ShunCheung Posted June 25, 2023 Author Share Posted June 25, 2023 When Nikon announced the Z9 on 28 October 2021, I thought it was a brand new, complex camera and decided to wait a couple of months. After Nikon started shipping in December, there were no issues and I finally ordered in February. At that time it was difficult to find a Z9 without NPS priority, but Amazon suddenly had a few and I received it in early March 2022, just in time for some concerts and the hummingbird season. That Z9 has serial number 30064**, or some 6.4K Z9 had been sold in the US. But the serial number for US Z9 jumped by approximately 10K in late April 2022, and there was a similar jump for European Z9 a bit later. The first Z9 service advisory came about a year into its production and the problem was the lens mount mechanism, not something really high tech. When Nikon announced the 800mm PF in April 2022, I changed strategy and ordered one from B&H immediately. It took them 7 months to deliver it and by then, any initial issue had been ironed out, but there didn't seem to be any, anyway for the 800mm PF. When Nikon announced the Z8, I thought it was pretty safe to buy one immediately as perhaps 80%, 90% of its components have already been used on the 1.5-year-old Z9. I would never have thought that Nikon would be tripped up by the old mechanical lens mount problem twice in 6 months. According to Ricci's video, Nikon manufactured 12K Z8 in the first months of production. Since it is typical to have two months of production before announcement/shipping, there can easily be 25K Z8 already manufactured when Nikon started shipping on May 25. Someone has figured out that for US Z8, the last serial number included in the service advisory is 3010297, and 3010298 is the first one not affected. For European ones, the last affected is 6009819. Essentially, for each region, Nikon may have sold around 10K affected Z8. The implication is that there are approximately 30K to 35K affected Z8 world wide. That is a lot of repairs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mike_halliwell Posted June 25, 2023 Share Posted June 25, 2023 (edited) 1 hour ago, ShunCheung said: That is a lot of repairs. 1/2 hr repair could be a full replacement of the body mount or it could be 5 mins with a small file! What I don't quite get is owners of a Z8 will know whether a lens can be mounted or not.... Why the total recall? You wouldn't have thought it will develop this problem when it was OK before? Edited June 25, 2023 by mike_halliwell Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Di Leo Posted June 29, 2023 Share Posted June 29, 2023 Ok, so I sent my Z8 away today, Wednesday, June 28th at around 1p, central time, at the UPS store. Tracking, from Nikon, tells me it should arrive in NY by 7/5—it's coming from New Orleans. I'll detail how long before it returns. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mike_halliwell Posted June 29, 2023 Share Posted June 29, 2023 A week to get from New Orleans to New York? Have they tied it to a donkey? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bgelfand Posted June 29, 2023 Share Posted June 29, 2023 (edited) 11 hours ago, mike_halliwell said: A week to get from New Orleans to New York? Have they tied it to a donkey? No, it is probably going by ground (truck). If he dropped it at the UPS Store, it was probably not on a truck out of New Orleans until late at night on the 28th or more probably early morning on Thursday the 29th. If the package had to change trucks, no change would be made on Sunday, so you can deduct at least one day. UPS trucks move on weekends, but depot changes are not made. Tuesday the 4th of July, is a National Holiday (thanks to you Brits 😉). No deliveries that day or package sorting. And don't forget more traffic on the roads due to the holiday weekend. To put distances into perspective for you, it is about 1400 miles from New Orleans to New York. That would be like shipping a package from Portsmouth, England to Thurso, Scotland AND BACK again., in a time period that includes a weekend and a holiday and using union drivers and package handlers. The United States is a big country. No donkey needed. Edited June 29, 2023 by bgelfand Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mike_halliwell Posted June 29, 2023 Share Posted June 29, 2023 .. and then someone invented aeroplanes and it made long distance deliveries so much quicker....we have them here in the UK too. 🙂 Nikon cheaping out i guess... ☹️ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ShunCheung Posted June 29, 2023 Author Share Posted June 29, 2023 Nikon USA always ships UPS Ground. In 2020 I needed to ship my D5 for repair. Their Los Angeles repair center was closed due to Covid so that I had to ship it to Long Island. I shipped UPS 3 days (air), and the repair only took 2, 3 business days but there was a weekend. The problem was the return shipping and it was the standard one week across the US for UPS Ground, Long Island to California. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Di Leo Posted July 4, 2023 Share Posted July 4, 2023 Right, it went by ground, and July 4th was in the mix. I just tracked it and it is Saddle Brook, NJ now, going to Jericho, NY for repair. The distance between the 2 is 42 miles. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ilkka_nissila Posted July 4, 2023 Share Posted July 4, 2023 On 6/29/2023 at 11:24 PM, mike_halliwell said: .. and then someone invented aeroplanes and it made long distance deliveries so much quicker....we have them here in the UK too. 🙂 Nikon cheaping out i guess... ☹️ Airplanes do pollute quite a lot and nowadays fuel is also more expensive than it used to be. I can only see this trend going further. Nikon's Finnish web pages have a link to the service advisory but it still doesn't work; "Something went wrong.". I sent an e-mail query about that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mike_halliwell Posted July 4, 2023 Share Posted July 4, 2023 54 minutes ago, ilkka_nissila said: Airplanes do pollute quite a lot and nowadays fuel is also more expensive than it used to be. I can only see this trend going further. A worthy aim to be sure. Electric trains are about as efficient and 'Green' a method of volume/mass (land) transport.... esp. if the power is from renewable sources. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ShunCheung Posted July 4, 2023 Author Share Posted July 4, 2023 13 hours ago, John Di Leo said: Right, it went by ground, and July 4th was in the mix. I just tracked it and it is Saddle Brook, NJ now, going to Jericho, NY for repair. The distance between the 2 is 42 miles. Saddle Brook is just outside of NYC. Most likely your Z8 will arrive the repair center in Jericho on Wednesday. From what I have been, both the NY and Los Angeles repair centers can get this done in a couple of days. The actual repair is like 30 minutes. Hopefully they can ship it back to you on Friday, and you get it in the latter part of next week, around mid July. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mike_halliwell Posted July 4, 2023 Share Posted July 4, 2023 2 hours ago, ShunCheung said: The actual repair is like 30 minutes. Will the returning paperwork say what was actually done? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ShunCheung Posted July 4, 2023 Author Share Posted July 4, 2023 Unfortunately, my D5 has gone into repair a couple of times a few years ago. Nikon USA has a check list and they usually check off items such as cleaning the sensor, cleaning the camera, verifying that the firmware is up to date, etc. From what I read about recent Z8 repairs, Nikon seems to be supplying that same list, where firmware check wouldn't make any sense since every production Z8 should have firmware version 1.0 at this point. There is no new firmware to upgrade to, but they make that check for the Z8 nonetheless. However, Nikon is not specific about what is repaired. There are speculations that Nikon could be adding shims to adjust the position of the mount, or they could be merely adjusting the tightness of the mount screws, but it doesn't look like they are replacing the mount on the Z8, at least not in every case. There is no guarantee that every Z8 going back to Nikon has exactly the same fix; potentially, the fix could be different depending on the situation of that particular Z8. But it seems to be a pretty simple job around the mount. They are not taking the entire Z8 apart. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mike_halliwell Posted July 5, 2023 Share Posted July 5, 2023 Sounds like a few, strategic, 'marks' on the old mount before sending it in could confirm replacement of the body mount itself. After having a look at my Z9's body mount, the go or no-go aspect has to be with the lugged metal mount itself. That's about the only physical thing to stop rotation and the lock pin engaging. Now the Z9 had potentially the opposite where something prevented the pin disengaging and the bayonet rotating. The fact the Z mount is now a 4 lug bayonet version, I guess, makes burrs more likely? There are 8 'ends', rather than 6! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Di Leo Posted July 6, 2023 Share Posted July 6, 2023 My camera arrived at the repair place, and that seems to be a local camera shop in Jericho, NY called Berger-Bros Camera Shop (?). Delivered On Wednesday, July 05 at 10:47 A.M. at Receiver Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ShunCheung Posted July 6, 2023 Author Share Posted July 6, 2023 As far as I know, on the East Coast, Nikon USA farms out the mount repair to Camtech Services Inc at 200 Robbins Lane, Suite D3 in Jericho, New York, and that is on Long Island. Berger Bros is a pretty well known camera store on Long Island, but they in near-by Syosset, NY: https://www.berger-bros.com/about-us-1/ On the West Coast, repairs go to Nikon's repair center in Signal Hill, which is by Long Beach in the Los Angeles area. Unfortunately, I have been there once. (The only reason to go there is to get a Nikon product fixed.) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Di Leo Posted July 6, 2023 Share Posted July 6, 2023 I called Berger Bros and they did not receive it, nor do they do repairs, so It must've gone somewhere else. Berger tells me there is a Nikon Service center in Melville, NY and that is nearby, so maybe it went there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mike_halliwell Posted July 6, 2023 Share Posted July 6, 2023 1 hour ago, John Di Leo said: so It must've gone somewhere else. Don't you just love tracking info....! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Di Leo Posted July 7, 2023 Share Posted July 7, 2023 Alright, more info. I got an email from Nikon in Melville, NY. It documents no charge for the service. At the bottom of the estimate was a line stating "to approve this estimate" do yada yada yada. So, I called them asking if there was anything I should be doing. Nope. This was just a standard form, and the repair will proceed. The repair is listed as simply "repair bayonet mount." I asked if there was anything more specific than that. Nope. They will email me a tracking number and if I don't hear from them in "7-15 business days" I should call back. I asked the turnaround time, he told me they should start to work on it "tomorrow," they've had it since yesterday. Then he said that repairs will be done in 7-15 business days then another 7 business days for shipping. I commented that I may be without the camera for maybe a month and he agreed. He did say that they have a lot of cameras in there for the recall. I think, without any good reason for doing so, that it will be faster than that. It's supposed to be a simple fix, right? Actually I'm ok with it because in no way did I expect to receive the camera when purchased as quickly as I did; I figured it would be like the z9 in delayed shipment. And I still have my trusty d810, which ain't no slouch. I'll post as I hear from them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mike_halliwell Posted July 7, 2023 Share Posted July 7, 2023 7 hours ago, John Di Leo said: I think, without any good reason for doing so, that it will be faster than that. It's supposed to be a simple fix, right? I think you're right. They are being very pessimistic so as not to get ANYBODY saying they were promised it in a week blah, blah and they're LATE! Did you happen to take a pic of the body 'throat' before you let it go? If it involves the bayonet lugs it could conceivable be fixed without taking it off. They might have made a special tool for it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ShunCheung Posted July 7, 2023 Author Share Posted July 7, 2023 From the reports I have seen, it should take Nikon no more than a couple of business days to fix the mount on the Z8, at either their Long Island or Los Angeles repair facility. Most likely the job will be completed "early" and the customer will be happy, but the return shipping by ground is going to take another week. 😐 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mike_halliwell Posted July 7, 2023 Share Posted July 7, 2023 3 hours ago, ShunCheung said: From the reports I have seen, it should take Nikon no more than a couple of business days to fix the mount on the Z8 From coming through the door to leaving, yes, couple of week days. Replace the bayonet mount.... 10mins. 😉 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Di Leo Posted July 8, 2023 Share Posted July 8, 2023 I am allowed to see service progress, but at this point it is not particularly informative. This is what I see when I check: Shop Nikon Z 8 Order Number: 73xxxxxxx Serial Number: 30045xx UPS Tracking Number: EDIT—this area is blank at this time, so not tracking number at this time Problem: REPAIR PRODUCT TO GOOD WORKING ORDER Repair Bayonet Mount REPAIR DONE AT NO CHARGE FOR GOODWILLTotal cost of repair: $0.00* To check the status of another repair, Click here. * This price is an estimate and is subject to change. Please note if the price quote does not change, you are accepting these service charges. Your credit card will be charged when service is completed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Di Leo Posted July 11, 2023 Share Posted July 11, 2023 Good news to report! I have a tracking number, meaning my camera is repaired and it is on the way! It is supposed to arrive by 7p on 7/13! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ShunCheung Posted July 11, 2023 Author Share Posted July 11, 2023 39 minutes ago, John Di Leo said: Good news to report! I have a tracking number, meaning my camera is repaired and it is on the way! It is supposed to arrive by 7p on 7/13! Great news. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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