D800 focusing issue. The end.

Haven’t had time to post here about the saga with my D800 (previous posts are here and here). After much debate with Nikon Richmond Service center I got referred to the corporate office in Mississauga, Canada. Even though originally it seemed like my issue was going to be ignored further, I actually got good service and in the end the camera was replaced with a brand new unit since the original one was malfunctioning beyond repair as I understood from our communication.

With this I want to say few final words.

  • I believe Nikon should have been more customer friendly with this issue. I don’t understand why they are afraid to acknowledge the issue since I’m sure it would be viewed mostly positive and as a desire to make it right.
  • I would advise you to fight until the end if your camera has the issue. Be polite, but firm. Demand actions and do not back down if your camera is faulty. Do not give up, because then you will be left with a very expensive piece of equipment that you could really use only with a Live View focusing (and trust me, it’s not fun at all if you do anything but orchestrated landscape shots).
  • If you think about sending your camera in, first contact Nikon Service office and request a pre-paid shipping label. First time I sent my camera in I was foolish enough to pay out of my own pocket (which amounted to a LOT, since I paid for shipping + insurance).
  • If your camera is faulty, do not delay sending it in. Your camera will run out of warranty soon and you will be left with a unit that is possibly beyond repair.
  • Good luck!

DNG files preivew in Windows Explorer

In case you use DNG format for your raw images, there is an add-on for 64bit Windows OS that allows preview in Windows Explorer. For more details please visit the vendor’s site.

Wireless remote for Nikon D800

There are many uses for a camera remote – you may need to secure your camera on a tripod and ensure that there is no shake to the camera when shooting, or you may need to expose for long time or maybe you want to just take a picture with yourself in the frame.

My old camera, Nikon D90, had a tiny IR remote that I could use for some of these purposes and it cost about $15-20. When you buy a more serious camera, however, Nikon does not make anything cheap to go with it. So you have to start looking for third party tools. There were 2 or 3 decent wireless remotes that have 10-pin connection for Nikon and in the end I selected one – Vello ShutterBoss (pictured here). While the name leaves a lot to be desired, the actual device is pretty solid and provides a great range of functions to control your camera shutter remotely. You can set up long exposures, delayed exposures, timed and interval exposures, which really helps with a lot of applications. It comes in 3 pieces – actual remote which allows you to control multiple functions, camera cable that links 10-pin connector with the receiver unit. The latter can be (but does not have to be) secured in the hot shoe.

I now cannot imagine how I would take long exposure photographs or HDR frames when I want to ensure that there will be no camera shake or shift. All in all – great tool and not very expensive either.

D800 memory cards

I don’t think I mentioned this before but I am using SD cards with my D800 exclusively. Main reasoning for not using CF cards is to minimize number of gadgets I need to have and travel with. Since most laptops released in the last few years have SD card readers it becomes a big selling point for using only SD cards. If you decide to use CF cards then you will have to buy a CF card reader and carry it around when traveling. Besides, CF cards are quite more expensive than SD cards. The only downside of this approach is that you use only one memory bank instead of two.

I am using Lexar cards now, while I used SanDisk before. I’ve got 3 Lexar 32 GB 600x speed cards (pictured here) and so far I have not experience any slowdowns in camera when shooting.

D800 focusing issue. Part 2.

Today I got my camera back from Nikon’s service center in Vancouver, BC. They sent it back saying it’s within specifications. I set up another test environment with different target this time – star chart.

This was a second trip to the service center. After first trip my camera came back with improved focus when using left group of sensors (the problematic ones) but my center sensor became much, much worse – it does not focus properly now. And, apparently, center sensor should always be pretty much the best out of all of them.

Read More»
Copyright © Alexander Yermakov