Crack in Body leads to light in pictures - setting suggestions?

mesport

New member
A few years ago, I had to send my D5500 to Nikon because my flip screen stopped working. I got it back repaired but never checked the rest of the camera. The last few times I took my camera on vacation I noticed that most of my pictures were coming out lighter than they should have. Also, my flash stopped working. I took it back to the camera shop and they found a crack in the body and insisted that I must have dropped it. Well I can tell you I would never have dropped it and I think Nikon actually did it but I couldn't prove it after the fact.

My husband has used black Loctite glue to close the crack and although you can't really see the crack anymore, the pictures are just not right.

I know it's kind of pointless at this time but we are taking a road trip to Yellowstone next month and I really wanted to use this camera. Would anyone out there have suggestions for settings I can try to offset the additional light I am getting on my photos?

Thanks.
 
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Bikerbrent

Senior Member
Welcome aboard. Enjoy the ride.
We look forward to seeing more posts and samples of your work.

Are your pictures completely overexposed, or is it just portions of the picture that are overexposed? If it is the complete picture that is overexposed, you might want to check that exposure compensation is set to zero. If all else fails you might try reducing exposure compensation.
 

mesport

New member
Thanks Brent. The entire picture appear to be much lighter than what I would expect them to be. How do I set the exposure compensation to zero?
 

Needa

Senior Member
Challenge Team
Re: Exposure Compensation

Exposure compensation is on page 129 of the reference manual.

Screenshot_2020-08-18 D5500RM_(En)03 pdf.png
Normally should be set to zero.
 
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mesport

New member
Thanks Needa, I will give those options a try. And yes thanks for the comment about checking the body after receiving it from repair. Wish I had thought of that when I got it back :(.

The camera shop would not work on the broken flash due to the crack so I have been going without.
 

Bikerbrent

Senior Member
Another option is to get a used body only (you already have one or more lenses) for less than $400.00. This will fully resolve the crack and flash issue and give you some peace of mind.
 

john*thomas

Senior Member
Or even........I see where Roberts has a D3200 with 3000 clicks for $130.

If the body is cracked I would worry about something else not being right. It takes a pretty good hit to crack a body. But do as instructed and see what happens first.
 

Whiskeyman

Senior Member
If it is at all possible, get another camera.

You're going to Yellowstone and it would be unfortunate to lose the photos of the trip by trying to get by with a busted camera. If the body is cracked, then you will possibly experience other problems, as well as the overexposed images.

It just doesn't make sense to me to take the trip with a busted camera.

WM
 

hark

Administrator
Staff member
Super Mod
Contributor
Where on the body is the crack located? While in a dark room with lights off, can you shine a flashlight at the crack from outside the body and look to see if any light shows up inside the body (while the lens is off)? Might take both of you to do this.

When you say the photos aren't right, is one area of the images lighter than other areas? Or is the lightness uniform all over?
 

hark

Administrator
Staff member
Super Mod
Contributor
Oh...another thought. Do you have a different lens to try? Does this happen with other lenses? The reason I'm asking is it's possible the blades of the lens are a little sticky. If so, sometimes those aperture blades don't close down far enough to render a proper exposure. The result would be over exposed images.
 

Roscoe Primrose

Senior Member
Oh...another thought. Do you have a different lens to try? Does this happen with other lenses? The reason I'm asking is it's possible the blades of the lens are a little sticky. If so, sometimes those aperture blades don't close down far enough to render a proper exposure. The result would be over exposed images.

If you don't have another lens, take some pictures with the aperture all the way open and see if they come out properly exposed...

Roscoe
 

mesport

New member
Thanks everyone for your suggestions. I reset the settings and changed the exposure compensation to -3 and that seems to have helped. More experimenting to do. I will try another lens and see what happens. I believe with the Loctite my husband used, there is no longer any light getting through but I do think there may be other issues such as the flash not working even though it opens.

I do have one other question. It seems that I may have gotten a small grain of black sand or something like that inside the mirror. Is there a way to get that out without scratching anything? I am usually really careful with my camera so I have no clue how that happened.

Thanks again everyone.
 

Needa

Senior Member
Challenge Team
Try a GIOTTOS rocket blower. Remove the lens, while holding the camera upside down, use the squeeze the blower without inserting the tip inside the camera. This should dislodge the particle. Do not use caned air. There are videos on how to do this.

Needing to set the exposure compensation to -3 to get an normal looking photo would seem to indicate some other problem is going on.
 
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