Nikon D600

Funeral for a friend | Last rites Nikon D600 – D610

Friday afternoon 23rd August I walked into Harvey Norman Penrith for what was ostensibly the last time with my faulty Nikon D610 by my side. I’d been holding off trading across to the negotiated D800 body because I didn’t feel that paying the extra $300 in the difference was a demonstration of good faith by a retailer who had stalled on doing anything for the last 17 months. It’s a long saga and not necessarily worth launching into an abridged recount here.

I had hoped to be simply able to swap out the D610 body and 24-85mm lens from the old D600 for the D800 body but management wouldn’t budge despite on their price which is nearly $1000 dearer than anyone else in the country. Had it not been for a well informed friend pointing out that I could end up banging my head against the franchise battlement for as long as they chose to hold out, I might have pushed on. 

So I’ve paid my money, cut my losses and taken the high road. 

vba300ah

Multiple Class Action Lawsuites filed over Nikon D600

It appears that a number of Class Action lawsuit’s have been filed as a result of consumer experiences with Nikon’s D600. If you are interested to follow this you can read about it here, here, here, here, here, here, and here. It’s all a bit messy really and no doubt the problem may well be compounded by the same issue showing up on the D610.

As for me, I appear to be set for protracted run around with Harvey Norman Penrith in terms of getting a satisfactory resolution i.e., refund or appropriate replacement and by that I mean a camera / camera body that does not have this ongoing issue.

 

Oil on sensor | Nikon D610 @ Casey’s Beach

Following on from yesterdays post. The image below is taken from a series shot at Casey’s Beach, South Coast, NSW on the 6th July.

Shot at f 9. Oil spots top left, following the same contamination pattern as Nikon’s discontinued D600.

 

I found another post with images showing a particularly bad contamination of the 610 sensor here

Follow the thread down and pick up the “Update” it’s a shocker.

Ressurection shuffle

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It’s been a long wait. One year and 10 days and numerous shutter replacements since I first brought the issue of dust and oil on the sensor of my Nikon D600 to the attention of the retailer who sold it to me. The resolution is not ideal (call me fussy) however Nikon came to the party and 17 days after dropping the camera off via Harvey Norman, shipped a new D610 body along with the old 24-85 lens from the old D600 to the Penrith store which I collected today.

D610

It had kind of a surreal air to it seeing that old lens in the plastic bag with the new D610 body. I also felt significantly out of pocket as the D610 is nearly eight hundred dollars cheaper than the D600 was when I purchased it and the extra cash laid out on the extended warranty felt like an arms deal gone wrong. However I didn’t have the mind to argue the case with an innocent and helpful technician at HN. I walked out without even having to sign for anything to say I had collected the camera. That weird ‘Twin Peaks’ sense of finality and futility washed over me briefly, like walking out on a bad relationship that you held out some hope for.

Call me old fashioned but I found a twisted sense of irony as I stared up at the sign over the counter that read …

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Had I missed something?

In the waiting room

Throwing caution to the wind I dropped my Nikon D600 into Harvey Norman Penrith for the last time. Surprisingly the issue was dealt with promptly and with a minimum of fuss. I took some paperwork (Previous job cards from Nikon Sydney, the most recent reference file and a copy of a 40 + page Class Action Lawsuit) with me this time which I think gave the guys who I spoke to (Peter and Joe) a better view of the bigger picture. I put my preferred options on the table and now simply have to wait for the outcome. Hopefully I won’t have to follow through with the next step.

Nikon-d600

image courtesy of www.nphotomag.com

Nikon D600 Dust and Oil Damnation

200 + marks on sensor (visible dust and oil) after last round of shooting. This was amongst the last of the shots taken recently with my Nikon D600 which has had 3 shutter replacements in 14 months.

The conversion to black and white in the image below highlights the severity of the problem.

dust and oil

1st shutter replacement down, 2nd shutter replacement down, 3rd shutter replacement down. Bitterly disappointed to say the least. I really have nothing left to say on this matter.

Good luck to anyone out there still experiencing problems with the D600. I hope that your cases are heard sympathetically and that you get a just resolution.

 

Oil and Dust return to haunt Nikon D600

After 3 services (sensor clean) and 3 shutter replacements I had every good reason to believe the problem had gone. Not so……

The shots referenced here were taken in the last few days. I only got to see them last night after returning from 3 days away. It’s disheartening to say the least. In all instances UV filter and lens had been cleaned prior to shooting.

The shots below were references for me to see how the UV filter was affecting the colour balance. I’ve multiplied the layers in Photoshop to increase the visibility of the finer oil marks on the sensor.

Filter On

Filter on

Filter Off

Filter_off2

Subsequent shot samples showing further accumulation of marks.

oil3

The shot below has been processed to increase the visibility of some marks.

oil4

 

This one (below) from today (18th April) after cleaning lens, filter and running an in camera sensor clean.

Clearly this is a dust and  oil issue.

oil6

Can’t get to Nikon until next week (after Easter). I’ll see how good the promise by Nikon is to replace faulty D600 cameras.

I guess that in the entire time I’ve had the D600 (just over a year) I’ve only had a few months of trouble free shooting. I can see why China banned the sale of this camera. Luckily I had my Canon G1X on hand, so whilst the shots on the Nikon D600 are useless I was able to salvage something from the time away.

As for the retailer I purchased the camera from (Harvey Norman @ Penrith), I can’t even see the point in trying to get any result from them: the 3 year replacement warranty to date hasn’t been worth the paper its written on.

D600 officially retired today.

 

Nikon issue official D600 statement

After China banned the sale of Nikon D600’s Nikon released the following statement on the 28th of March 2014

“With regard to the issue with which multiple granular dust spots are reflected in images captured with the D600 digital SLR camera, Nikon sincerely apologizes for any concern and inconvenience suffered by D600 users, retailers, and all concerned.

Because Nikon takes this matter very seriously, we will continue to offer users of the D600 a special service with which cameras are inspected, cleaned, and if necessary, shutter and related parts are replaced free of charge, even after the product warranty has expired. However, if a number of multiple granular dust spots are still noticeable in images captured with a D600 upon which the above service has been performed several times, Nikon will replace it with a new D600 or an equivalent model.”

Read the full stories here and here