Nikon D700 Hotshoe Repair at home

[inni_pants]

<p>Hello,<br>

My Nikon D700 camera does not recognize any flash when mounted on camera. I went to photography shop, they checked camera and said that I have to send it for repair for few hundred pounds. I've decided to fix it myself and was looking for some tips on how to change d700 hotshoe and where online I could buy Nikon parts for this task. This type of information does not seem to be too popular online and there are only few dslr camera parts that are available online.</p>

[Peter_in_PA]

<p>No... just no...<br /><br />You almost certainly do not want to do this, unless you want your D700 to never work again.</p>

[Matthew Currie]

<p>I would not recommend that you actually do this yourself, but if you are determined, or just want to find out what might be involved, you can go to the web site "Ifixit.com" and if you navigate to the Nikon DSLR section, you will find a link that gets you the PDF file of the D700 service manual.</p>

<p>A cursory look at the extremely involved process suggests that you may have to do a very large amount of disassembly starting at the bottom, in order to reach the top, and you definitely need to know what you're doing, because among other things there is a flash capacitor in there that could give you a heart-stopping jolt if you don't discharge it properly. </p>

[peter_simpson1]

<p>And...Nikon won't sell you the parts, anyway.</p>

<p>Since the D700 hotshoe seems to be a poor design to begin with, you'll end up with the same problem again, eventually.</p>

[ShunCheung]

<p>I am not sure it is worthwhile to spend a few hundred dollars to repair a D700 at this point, as the camera's value is also below $1000. I have had mine from the beginning (late 2008), but maybe since I don't use flash that much, my D700 has no such problem.</p>

<p>If one indeed gets it fixed, you can use the D700 for a couple more years. By the time the problem develops again, most likely you want to upgrade the camera anyway. In fact, I would use the opportunity to upgrade now. I wouldn't spend more money to fix a D700 at this point.</p>

[Mary Doo]

<p>Why not discuss this with customer service at Nikon?<br>

http://www.nikonusa.com/en/service-and-support/service-and-repair.page</p>

<p>They serviced my D800 for free - I didn't even need to pay shipping. </p>

[robert_stig]

<p>Im all for diy repairs.<br>

1-because i dont trust repair places. U never know if what they tell u regarding repair is the truth. <br>

2-because they charge too much<br>

3-i never had a situation where i repaired something and it didnt need to go back for re-repair. I used 3 different companies and they all sucked azz<br>

My 85 1.4 ais started havibg issues with focus smoothness. Over the years of heavy use of shooting weddings vrime built up. I broughy it to a repair station was told 150 bucks "it has a heavy and complex system with many screws and needs adjusting" is whst the douche told me. </p>

<p>I took it apart myself. Cleaned it. Rebuilt it. Smooth as silk. </p>

<p>Now with all that said a simple 7 or 8 element lens isnt difficult because its all mechanical. A camera has tons of electrical inside. If you want go for it. I salute you for trying. Im wll for it. Make drawings and tape down screws to the drawings on many pages so you know where they go. </p>

<p>My d3s has the same issue and im weary to put it in for repair. Why? Repair is overpriced and i dont trust the repair place wont sabotage the camera for something else to fail. Ive had it before. Even garages. My bike wouldnt start. Brought it to a local garage he said pistons went. I changed the plugs and it started right up. The carb needed rejetting. Thats not sabotage but i dont trust them for a millisecond. </p>

<p> I shoot with the flash in manual mode. Im very experienced with flash so i even know the distance to stand from the subject so not so bad. It fires off in manual only. Its not accurate because at the dance floor things are changing quickly. But shooying in manual took my expertise to a much higher level. I think the repair would cost around 250 bucks</p>

[kari_oinonen]

<p>Any flash, not even a flash in a manual mode, do not work?</p>

<p>I had a situation with a D700 where the flash worked sometimes, but generally it did not. If it popped it went in a full charge making a over exposed image.<br>

A simple fix was enough. Check some earlier threads on [D700, hotshoe, problem] in P.net - not so long ago. I saved a few hundred €.</p>

 

[Matthew Currie]

<p>If the sync terminal still fires a flash, I'd be inclined to leave it alone, get an old auto flash, and run it manually. Some of those old flashes exposed pretty well, and these days with Raw files, exposure is pretty easy to adjust.</p>

[inni_pants]

<p><a href="/photodb/user?user_id=5972061">robert stig</a> I guess I could say I'm in similar thoughts on repairs and services. Anyhow, it's always best to learn everything about our cameras, especially if they tend to brake. Good skill that every photographer should actually have and should be tough in photography schools- at least basics. <a href="/photodb/user?user_id=869561"><br /></a></p>

[inni_pants]

<p>Thank you everyone for advice, I got a little scared of fixing it myself, seeing how much I would have to disassemble. Can't afford to lose my only camera at this moment. Maybe later, when I'm rich and successful photographer I can experiment and mess around :D<br /> But I'm still determined to find another way of going around service. Mostly because the connections on hotshoe are not even scratched unlike other really terrible hotshoes that are faulty on online videos. This makes me think that It might be something else, something that does not require disassembling whole camera. Also, my only problem is that I can't put flash into the hotshoe. I actually don't care if flash works only in manual mode in remote, because even when ttl was working I still used manual more often. Problem is that I need it on the camera, because to me it's a struggle to keep it in one hand all the time and camera in another or put it on a stand somewhere in the corner of the room... I generally tend to take as little as possible to photo shoots and I don't like to use any stands and it's just so convenient to have it on top of camera. So I just need something that will trick camera and flash into thinking that flash is not on the camera, although it will be there and it will be used in Remote setting. <br>

Forgot that built in flash acts as commander, so when speedlight sits on it, it closes a little bit and stops acting as commander. Will try to unscrew the top of built in flash, maybe it will think that it's still on the camera and is open and I will be able to use speedlight on top and in remote setting. Fingers crossed.</p>

[inni_pants]

<p>Just wanted to let everyone know that I just had to squeeze hotshoe metal sides more together and it started to work.</p>