If you own enough equipment for long enough, something is going to break. In my 10 years or so of working with Nikon equipment, I’ve really only had a few issues: broken shutters, banged up lens, and a broken flash. When this happens, the only real option to fix it is to send it off to the Nikon Repair Center.
The Dreaded Black Line of Death
Most of these issues were caused my banging or dropping the equipment, but the shutters just go out over time. Unfortunately for me, the last time my shutter went out was right in the middle of a wedding. Lucky for me it wasn’t during a pivotal moment in the day, and also lucky for me, I had two other cameras with me.
As soon as I got home that night, I started investigating the problem. When I looked inside the camera, the mirror appeared to be popped up. When I took a photo, it would make a noise and stay down, but then the next photo got it stuck up again. All the photos had a black line through the middle. From my previous experiences, I knew this was a sign of a broken shutter.
I did some quick Googling to verify my hypothesis. I found all types of photos, and it seemed I was right. Then, I found something interesting. There was a page on the Nikon site (here)that talked about fixing an issue with the D600. I knew there had been some issues with oil splatter, but that didn’t seem like my issue. I went ahead and filled out the page and printed off the shipping label.
A Lovely Surprise from the Nikon Repair Center
I expected to get an email back in a few days from Nikon with them telling me my camera didn’t qualify, but that email never came. Instead, I got an email saying that I wasn’t going to have to pay a dime. On the repair slip, it mentioned them fixing the oil issue. I emailed them to clarify that my shutter was messed up, and I wasn’t having the oil issue. They replied and said that they were fixing all of it. I was overjoyed!
I received my camera back yesterday, and it was all fresh and working. The Nikon Repair Center definitely earned some points with me on this one. It’s nice when a company realizes they made a mistake and attempts to fix it. I’m a happy Nikon guy, and as long as they continue to take care of me, that’s where I’ll stay!
