Eye-piece shutter lever stuck

[Erik-Christensen]

I have obvious a constant problem, as the eye-piece shutter lever on my D810 and D850 cannot close. I have now had thenm repaired by an authorized Nikon Service Center for the 3rd time, which is cheap but very cumbersome, as there is 9-10 hours drive involved. I repaired it myself on the D700, and may be able to do it also on D810, but am afraid to damage the weather sealing. On the D850 one have to remove the whole back, and that is not for simple minds.

 

I am living in a high temperature and humid (100 meters from the sea) area 9-10 months of the year, and the rest of the year is raining season. I have bought a dry cabinet for my equipment, when it is not in use, but I have still had the problem. Any proposals to avoid this problem? I am thinking of 2, viz. Activate the shutter level daily, which I will forget often after about a month or keep the shutter lever closed, when camera not in use. In the latter case it is only live-view left in case it is stuck when closed, which is not a good solution.

[DavidTriplett]

If it were me, I'd find or make an auxiliary eyepiece cap that I could install as needed, should the built-in shutter fail again. Cameras without the built-in shutter often come with an accessory to do exactly this, and, while easy to lose :mad:, far simpler than repeated fixes to a complex mechanism. I would not risk having the eyepiece shutter stick in the closed position.

[BeBu Lamar]

I have used Nikon F2, F3, F4, F5 and all of them have the shutter but I never use it.

[Erik-Christensen]

DavidTriplett - the challenge in getting/making an auxillary eyepiece cap is that the entrance to the viewfinder is round, and due to the normal strong sun I use a DK-19, which can be replaced, but since I am not 18 years any longer, I use often a Nikon D-5 angle viewer for macro. I think Nikon has change material for the shutter, as I have never had a problem with my D300 and F90X and they have not be used a fraction of the D810/850 and are not placed in the dry cabinet.

Had it only been to avoid false light, then it would be easy. Even my raincoats for these cameras have to be fitted to the round eyepiece, but the would be relative easy to replace (I had them made locally).

[rodeo_joe1]

There is an interlock between the viewfinder blind and the eyepiece cover glass. This prevents the cover glass being removed unless the blinds are closed, and involves a toothed 'ratchet' mechanism moulded into the eyepiece surround, and a 'pawl' coupled to the blinds.

 

Now I'm not sure if this interlock works both ways - i.e. to lock the blinds if the eyepiece cover-glass is removed - but that might be the case. And if the eyepiece isn't fully screwed in to interlock with the eyepiece blinds.....

[Erik-Christensen]

you cannot turn the eyepiece glass at all unless the blinds are closed. When I got both the D810/850 fixed last week, the Nikon guy told me he "just' cleaned the blades in the blind. Last time abt. 10 months ago, when he fixed the D850 the blind was stuck 2 weeks later, and I do not believe that it can be that dirty in there, with my normal use of the camera.

I now have introduced a SOP to activate them every Sunday morning