I just got my camera bodies, a Nikon D100 and D70, back from a Nikon authorized repair shop here in Albuquerque. There was nothing major wrong with them, but they had seen hard use in the past year: drenching rains in Alaska, dust storms in New Mexico, 10,000 clicks on the D70, about 3,000 clicks on the D100. And a few bumps, bruises, and drops into fine sand. The D70 had picked up an annoying artifact on its imager, probably from moisture. It was easy enough to repair with Photoshop, and I probably could have cleaned the imager myself, which is kind of, sort of not recommended by Nikon. It's mechanism had also gotten a little graunchy from the sand and dust. As had the focusing mechanism of my 12-24 zoom. So I brought the two bodies and the lens last week to my local repair shop. I got them back this morning. What a difference! The artifact was gone. The mechanisms were again silky smooth. The old master recommended that I replace the skylight filter on the 12-24, as the small scratch on it was degrading its performance at f/22. The cost? $120, with the new filter. Well worth it!
Pete, thanks for the insight. My Rebel XT is far less used than your Nikons, but your experience is excellent advice.
I've heard of people getting 15,000-30,000 clicks out of their Nikons, and saying they were good as new. They don't shoot in Alaska! Also, I've got 14,500 shots on the D70, and about 13,500 on the D100. They've made me money, so they deserve a break now and then. Over the years I've started using the bracketing and speed-shooting modes, so I've used up a lot of electrons.
Since I've started using Helicon Focus, and also started bracketing some shots, I'm going through a lot more clicks for each image. For bird pictures, I might just hold the shutter down, and click off ten or 20 shots.
How do you keep track of how many clicks a camera has made? Thanks. Also, how do you find a local repair shop? Is it just any good shop, or are there specific ones approved by Nikon?
Flash, At the beginning, I set my counter to 10,000--not sure it goes higher, and haven't looked. Every shot I take is numbered. When it gets to 10,000, it resets to 0. So my Nikon D70 reads 5561. I know it's cycled once, so the real number is 15561. I never reset the counter. On my cameras, the files names are something like "DSC_5561.jpg" or "DSC_5560.NEF." There's no real confusion between identical numbers since they were shot so far apart. Yes, I have two "DSC_5561.jpg," but they are usually about 18 months apart.
It's not hard, but I have a tendency to screw up the simplest things, hence my stupid mistakes posts. Also, I think this wasn't dust, but moisture residue, which is much harder to clean. Whatever! He also made the mechanism good as new. There's a silky feel to a new camera; it becomes graunchy under harsh conditions after a few years. Flash, I was lucky to find an old camera repair shop in Albuquerque. The guy's got to be 70 years old, and grumpier than a toad that's been stepped on. I just looked in the Yellow Pages for a Nikon-authorized shop. Two of them were camera shops, which meant they sent cameras back to CA, and a six-week time for return. This old guy does it himself, with a two-day or less turnaround, extended this time by the holiday.
Actually, I'm pretty merciless when it comes to culling photos. If I take 1000 shots, I might keep only a 100 for a second look. When I'm shooting birds, it might be 10 in 1000. Then I go back through, and work on only the very best
