jasonfodor
New member
Any help would be appreciated, don't know much about cameras
Background: Got into photography, asked dad for money for a camera, and he gave me his D810 instead. He told me it has a scratched image senor, he very busy with work and didn't want to deal with it. Essentially gave it to me to do a warranty claim or sell it for money towards a new camera.
(1) Is the image sensor actually scratched?
On my earlier post someone said it's hard to scratch the sensor and few people said it might just need to be cleaned. Unfortunately, I'm in a small college town, so there isn't any camera repair/services within an hour I can take it to.
Everything on the camera works, even the image sensor works, it's just that the glass is probably scratched and the scratch appears in photos.
I did send an email to perfectimagecamera.com they do mail in cleanings, and his response was:
Based on your photo, unfortunately it does look like the sensor glass is scratched. It looks like someone attempted to clean the sensor on their own and as they dragged the swab across the glass scratched the surface, the uniform directional lines would indicate this. It's actually pretty easy to scratch the glass covering the sensor with improper cleaning techniques. While I do not think our sensor cleaning service would resolve your issue, our service is $59.95 for the cleaning plus return shipping charges. Your best bet would be sending it to Nikon or an authorized Nikon repair center to get an estimate on how much it would cost to replace the filter in front of your sensor.
View: original size
(2) Should I push Nikon for in warranty?
I didn't expect the camera to have warranty, nor Nikon to cover it. I searched for Nikon camera's in my hometown (not college) and planned on having a friend or family bring it in there. There's only one place in my home town, and he asked for my dad's name and was able to pull up his purchase. It's actually from Dec 2018, he emailed me the receipt and advised me to send it to Nikon and said they should cover it since sensor's aren't suppose to scratch.
On Nikon's repair website if you click without warranty it said mail in for quote (essentially you know it won't be cheap). I called the first time and she made it seem it wouldn't be covered by warranty anyways.
After finding out it's under warranty, on Nikon's website when I select under warranty and select image sensor it says free. The second time I called they said a scratch sensor will be covered as long as I send in proof of purchase.
I sent it to Nikon, but they sent me a repair form asking $750 ($730 for repair and $20 for shipping).
IMAGE SENSOR NEEDS REPLACEMENT
THE SENSOR IS SCRATCHED / DAMAGED
This repair is not covered under warranty and needs approval
Little bit of a gray area. On one hand the retail shop and the second Nikon phone rep made it seem like sensor cleaning is routine cleaning and the sensor should not scratch with routine cleaning so it should be covered under warranty. On the other hand, the first rep made it seem like if the sensor scratched then you've abused the camera i.e. user fault.
Saw a few posts on here suggesting Nikon negotiates?
Although I will admit both phone reps seemed clueless. Almost want to say it was outsourced calls. The only thing both agreed on and made it clear there would be no return shipping, but the repair bill suggests return shipping.
(3) What are my other options?
I don't want an IR conversion. I want a regular camera.
From what I searched on forums, image sensor replacement from Nikon is 75-80% of the retail price of the camera, so I would have expected more. Do you think Nikon is taking me for a ride? (i.e. only replacing the glass or just cleaning it).
An used D810 is $850, so the $750 Nikon repair doesn't make sense, I could sell it for parts and put in less than $750 towards another D810.
https://www.lifepixel.com/shop/our-services/scratched-sensor-repair/nikon-scratched-sensor-repair
$350 for this, again I'm not sure if this will make the camera function like normal?
That website does sell the glass for $300
https://www.lifepixel.com/shop/filters/original-oem-sensor-filters/nikon-original-oem-sensor-filters
So seems like only $50 for the labor.
https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_nkw=nikon+d810+sensor&_sacat=0&_sop=15
There's a complete (I think) sensor for $80, not sure if it includes the glass. But the glass lifepixel is selling for $300 is actually $115 on eBay. So, seems like it might be best if I buy the part (again, not sure what part) and just have some place repair it.
Background: Got into photography, asked dad for money for a camera, and he gave me his D810 instead. He told me it has a scratched image senor, he very busy with work and didn't want to deal with it. Essentially gave it to me to do a warranty claim or sell it for money towards a new camera.
(1) Is the image sensor actually scratched?
On my earlier post someone said it's hard to scratch the sensor and few people said it might just need to be cleaned. Unfortunately, I'm in a small college town, so there isn't any camera repair/services within an hour I can take it to.
Everything on the camera works, even the image sensor works, it's just that the glass is probably scratched and the scratch appears in photos.
I did send an email to perfectimagecamera.com they do mail in cleanings, and his response was:
Based on your photo, unfortunately it does look like the sensor glass is scratched. It looks like someone attempted to clean the sensor on their own and as they dragged the swab across the glass scratched the surface, the uniform directional lines would indicate this. It's actually pretty easy to scratch the glass covering the sensor with improper cleaning techniques. While I do not think our sensor cleaning service would resolve your issue, our service is $59.95 for the cleaning plus return shipping charges. Your best bet would be sending it to Nikon or an authorized Nikon repair center to get an estimate on how much it would cost to replace the filter in front of your sensor.
View: original size
(2) Should I push Nikon for in warranty?
I didn't expect the camera to have warranty, nor Nikon to cover it. I searched for Nikon camera's in my hometown (not college) and planned on having a friend or family bring it in there. There's only one place in my home town, and he asked for my dad's name and was able to pull up his purchase. It's actually from Dec 2018, he emailed me the receipt and advised me to send it to Nikon and said they should cover it since sensor's aren't suppose to scratch.
On Nikon's repair website if you click without warranty it said mail in for quote (essentially you know it won't be cheap). I called the first time and she made it seem it wouldn't be covered by warranty anyways.
After finding out it's under warranty, on Nikon's website when I select under warranty and select image sensor it says free. The second time I called they said a scratch sensor will be covered as long as I send in proof of purchase.
I sent it to Nikon, but they sent me a repair form asking $750 ($730 for repair and $20 for shipping).
IMAGE SENSOR NEEDS REPLACEMENT
THE SENSOR IS SCRATCHED / DAMAGED
This repair is not covered under warranty and needs approval
Little bit of a gray area. On one hand the retail shop and the second Nikon phone rep made it seem like sensor cleaning is routine cleaning and the sensor should not scratch with routine cleaning so it should be covered under warranty. On the other hand, the first rep made it seem like if the sensor scratched then you've abused the camera i.e. user fault.
Saw a few posts on here suggesting Nikon negotiates?
Although I will admit both phone reps seemed clueless. Almost want to say it was outsourced calls. The only thing both agreed on and made it clear there would be no return shipping, but the repair bill suggests return shipping.
(3) What are my other options?
I don't want an IR conversion. I want a regular camera.
From what I searched on forums, image sensor replacement from Nikon is 75-80% of the retail price of the camera, so I would have expected more. Do you think Nikon is taking me for a ride? (i.e. only replacing the glass or just cleaning it).
An used D810 is $850, so the $750 Nikon repair doesn't make sense, I could sell it for parts and put in less than $750 towards another D810.
https://www.lifepixel.com/shop/our-services/scratched-sensor-repair/nikon-scratched-sensor-repair
$350 for this, again I'm not sure if this will make the camera function like normal?
That website does sell the glass for $300
https://www.lifepixel.com/shop/filters/original-oem-sensor-filters/nikon-original-oem-sensor-filters
So seems like only $50 for the labor.
https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_nkw=nikon+d810+sensor&_sacat=0&_sop=15
There's a complete (I think) sensor for $80, not sure if it includes the glass. But the glass lifepixel is selling for $300 is actually $115 on eBay. So, seems like it might be best if I buy the part (again, not sure what part) and just have some place repair it.