D600 worse than ever

Hi guys just got my D600 back from Nikon UK ....
what a joke , paperwork says all these new parts added for shutter re-placement due to oil..
all cleaned and fully tested ...JOKE

just went to try it and NONE of my view finder info now works , everything lights up but extremely dim almost impossible to see... Not only that fired off 50 shots and already oil is beginning to drop on sensor..

​Nikon is a bloody disgrace at the moment

Every manufacturer has put out a lemon or two in their history and for Nikon I think the D600 is it. The Nikkormat EL (and it's sibling, the ELW which peremitted a winder to be attached) was also a somewhat of a dog. You would be better off sending it back to Nikon and getting the info thing fixed and then selling it or trading it for another body. Just my 2¢.

I'm sooo tempted to sell all my nikon gear and get 5D mk3 but I much prefer the feel of the nikon rather than canon.. I feel so let down by the Nikon product and their customer care

My Nikkormat EL and Elw still work....
I think I'd be demanding a trade in on a D610, which us supposed to have a redesigned shutter.
Otherwise, just keep sending it back and let their repair department get tired of dealing with it.

I feel bad for you bigfatmole. Swapping camera ecosystems can be expensive but not without its merits. If I was confident that Canon was devoid of issues then I would consider a swap as well. Stepping into a D600 was no doubt a big pitfall for you but I don't think it should be indicative of the entire Nikon family. Like STM mentioned, every manufacturer has its lemons. It's been a long time since I've owned Canon (Elan and RebelX) but I'd have to agree that I prefer the feel of Nikon.

I know that I will always upgrade bodies but this time instead of hopping on a new release I'm going to let it saturate the market first and make an upgrade decision then. Best of luck.

One of our members here, @hark, had similar experiences and eventually got Nikon to credit her D600 purchase price towards a D610. Perhaps you can try that route. As someone who has a D600 that is, or at least appears to be working properly I can vouch for the camera it's supposed to be, so if you can upgrade to the D610 I would imagine that it might at least ease the pain you've felt. My brother shoots a 5D and lusts after the photos from my D600.

Sell it and get a 610. So far no dust spots. Everyone makes mistakes... this was Nikons.

Was this your first time getting it repaired? Mine was sent in 3 times but still continued to produce spots on the sensor (plus this was my 2nd D600 as I returned the first within a month due to the sensor spots).

I am trying to remember correctly--the customer has to pay for the shipping to send the camera to Nikon for its first servicing. If it is deemed as a warranty repair, Nikon will fix and return the camera at their expense. This next part is what I *think* is correct...there is a limited time frame (maybe 6 months) IF the problem shows up again, Nikon will pay for the camera to be sent in for servicing (as well as they pay for the return shipping). At least that is for the US Nikon servicing. If it is over 6-months from when it was first serviced, you might have to pay to send it in again.

Be sure to upload sample test shots showing the spots and any other problems when filing a claim. Since you are experiencing other problems, if you don't have a second camera, see if a camera store can help you out so you can take photos of the display problem. That way you have concrete evidence they can evaluate before it goes in for repair. My sensor got scratched during its second repair. The marks were not there in any of the test shots I took prior to its second servicing but showed up immediately on the very first test shot I took when I got the camera back. My point--document everything and upload all the info to their site when you file a claim.

When my D600 was returned to me, the first thing I did was to take some test shots. The spots appeared immediately. Heck, I didn't even get a chance to truly enjoy the benefits the camera has to offer because it's hard to get excited over a camera that isn't any better than it was before sending it in for repair.

Personally from my point of view calling the D600 a lemon is just so far from reality.

Clearly i have been lucky, as the dust on mine I would consider to be normal, i use mainly prime lens and swap them regularly in dubious locations.

I cant help thinking some become rather 'obsessed' with the dust issue and blow it out of all proportions. (I'm not talking about anyone specifically OP, just in general) The sensor screen can be cleaned.

i'm one VERY happy D600 user.. its only reading the internet that ever makes me question it..

Watoh said:

Personally from my point of view calling the D600 a lemon is just so far from reality.

Clearly i have been lucky, as the dust on mine I would consider to be normal, i use mainly prime lens and swap them regularly in dubious locations.

I cant help thinking some become rather 'obsessed' with the dust issue and blow it out of all proportions. (I'm not talking about anyone specifically OP, just in general) The sensor screen can be cleaned.

i'm one VERY happy D600 user.. its only reading the internet that ever makes me question it..

Click to expand...

Many people don't shoot when stopped down very often, if ever. For people like me who shoot a lot of landscape and long exposures I am frequently at f22 and higher. It's enraging when I look at an otherwise fantastic photos effectively ruined by 50+ blobs and dirt pieces all over the photo.

Watoh said:

Personally from my point of view calling the D600 a lemon is just so far from reality.

Clearly i have been lucky, as the dust on mine I would consider to be normal, i use mainly prime lens and swap them regularly in dubious locations.

I cant help thinking some become rather 'obsessed' with the dust issue and blow it out of all proportions. (I'm not talking about anyone specifically OP, just in general) The sensor screen can be cleaned.

i'm one VERY happy D600 user.. its only reading the internet that ever makes me question it..

Click to expand...

You are entitled to your opinion; however, I find it far from being obsessed when the first photo taken after getting it serviced is covered with spots. It shouldn't be that way. My problem is that I couldn't remove the spots with the Eclipse solution and Sensor Swabs, and perhaps Nikon couldn't either. Plus I use f/16 probably more than many people so it was important to me to address the problem I encountered. Besides, it's MY right to proceed as I see fit rather than to conform to someone else's opinion. Glad to hear you are a satisfied owner.

What an opportunity Nikon have missed here,the most loyal customer is often the one with a problem that feels the company has gone that extra mile to ensure there satisfaction.

Just to be clear, there is no apparent correlation between serial numbers and defective cameras. From everything I have been able to gather the problem was an unsolvable and intermittent issue with the shutter assembly - some worked fine from the start and others didn't, regardless of date of manufacture. This is why some cameras come back fixed and others don't, and it's ultimately what caused them to abandon the model and put a new shutter mechanism in the D610 (one that was likely not adaptable to the D600).

I'm on my third D600, the last one has now been serviced two times. I will get it back this week and evaluate whether a second shutter replacement was successful. Here's the most recent work order:

RPL Shutter Mechanism
CLN Lens Signal Pin
CKD Focusing Mechanism
CKD Image Test
CLN Low Pass Filter
General Check & Clean

hark said:

You are entitled to your opinion; however, I find it far from being obsessed when the first photo taken after getting it serviced is covered with spots. It shouldn't be that way. My problem is that I couldn't remove the spots with the Eclipse solution and Sensor Swabs, and perhaps Nikon couldn't either. Plus I use f/16 probably more than many people so it was important to me to address the problem I encountered. Besides, it's MY right to proceed as I see fit rather than to conform to someone else's opinion. Glad to hear you are a satisfied owner.

Click to expand...

It was never my intention for you to conform to my opinion and i was not talking about your comments, so you need not get upset with me. I find your tone rather over defensive. I often shot in macro with well over f16 values, i even shoot at f32, as i said, i'm aware I have been lucky and other are experiencing real issues.. however i still feel many over blow the problem and get swept alone by the tide of others. I was one, when i 1st got my 600 after a few weeks I noticed dust and read a lot of dust/oil issues, i assumed i had 'the issue'. I had even arranged to return it to nikon, however i took a step back, did a clean myself and have never looked back. I got swept up in other peoples complaints, it did not need to be returned.

I am sorry you are one of the unlucky ones.

People with problems & complaints are always (rightfully) the ones you hear about, but i very much doubt they are the majority. The D600 is no lemon.

Hello bifatmole, Can you please upload an image of the document that was sent to you with your camera (if it says anything about OIL)? u can crop just to show what was done and hide the name/address.
I am asking for that because Nikon USA is refusing to acknowledge that there is an oil problem. As per them, my camera was only cleaned and returned.
Thanks

Hi Jonathan , Nikon haver never admitted to me that there is an oil issue . In my 1st email to them they stated dust on the sensor is normal with any DSLR , true but we all know there is an oil issue on various D600's . I told them when I sent it in NOT to just clean it as I'll just put it straight back in the post .. I told me dealer I wanted a new shutter box due to the release of the D610 . To be fair I got the new shutter box but at the cost of the view finder information now not working, so it went straight back to nikon anyway I'm not sure what Nikon are thinking when they send a camera back without even looking through the view finder..

FYI, the shutter in the D610 is not the same as the replacement shutter in the D600. Totally different mechanism.

My experience with Nikon customer service is that you need to be very clear with what you perceive the problem to be, and have someone on their end confirm that. That said, if you want them to replace something specifically that they do not believe to have failed, that's not a warranty service, that's a requested repair, and you may wind up paying for it. What I had to do with the second shutter was document the snot out of the problem photographically, and get a confirmation in writing that the second shutter exhibited the same problems as the first. On the first, however, they will not assume it's an oil issue and if the tech doesn't see oil spots it won't get replaced, only cleaned and sent back, making the second go-round even more difficult. Don't assume anything with the service department. If you have a dealer, have them contact their rep and confirm the oil problem first and you're more likely to get the service you want.

There's been as much misinformation about what Nikon is doing with the D600 repairs as there has been on what exactly is wrong with the camera, so people need to work smartly and assume nothing.

None of this excuses a sloppy repair/cleaning, but if something is not on a tech's work list there's a good chance they're not going to look for it, so make sure you double-check what's on the repair order in their system once you get their internal work number.

BackdoorHippie said:

FYI, the shutter in the D610 is not the same as the replacement shutter in the D600. Totally different mechanism.

Click to expand...

probably true....BUT how can you say that for sure? Do you have a press release or any document from Nikon saying the mechanism is different?