Nikon Repair Center in Signal Hill, Los Angeles Area

[ShunCheung]

Back on October 27 last year, my Z9 developed a GPS error. The coordinates are fine but the time stamp was suddenly off by 19+ years. That turns out to be a somewhat well known GPS problem since some GPS units only have sufficient memory to store a date format for 1024 distinct weeks, which translates to over 19 years. My Z9's interpretation went off so that it was showing year 2042 instead of 2022/2023, i.e. some 19+ years ahead. That bug requires some software/parameter fix that I cannot perform at home. Since I was in Southern California last week, I had arrangement to stop by their location so that they could correct that while I was waiting, saving us round-trip shipping.

Nikon's current Signal Hill location is almost right next to the Long Beach Municipal Airport. South West serves that airport, and I had flown there a couple of times before. They have a small building with a large Nikon sign outside. When I entered, I only saw a service counter, almost like some FedEx office. It is quite different from their former El Segundo location, which was close to the LAX airport. In that old location they had a lot of displays of various Nikon cameras and lenses.

The fix was pretty quick as I was in and out of there in about 15 minutes. Meanwhile, a few more people came in to pick up their cameras. I talked to a pro who was picking up a D5 and a D6, and he told me that the D6 has much improved AF. He also just bought a Z9 from B&H and some new Z lenses. Since he was new to Z, we talked about a few different Z lenses.

BTW, if you have a Z9, as long as you have the latest firmware, I understand the camera will no longer develop that GPS error. The D6 also has a build-in GPS and I assume that is also corrected. Previously I have used Nikon's GP-1 and GP-1a and never had this issue.

 

Nikon at 1907 East 29th Street in Signal Hill, in Southern California.

[Dieter Schaefer]

On 1/15/2023 at 10:49 AM, ShunCheung said:

It is quite different from their former El Segundo location, which was close to the LAX airport. In that old location they had a lot of displays of various Nikon cameras and lenses.

This is what their location on Wilshire Blvd in LA looked like:

Similar to El Segundo (never been there)?

Edited January 25, 2023 by Dieter Schaefer

[ShunCheung]

I have been to the former El Segundo location a few times, because it was close to LAX. There were nice displays. The current location has just a counter. The rest is behind door/walls.