My D70 is Dead!!

[kab]

G'day All,

Never thought it'd happen to me....Yep....Went to turn it on tonight, and the infamous green cf led kept flashing. Nothing is displayed on the LCD, and the menu will blink on and off for about a second or so, and it will not respond to any buttons/functions. Twas working fine two weeks ago when I last used it.

Seems like this has happened quite a bit round the globe. Did a quick search here, but couldn't find anyone that's experienced the problem. Last time I checked I had taken ~ 8,500 shots. I picked up my D70 in April 2004, and it was on the first batch to arrive in the country.

There seems to be a trend. Usually happens to the older d70's, around a year or older that have not been used for two or more weeks.

Check out the following thread for more info:
http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/readf ... 284&page=1

To the good news...To say I'm that I purchased the extended warranty would be a huge understatement right now. Spose the camera will get sent to Maxwells. God knows how long it'll take to be fixed. Might as well get em to clean the CCD, check for backfocus etc... Hmmm, just realised I'm gonna miss my camera.

I'd be keen to hear from anyone that's had a similar experience.
I'll keep ya's posted.

Till next time...

[nito]

Sorry to hear about the dead d70. I would truely miss my camera it it happened to me, Anyway even if you didnt purchase the extend warranty. Most good companies will repair it under warranty even if its a few weeks beyond.

[christiand]

That is awfull !,

I hope it will work out for you.

CD

[mudder]

G'day Kab,
Sorry to hear of your issues with yoru camera but good fortune with the extended warranty... I must admit I've heard of it happening and I suppose like all mechanical components with whizz bang technology a small percentage will break down earlier than expected, there's stories of ones lasting ages too.

I'd also expect a company of reputation to treat something this early from a 12 month warranty as an under warramty job (I likt to think that anyway!).

Let us know how you go...

[rjlhughes]

the scary comment on dpreview is that one correspondent expects every d70 to have the problem. I trust he's just exaggerating.

[gMaster]

A good friend of mine had his D70 exactly the same problem, and it happend just after his 1 yr warranty expire.

He still hasn't send to maxwell for repair though, and he don't have extended warranty.....

[informer]

I don't understand, why is there such a problem with the d70? I hope that's not a regular thing with all dSLR cameras.

[genji]

G'day All,

I picked up my D70 in April 2004, and it was on the first batch to arrive in the country.

Till next time...

yikes! i got mine in april 2004 aswell!! at camera exchange on Lonsdale st. i had pre-orderd mine, was told i was second person to get the first batch at their store...i'm kinda worried!
no i didnt get the extended warranty!

[Onyx]

The leading cause of death is being killed. All people who are born will die.

I don't believe D70 failure rates are exceptionally high. Bearing in mind this is the biggest selling Nikon SLR camera model of all time. By the sheer volume of sales the number of reported failures would be on par if based on percentages.

Sorry to hear of your misfortune kab. As a courtesy, Maxwell cleans the sensor and check other aspects of the camera sent to them for service, so you won't even need to mention the extra jobs - they'll naturally take care of it for you. I was pleasantly surprised by the cleaned CCD and +200 additional shutter actuations indicative of testing (I suspect backfocus testing/calibration) on my D70's repair.

[kab]

Appreciate the concern all....

It's now at the doctors. Funny thing is, I'm not sure it'll go to Maxwells. Rang up Michaels whom I'd bought the camera off. They then gave me the number of their insurance company, OAMPS. Then wrang up OAMPs and they've got a service contract with the Camera Clinic in Collingwood, so that's where it is.

I hope these guys don't just solder stuff that should be replaced. They looked reputable. We will see.

Till next time....

[genji]

Camera Clinic in Collingwood, so that's where it is.

I hope these guys don't just solder stuff that should be replaced. They looked reputable. We will see.

Till next time....

my understanding is "Camera Clinic" are the authorised repairers of nikon in VIC, correct if I'm wrong, birddog.

[birddog114]

Camera Clinic in Collingwood, so that's where it is.

I hope these guys don't just solder stuff that should be replaced. They looked reputable. We will see.

Till next time....

my understanding is "Camera Clinic" are the authorised repairers of nikon in VIC, correct if I'm wrong, birddog.

Yes, it's

[joolz]

[quote="genjiyikes! i got mine in april 2005 aswell!! [/quote]

Do you mean 2004?

I bought mine July last year. Roughly 21-22K shutter actuations & OK. It is getting towards 5c per shot so I'm happy with it's longevity. Out of warranty now, but that's why I've bought an extended warranty from Birddog. It only needs to last at least until Nikon release the D200.

[genji]

[quote="genji]yikes! i got mine in april 2005 aswell!!

Do you mean 2004?
[/quote]

yeah i did mean '04.

[kab]

G'day Again,

As promised, I've got an update:

Firstly, I must say that I was impressed with OAMPS and the Camera Clinic. Total turnaround time was 9 days.

On the invoice I received, it says:
-Dismantle the camera, replace the faulty AE sensor. Clean the imager and the optics. Reassembe and test the focus, communication, and the image quality. Upgrade the Firmware.

They actually upgraded the firmware to version2. I didn't even know there was a version2. Total cost to OAMPS was $522.50

Camera works fine now

I hope this doesn't happy to other early adopters as it has in other parts of the world, particularly those that don't have an extended warranty. It'd be interesting to find out if Maxwells/Nikon/Someone would repair this type of fault even if you didn't have the extended warranty.

Till next time...
Regards

[kipper]

While we're on the extended warranty discussion, Birddog posted a thread about extended warranties not long ago. Has anybody used this company (or is this the same company) yet? Also are the extended warranties transferable if you sell on the camera.

[kab]

Spoke to soon. The onboard flash doesn't work, nor will it fire the sb800 when I mount it on the camera.

Back to the doc tomorrow.

[genji]

:x

Spoke to soon. The onboard flash doesn't work, nor will it fire the sb800 when I mount it on the camera.

Back to the doc tomorrow.

hey kab

thanks for the PM, shame about the continuing problems

[gooseberry]

Good that yours is repaired now. Interesting that your extended warranty provider was charged for it though. In Singapore, a number of D70 users have had this blinking CF light problem, which is in actual fact a failure of the light measuring fcb. Nikon Singapore has been fixing cameras with this particular problem for free even if the camera is passed the warranty period.

[tasadam]

Hey kab, good luck getting it sorted out. I know how frustrating that sort of thing can be - I own a Panasonic projector and I have had real problems with them. Check my link if you have half a day and like horror stories...
http://www.dtvforum.info/index.php?showtopic=18952

I bought the extended warranty from Birddog - the whole hog - extra 4 years.
I hope I never need it, I look more on it as insurance in a sense, than warranty.

Adam.

[leigh]

I was out shooting a concert last night. Spent about 3 hours with the band before hand taking shots of the soundcheck and various other shots ..all was fine .. Then 5 minutes before they were due to go on stage my camera seemed to freeze up. I turned it off but the control panel screen stayed on.
Took out the battery and put it back in .. now it's totally dead. No display no blinking lights no nothing.
Tried everything, fresh battery, different lens, different CF card, left it off for a while, pressed the reset button on the bottom.

Pretty disappointed, going on holidays tomorrow and now my camera is totally dead.

Only got it in January 2005.

[kipper]

Leigh, I had the same problem with the control panel staying on once when turning it off. I had problems with shutter release, however it's got over it now.

I'm pretty sure this was when I was photographing in like 0degC temps though.

[redline]

i guess when it time to go its time to go.

[Byron]

Spooky, think my camera has just died too. D70 was bought April 2004 from New Camera Store in Lismore, Northern NSW. Same, haven't used the D70 for 2 weeks. It was working fine before then, had taken shots, downloaded the following day. Now nothing except for an intermittent flash from the little green light. Thankfully I too purchased the extended warranty. Super glad to find a thread on this issue!
Tamara

[gstark]

Pleasse add your names to the BGLOD thread that you will find here

[kab]

Yeah, I'd be most interested to know if anyone has managed to get the BGLOD issue rectified in Australia for free, while the D70 was out of warranty...

[robw25]

i have just sent mine of to the nikon repair man in adelaide, it doesnt seem to want to focus on anything !!! i bought mine from diamonds in adelaide in july last year so no bloody warranty... hope insurance covers it

cheers rob

[leigh]

An update ...

I finally got my camera back.

Fixed under warranty. Was gone about 3 weeks.

The report from Maxwell says :

Dismantled Unit, Replaced Fuse, Reapared DC/DC Unit, Reassembled, Cleaned Sensor and Updated Firmware, Checked, Cleaned, Tested.

Hopefully now I will be able to take some shots and be active in the forums.
Will try attend a Sydney meet at some stage and get some much needed tips from people

[jberth1]

Yeah, I'd be most interested to know if anyone has managed to get the BGLOD issue rectified in Australia for free, while the D70 was out of warranty...

Kab,

Many of us have had repairs by Maxwells out of warranty at their expense. I've had my D70 repaired twice for BGLoD - both times well out of warranty, and both times at their expense.

No extended warranty required for BGLoD - see the other posts here about Nikon honouring repairs outside of warranty at their expense, and also the following link at Nikon.

http://nikoneurope-en.custhelp.com/cgi- ... X3BhZ2U9MQ

Cheers

Justin

[leigh]

Another update.....
Decided to go out and try get some shots today ..first time I have used
the camera since getting it back from repair......and problems!

I still had some photos on my memory cards from before the camera died. I put the cards in the camera and was able to look throught them no problems.. . . . .

Whenever I took a photo though, the image would not save ..
the preview just came up with the last image on the card from before. . .
I formatted the card in the camera and it came up with the correct
amount of photos remaining for a freshly formatted card but now has the
error "This Card Cannot be Used" ......
I tried to use windows to format the card again but it said it was
"unable to format card" .....

I tried with my second CF card ...and exactly the same scenario.....
Both cards are Sandisk Ultra II.

I thought maybe my cards could have been damaged when i had the
intitial problem with the camera but I was able to read them and copy the
photos to my computer etc using a card reader no problems.

So now it looks like I will probably have to send the camera back again and possibly also now have 2 unusable CF cards....

anyone seen this before or have any ideas before I take it back to the shop again ?

cheers
leigh

[robw25]

shit i hope i dont get that problem when i get mine back!..... i sent it away the 5th of september and it's still in sydney ! in fact i got that pissed with not having a camera i ordered a d2x from birddog !
good luck with the repairs

cheers rob

[leigh]

Another update.....
Decided to go out and try get some shots today ..first time I have used
the camera since getting it back from repair......and problems!

I still had some photos on my memory cards from before the camera died. I put the cards in the camera and was able to look throught them no problems.. . . . .

Whenever I took a photo though, the image would not save ..
the preview just came up with the last image on the card from before. . .
I formatted the card in the camera and it came up with the correct
amount of photos remaining for a freshly formatted card but now has the
error "This Card Cannot be Used" ......
I tried to use windows to format the card again but it said it was
"unable to format card" .....

I tried with my second CF card ...and exactly the same scenario.....
Both cards are Sandisk Ultra II.

I thought maybe my cards could have been damaged when i had the
intitial problem with the camera but I was able to read them and copy the
photos to my computer etc using a card reader no problems.

So now it looks like I will probably have to send the camera back again and possibly also now have 2 unusable CF cards....

anyone seen this before or have any ideas before I take it back to the shop again ?

cheers
leigh

Finally got the camera back for the second time. This time they said they replaced the CCD.
I've taken a couple of photos now and appears ok. Fingers crossed.

Glad I dont rely on my camera for a job. Been away a total of 2 months out of the 9 I have had it.

[MATT]

Good news Leigh, Hope all is now well.

Mine is away at the moment also,


So fingers crossed it'll come back better than new.


MATT