said it sounds like a circuitry problem. Thank God I have a 3 year warranty.<br>

Thanks for posting this problem!</p>

<p> </p>

[solent_news]

<p>At the office we have four D700 bodies. All but one have now been off for replacement hot shoes, after the familiar strobing effect, then the complete flash fire failure.<br>

We are now buying the Nikon TTL cords, and mounting our flashes on brackets, so as to keep only the lightest load on the D700 hotshoe. It works well (so far!).<br>

A poor design fault which <em>should</em> be quickly remedied by Nikon. The hot shoe is the camera's weakest point, and there are not many cameras you can say that about, certainly not those aimed at the pro and semi-pro market.<br>

Best Wishes to all by the way ;-)</p>

[dominic_smith1]

<p>I was beginning to think I was the only one with this problem. I shoot mainly weddings (37 a year) and this began happening to me about 2 weeks ago. I use fill and bounced diffuse flash 95% of the time and had noticed over the 2 years I have had the camera that I would get the occasional very over exposed flash pic – as if it had just flashed at full power. Now I get random misfires where it doesn’t flash at all and I also get the rapid flash effect when I move the camera, not all the time but enough for it to be a problem. This happens with both my SB800′s although the older one is MUCH worse than the new one – to the extent that it is actually unusable. It’s hard enough shooting a wedding without having to fight the technology as well. The flash does appear a bit loose on the hot shoe, so I agree that this is probably a design fault brought about my the shoe bracket loosening up over a period of time. Yesterday I resorted to the pop up flash at times.<br>

If it costs you guys in the US $250, then it will cost me in the UK with our overinflated ripoff prices about $375. The thing is I’m bang in the middle of the wedding season and can’t afford to send it in for repair – which may not work anyway.<br>

By the way, does anyone know what Nikon did to your camera to repair it??<br>

This is a professional camera with what appears to be an inherent fault. Has anyone convinced Nikon to repair free of charge?<br>

Just a thought. I have an old Vivitar 285 bracket. I suppose I could mount the SB800 on that and use the Commander mode of the pop up flash to fire it? I might give it a try and see how it works.</p>

[hussam_qasem]

<p>I got my D700 from the local Nikon dealer on July 2008, few weeks after the announcement. It's been working perfectly until couple of months back when I started experiencing the same flicker problem you discussed above.<br>

Everywhere I read, all concluded that the problem is with the D700 hot shoe, and the only effective way to fix the problem is to have the hot-shoe replaced by Nikon (~US $260).<br>

It has nothing to do with the SB-900 "weight". I have the same problem with my SB-400, which I use virtually all the time. I've also tested the SB-600 and SB-800 and get the same erratic behavior. I've never tried the SB-900 but can safely conclude it's the D700 hot shoe and not the strobe.<br>

The erratic behavior includes:</p>

<ul>

<li >

<p >hot shoe flash would fire on its own.</p>

</li>

<li>

<p >pressing the shutter button would not take a picture - exposure meter still turned off.</p>

</li>

<li>

<p >pressing the shutter button takes a picture without firing the flash - very very underexposed exposure.</p>

</li>

<li >

<p >pressing the shutter button takes a pictures with flash - expected behavior (although sometimes well overexposed).</p>

</li>

</ul>

<p>Very disappointed. Nikon should fix such a known and wide-spread issue for free.</p>

[william_wang5]

<p>Daniel,</p>

<p>i'm also a full-time wedding shooter with 2 D700s + another Nikon body (so my shooting is distributed over 3 bodies) and have been primarily using two SB-900s for my speedlights (i also have 5 SB-800s that i use) and have experienced the same problems with my D700s with the SB-900s.</p>

<p>one of my D700 hotshoes is being replaced by Nikon now + i'm going to be sending the other into service once i get the first one back.</p>

<p>bill</p>

[david_finchett]

<p>Hi All,<br>

I'm a pro photographer using the D700 and SB-900 for press and publicity photography. About a month ago I encountered the rapid random strobing/flashing problem and sent both camera and flash to the nearest authorised Nikon repair centre. I researched the fault on the net and spoke to someone at the repair centre regarding my concerns about the hotshoe. Their response was along the lines of 'people on forums can get the diagnosis wrong'.<br>

The camera was out of warranty by six months and I was charged £160+ for repairs to the camera only (but they did not replace the hotshoe) and the fault was still there when both camera and flash were returned after two weeks. It was as if they hadn't even tested it.<br>

They said there was nothing wrong with the SB-900 flash (But forums suggest that it is probably too heavy for the d700 causing both stress on the hotshoe and the resulting random flashing - this would be a design flaw).<br>

I conclude that there is a major problem with the hotshoe on the d700, but I can't believe that authorised Nikon repairers are ignorant of it, given so much about it on forums like this and dpreview. Surley there must be enough repairs going in to alert all the repair centres to the issue.<br>

This is costing money and business time.<br>

I would like to know if anyone who has had a hotshoe replaced has had the problem recur a few months later? Or have Nikon redesigned the hotshoe?</p>

<p>Dave.</p>

<p> </p>

[frances_knowles]

<p>Dave, sorry to hear about your problem. I had the same problem with my D700, my SB-900 and both of my SB-600. This helped me narrow it down to the camera. <br>

Before sending my camera in, I spoke to a not-very-helpful repair tech at Nikon, who basically told me that with hundreds of thousands of cameras in the field and the ease of the internet to share data, sometimes very small problems can sound like very big issues and told me that he was not aware of any D700/SB900 hotshoe problems (my camera was out of the Nikon warranty). He was almost to the point of being rude about my "small" problem.<br>

I sent my camera in to Mack Camera (I will never buy an extended warranty through anyone but the manufacturer again)-- and after about 7 long weeks my camera was returned with a new hot shoe.<br>

Everything works like a charm now. However, I tried putting my Cybersync transmitter in the hot shoe and noticed that it was going to take an extreme amount of force to get it in. Not wanting to have similar problems arise down the road, I am using a cord to connect to the PC port.<br>

So, long story short, it was the hotshoe. </p>

[david_finchett]

<p>Thanks for replying Frances. A workaround some people have suggested is using a flash bracket with the D700 and SB-900, so that the camera hotshoe doesn't get the stress on it. I'm not sure this such a great option due to added weight, and whether you would get all the functionality out of the gun using a lead to the camera instead of using the hotshoe.<br>

Do you think that the fault appeared with your SB-600 because the damage had already been done to the hotshoe by the heavier SB-900? In your opinion, would the fault have happened if you had only used the SB-600 and not the SB-900 with the camera? (I'm trying to work out whether a lighter gun on an undamaged D700 would or would not develop the fault.)</p>

<p>Regards<br>

Dave</p>

 

[frances_knowles]

<p>You are correct.<br>

I primarily used the SB-900 on the D700 -- so I assumed the problem originated there, and since the hotshoe became "loose" the SB-600's stopped working correctly too.<br>

I'm with you on the flash bracket. I don't need any extra weight, especially when I have my 70-200mm lens on :}<br>

The repair tech at Nikon did tell me that if I sent it through to Nikon -- that he would get mine in line ASAP. So you might consider giving them a call and asking (since they didn't solve your problem the first time) them to push it through their professional services.<br>

Good luck!</p>

<p> </p>

[david_finchett]

<p>Positive news. As a member of Nikon Professional User (NPU) scheme I rang the number for technical queries at Nikon UK. They said that the problem between the D700 and the SB-900 was now a known and common problem.<br>

At the time of writing, Nikon do not consider it to be a 'critical' fault. However, they did tell me to ask the repair centre for a hotshoe replacement. The centre agreed to do this for free as the previous repair and service to the camera has a six month warranty, and they did not spot the faulty hotshoe during that service. They have also agreed to collect the camera at no charge to myself this time.<br>

Whilst there may be no redesign of the hotshoe by Nikon, the repair centre are going to strengthen the mount of the hotshoe inside the camera.<br>

So hopefully everything will be okay, and the new hotshoe will have a warranty of six months.<br>

Phew!</p>

<p> </p>

[hussam_qasem]

<p>I got my D700 fixed by replacing the hot shoe. Here's the deal:</p>

<ul>

<li>The original hot shoe has part number ending in 1.</li>

<li>The "new" (improved?) hot shoe has a part number ending in 2.</li>

<li>The new hot shoe is less shiny (somewhat matte). Seems to be made in part with a different material? It also has a tighter fit when inserting a flash.</li>

<li>The faulty hot shoe "looks" like new, with no sign of damage, whatsoever.</li>

<li>Here's the irony. The new hot shoe costs US $7.50 (I became friends with our local Nikon repairman!)</li>

<li>Nikon repair also had to replace the rubber grips (front, 2x rear, and bottom). The bottom rubber of my D700 was fine, so not replaced. Total cost for front+rear rubber grips was about $45.</li>

<li>Service charge was considered major, in the category of US $105. After discussing the issue, they agreed to lower the category to US $65.</li>

<li>Finally, I got another discount from the cashier. Total was US $105.</li>

<li>For the record, the D700 hot shoe is universal: SB-400, SB-600 and SB-800 as well. Didn't try other flashes.</li>

</ul>

[frances_knowles]

<p>Getting ready to pull my hair out. My D700 camera's hot shoe was replaced late August 2010. I started experiencing the same problem today with the SB900. Either Mack Camera did not replace the hot shoe, or, the new hot shoe is only a temporary fix.<br>

Has anyone experienced problems again after their hot shoe was replaced?</p>

<p> </p>

[photodom]

<p>Hi<br>

I live in the UK and had a 2 year warranty on my D700.<br>

Sent it back with the strobing issue 3 weeks ago and picked it up today expecting a bit of a battle.<br>

But no problem. Nikon accepted everything I said, changed the hot shoe and did some stuff to a pcb and gave it back to me FOC.<br>

I haven't tried it out yet, but the gun does seem tighter on the shoe than before.<br>

I still think this is a known issue that should have been the subject of a recall - but the 2 year warranty has stood me in good stead.</p>

[jeff_shurak]

<p>This is an ongoing issue with the d700. I've had my hotshoe replaced four times already and its pretty much guaranteed to happen. I wasn't aware that there was a "good" hotshoe replacement. (if there is, they have not given it to me and of the four times I've had it serviced) Unfortunately, It always seems to occur in the middle of a wedding. At this point I can only say that the d700 is not suitable for wedding photography. A shame because its a pretty amazing camera otherwise.</p>

[richard_haick]

<p>Same problem occurs with both of my D700 bodies. Wedding season is here and I can't afford to send either of my cameras away for any extended amount of time. It seems "hammering down" the hot shoe works temporarily, but I'm litteraly beating my camera and this is just palin bad.</p>