My lovely D800 has returned

Dave_W

The Dude
Yay!! She's back home again. Nikon replaced the shutter mechanism and box, adjusted the AF left focus issue (yet to be verified) and cleaned the sensor. Thankfully my dealer made a huge fuss about this camera and after less than 4 months the shutter goes so if anything else occurs during the warranty period the rep will spot me a new D800 (as he should).

I know I should be P.O'ed with the fact it had the left focus issue and even more so because the shutter broke after only ~30,000 activations, some how I don't feel upset at all. In fact, I feel like I just re-set my shutter count to zero and am actually thankful it all turned out well in the end. I'm also very thankful I bought my camera from a great dealer who has taken care of everything and I've not been out a cent in shipping and insurance costs.

Now comes the hard part, checking the AF issue and re-fine tuning all my lenses again. Fingers crossed they actually fixed the AF problem and didn't just write it off.
 

Eye-level

Banned
This thread got me to searching about shutter failure in DSLRs and I am very surprised to find out how often it happens and not just with Nikons. All brands are affected. While most cameras survive to their ratings and beyond that would just p!ss me off if I spent several hundred or thousands of dollars on a body and the thing blinked at a very early actuation count. I pity the man who owns a M9 and experiences premature shutter failure!
 

Tami Jo

Senior Member
I'm glad to hear you got is back repaired Now lets hope all checks out as it should. 30,000 acutations is just crazy for it to fail.
 

Dave_W

The Dude
Whelp, so far so good. The sensor is squeaky clean. I shot the sky at f/22 and then put the resulting image at full contrast and full clarity using LR-4 and nothing. So that's a good sign. And checking my fine tuning each and every one of my lenses needed AF fine tuning so clearly something has been played with in the AF department.

Which brings me my first question for the group. Does anyone have experience with Michael Tapes Design's FocusTune? Nasim has an article about it and at $29 it has me very intrigued. I've considered "LensAlign" but reading the reviews and hearing that it's made out of cardboard makes it seem way overpriced. So I'm wondering if this FocusTune is a worthwhile item since you can use it with or without LensAlign.

And finally I have the dreaded left focus issue to address. I'm hoping...fingers crossed, that they fixed it. I'll let you know.
 

Dave_W

The Dude
I bought this particular one June 25th, to be exact. I was shooting the Miramar airshow when it suddenly stopped auto-focusing. I turned it on and off a couple times and suddenly it started focusing again but making a strange sound. That lasted about 10 releases after which I started getting an "err". The images were cut in half horizontally and I only assume the shutter completely died on me.

Looking back, some things about the shoot are now making sense. My sensor started off perfectly clean but over the course of that day it got progressively dirtier and dirtier. And the dirt on the sensor was moving, starting off in the upper left and going diagonally with time. By the end of the day there were a multitude of little spots, mostly in the upper half of the sensor. I can only assume I was seeing the shutter mechanism falling apart. It sucks that it happened but now in theory I'm back to day one and hopefully I can get the full 200,000 actuations the shutter is rated for.
 

Dave_W

The Dude
Left focus area tested and.....wait for it.........still waiting for it.......FIXED!! Left focus is now tight and clean! Woooo hoooo!! At first I thought I had detected an issue with the L focus but I believe it must have been a lighting thing because once I got more light on it, it was working just fine. So I guess they've figured out what setting(s) were off and can now fix them. So if any one else has been waiting before sending their D800 in, I think now would be a good time.

And here is the web page with clear instructions on how to test for this issue. It has to be done very carefully in order to ascertain whether or not you have the "bug" so before your 1 yr warranty runs out, I would strongly suggest you make 110% sure your camera is spot on.

How to Quickly Test Your DSLR for Autofocus Issues
 

Dave_W

The Dude
Is it necessary to fine tume all the lenses.

Absolutely, each lens was out and none were exactly the same. Some where slightly front focusing while others were slightly back focusing and some where spot on at zero. And with the high resolution like the D800 it can make a big difference.
 

stmv

Senior Member
yes, knock on wood, never had any shutter issues after 35 years of different models. now you got me curious on how many shutters I have on my d800,, let me look.....7K,, wow, you have been really clicking away.
 

Bazinga

New member
Left focus area tested and.....wait for it.........still waiting for it.......FIXED!! Left focus is now tight and clean! Woooo hoooo!! At first I thought I had detected an issue with the L focus but I believe it must have been a lighting thing because once I got more light on it, it was working just fine. So I guess they've figured out what setting(s) were off and can now fix them. So if any one else has been waiting before sending their D800 in, I think now would be a good time.

Good your camera got it fixed. However in your case there was major work done on the camera so it's hard to say whether they just did the same procedure to align your focusing sensors.

So you are saying that $3K camera is good for focusing only in very bright and controlled light? Interesting...
 

Dave_W

The Dude
Good your camera got it fixed. However in your case there was major work done on the camera so it's hard to say whether they just did the same procedure to align your focusing sensors.

So you are saying that $3K camera is good for focusing only in very bright and controlled light? Interesting...

From a $20 camera to a $10,000 camera, such is the nature of phase detection auto focus.
 

Bazinga

New member
From a $20 camera to a $10,000 camera, such is the nature of phase detection auto focus.

I guess my point was that for a camera of this caliber the range of acceptable light for focusing should be quite good. I wasn't implying that it should focus perfectly in a very dim light.
 

Dave_W

The Dude
You're right, it does have very good low light focusing however, in my case I was trying to use a desklamp in a windowless room. And much to my surprise, that wasn't working so good :D So once a dragged out my lights and lite that puppy up, it worked just fine
 
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