Please help; my beloved baby drowned

Dear Nikonites,

Greetings from a newbie to this forum. Due to very unfortunate circumstances, I managed to drown almost my entire gear and am quite perplexed as to what to do next. It was not saltwater (instead filthy canal water), but remained submerged for about half an hour because I thought the bag was completely waterproof and didn't realise my misfortune until it was too late. So Nikon Service Point declared my D7000, kit lens 18-105mm, 10,5mm fisheye (ouch!) and SB-600 irreparable.

Luckily the body and kit lens are insured, and I might manage to get the flash paid for too, but the rest is for fate to decide. The 10,5mm fisheye and SB-600 are in service with Marland Berlin, yet they couldn't promise me anything, and my 24mm f2.8 and 50mm f1.4 seem to have good chances of survival. If all goes well the insurance will pay for a new D7000 kit, and if I'm lucky the flash will be replaced too. I kick myself for not insuring the rest, yet am really glad I didn't have my 105mm micro and 70-200 f2.8 with me!

My questions to the community are;

- is it worth upgrading to the D7100?
- if so is it worth waiting for the price to sink?
- whilst waiting for the price to sink, what would be a good second body? D80? D2x (found one for 333€)
- can one repair what Nikon says is irreparable? The D7000 body is my main concern.
- as a replacement for the kit lens, what's better - Sigma 17-70 contemporary, or 17-50 f2.8? (Take into consideration my fast prime lenses.)
- how can one convince insurances to pay? This shouldn't be necessary but just in case...

Hopefully that's not too many questions for one thread!

I'm looking forward to reading your answers.

Thanks in advance,

Zimboy


P.S. This is my first post so please forgive me if it's too long and detailed, too desperate, or otherwise awkward.

Welcome.

My recent encounter with needing camera repairs is that Nikon has a corner on the market for Nikon camera repairs (at least in US) - they don't sell parts to independent shops. So if it needs replacements parts, and Nikon says it can't be repaired - sorry but you're SOL.

I love my d7100, but as always, it comes down to what and how you use it to decide your next move.

I would move to the D7100 instead of buying another D7000; or take the opportunity to move to Fx since you already have some nice Fx glass.

There are some methods discussed around the net for drying out gear. If you can keep it after being reimbursed, it's worth a shot.

Welcome to the forum

If you fill out your profile we can better answer any questions that you might have.
You can do that at http://nikonites.com/profile.php?do=editprofile

Some useful links
http://support.nikonusa.com/app/ans.../nikon-product-manuals-available-for-download
Nikon | Imaging Products | Digitutor


Thanks

Hi All,

Thanks for your quick replies - I'm quite chuffed about that actually.

Maybe I'm just lucky to live in Germany cos here it seems Nikon does sell parts to independent service points. At least that's the impression I got from the place I went to. They said Nikon just replace whole units and parts (NSP did agree, especially when water damage is involved) instead of trying to fix them whereas the independent guys promised to try savage what they can to save on new parts. E.g. the 50mm f1.4D had rust on the aperture blades, Nikon said forget it, Marland said he'd try clean it up. So Nate, it seems I'm in luck Just not sure what will come of my fisheye, that I'm worried about.

The more research I do the more I tend towards the D7100 because it seems such a great body, and relatively affordable too. Rick I've been considering Fx for a while, but don't really see that paying almost double would justify itself. Sure, better IQ, better low light performance, better DoF, more detail, etc. But for the 500€ more I could get a nice 17-50 f2.8 lens. Is the D600 Nikon's most affordable Fx body right now? My finances are limited after paying all the lens repairs. Could end up costing heaps...

What information do you need to better answer my questions? I did start to fill out some parts of my profile, but they're not showing up. How do I get it to display my equipment as a footnote? How can I change image editing from yes to know? Have just entered more info, but I'm a bit paranoid about personal info on the web.

Thanks,

Mark,

P.S. Anyone know of shops selling refurbished equipment in Berlin or online in Germany? I'm even considering going analog till the D7100 price sinks. Just know "asgoodasnew.com, local shops which seem more reliable, or "kleinanzeigen.ebay.de (our version of Craig's list)".

Best wishes to you getting your kit back in shape.

Sorry to here about your problem

Hey, just saw a bunch of mistakes on my last post and fixed them. Quite embarrassing English mistakes too - it was very late & I was falling asleep

Anyway so it's kleinanzeigen.ebay.de (not .com) and I found 2 other forums where one can apparently buy second hand gear here in Germany (Nikon Fotografie-Forum: Die Nikon-Community zu Nikon, Nikon Imaging und Fotografie and DSLR-Forum) but I prefer it all in English. Does anyone know where else to get reliable used gear?

I know it's something I must decide myself, and a bit of a question of taste, but is it worth going full frame? I get the impression the D7100 would suffice and I actually like the crop factor when using my 70-200, but could imagine the 24mm would be much better on a full frame. What is nikon's cheapest Fx body? Is it the D600 or are there older bodies that one would get for less? Looked at the D700 but that's too expensive for me, even used.

Looks like the insurance will pay for the body and kit lens which is great, and they need to check if they'll pay for the SB-600. They definifely won't pay for the primes, so let's hope they can be fixed!

Cheers for now

P.S. Does anyone know how long it'll take for the price of the D7100 to come down? Sure it's already sunk considerably, but do you reckon it'll continue sinking considerably? And what about the D600?

Hi there,

just a quick update. It looks like the insurance will pay for the camera and kit lens, still need to convince them to pay for the flash. If they do then I will put the money towards a D600 instead of a D7100. I tested a D600 in-store and was absolutely amazed at the image quality it was producing. So yes I think I will go full-frame.

For the meantime, until I know how much money I'll get back (or even until the price comes down a bit more) I'll get myself an F100 and go analogue for a while :-D Maybe that'll teach me to take less meaningless pictures!

Thanks for your guy's support, nice replies and good wishes but what did I do to kill this thread? Why is nobody answering any more? Guess I have lots to learn...

Sorry I didn't get back with sooner, but I unsubscribed from a bunch of threads the other day - getting a bunch of thread update emails everyday is a bit overwhelming.

Glad it's working out your insurance will pay for your kit. Reviews of the d600 indicate it's a fine dslr. I really like to see people win and this is a major win for you.

Upgrading to the d600 or d800 would be a waste for me right now, as I getting up to speed with my d7100 huge functionality offering. It's keeping me pretty busy for now and likely will for the next 1-1/2 to 2 years - maybe then I'll be ready to upgrade to full frame. One thing I never thought would make a difference to me is the image buffer. I guess I don't mind that it fills up or slows down, but I hate the fact the camera is unusable until it clears. The logical thing is to switch to jpg, but I don't like that. On a whim the other day I picked up a 5d mark III and was amazed how much more comfortable it felt. We'll see what the offerings are 18 months out.