Mine took just a little over two weeks from Oregon to LA, CA.

Indecline, how long did it take to get your camera fixed, I am planning on sending mine in tomorrow MI to NY for the exact same problem

I can happily report that I got my D800e back this Monday from Nikon in Califorina. They repaired the 10 pin without any question, I also asked them to check the left focus and the RO stated that they checked and adjusted the focus. All repairs under warranty. Of course I had to pay for shipping and insurance to Nikon. the bad news is they send the camera back without insurance. :(

This issue just rots my socks, to spend this kind of money on a camera and have it fail in less than a month, the worse part is Nikon won't issue a recall so at this time we are at their mercy at what cause they arrive at......warranty repair or......impact damage. I hear that they try for the impact damage first, unless you hold fast against that, the problem with that is, they hold all the cards. I posted on another forum last night and I was informed that if you are in Britain the retailer is obliged to replace the camera and they deal with Nikon unfortunately it is not the way here in the good ole USA, we have to deal with Nikon.

Unfortunately the 10-pin socket in my D800 broke down too, after one use. I hope it will get repaired under warranty.

Indecline said:
My 800e has a broken 10 pin socket just like the photo above.

Hello new to the forum joined to add to the list of unfortunate's who has purchased a D800E only to have the 10 pin socket come loose in the socket after (3) short weeks of ownership. I use(d) the remote quite a bit as I have been doing a lot of night shooting with all the Christmas lights and displays of late. I have contacted the retailer (Gary Camera of Merrillville IN) who has told me that I need to contact Nikon. These guys were great in the front end, but I am sure disappointed with them now, I don't know who to be more disappointed with, Nikon or Gary Camera! Anyway I am about to send my camera into Nikon for evaluation "as they put it" I hope that they replace it as opposed to fix it, as I don't think a camera this new should experience this kind of failure. I will let you all know how it goes in the future, I imagine 3-4 weeks.

In the meantime I will have to use my stand-by 700

Serial #3008459

Mark

I just got my D800e a week ago. Yesterday I took it out and used the 10-pin connector for the first time. Today I went to plug into it again and found it was broken just like the others talked about in this thread - pushed down and off center. I'm going to send it back to the retailer, but truthfully, I'm fearful the next one won't last any better. I will definitely be more careful with it and probably won't tighten the ring. Having a 10-pin on the front instead of a connection port inside the side flap door was a big part of my decision to get the D800 over the D600. What a big disappointment and such a sinking feeling to know my new baby is broken already.

Serial number: 3010xxx

Yes mine broke too. I have been using those connectors in my blimps for many years with film cameras, then a D2X, D300, D700 and now D800. Never any problem before in over ten years until now. It's in the shop, and i am using a loaner (not a D800.) a friend in England has reports of this occuring in the UK.

The problem with the connector is a design flaw that until this body didn't seem to matter, which makes me think they are getting the plugs from a new source. With most connectors, such as on a coax cable, the threads are on the socket element such that screwing on the plug draws the two together. On the ten pin, the threads are on the surrounding cavity; therefore the plug can be drawn into the cavity but if for any reason it is misaligned or there is an obstruction (bent pin, jammed pinhole) the plug exerts force on the inner piece and forces it to the point of failure. I can't tell you how ugly it felt to see green circuit board in the hole! My workaround will be to attach an MC-22A to the body and leave it on, then jump the other end of the cord to a new set of connectors in the blimp, so that I am not repeatedly challenging the fitting of the plug. Annoying! But I still love my Nikons.

The 10 pin connector socket has come loose on a number of cameras. Apparently the redesign of the body near the connector has reduced the clearance around the connector creating potential for problems.

I've seen one report of a 3rd party GPS device that worked with earlier cameras causing the damage. The solution for the GPS device was to grind or shave the plastic housing on the GPS device to make it fit. The Nikon GPS device works fine.

Nikon has been mixed in their response. I have seen this repaired under warranty and I have seen a charge of $225 for user damage caused by a non-Nikon accessory. The repair is easy but requires a trip to Nikon or Authorized Service.

The bill only says they replaced the connector, and i didn't ask the tech. I was just happy to get it back so quickly and free of charge. I have read of others being charged for repairs to the connector, or for repairs to fix bent pins on the cf slot on a D4, calling it misuse or impact damage, so just wanted to pick it up and go. The only thing i know for sure is it happened the one time i decided to actually screw it in instead of just pushing it, so I'm not going to tighten it anymore.

Did they say what had given way? Might be useful info to other owners who experience the same failure, and to get an idea if there is a manufacturing fault.

I'm glad that worked out, ray.

Got a call from Nikon today, my camera was ready to be picked up. Repaired the 10 pin connector, cleaned the sensor, only took 1 week, and all covered under warranty. I'm a happy camper. Hope the repair takes care of the problem, that it isn't a design flaw.

Brought my camera in to Nikon today, the tech was surprised that the connector had come loose, he said it was the first one he'd seen like that. He said the repair should take about two weeks, and "should" be covered by the warranty. I hope he's right on both counts.

To update the status of my camera.

The retailer is taking the camera back and is going to repair/replace through the warranty. While this outcome is satisfactory, it does come at a cost - 4 weeks at least without the camera and cost of shipping.

One question for me remains. If the camera is repaired will they strengthen any fault with the original part?. Replacing a faulty part with another is not going to help. Guess I will have to wait and see................

Hopefully others with the same problem have resolved this issue. I'll update again if I glean anything else regarding the fault.

Regards

My 800e has a broken 10 pin socket just like the photo above. I have had the camera since 8/31/12 and had a Nikon release installed from day one, I removed it while doing some hiking as the cable release got in the way. When I went to install the release again, I found the broken socket. :(

Yesterday, I got the flashing ERR message. The manual said to release the shutter and it fixed it, but I'm starting to get a bit nervous about the durability of this camera. :(

I figure I will send the camera to Nikon for repair in December when my outdoor photography will slow down.

Alright, My D800e's serial number is 30050xx.

The serial number for my D800 camera is 6046817.

I'll write to Nikon this evening and let you know the response...

Cheers

If you have a photo taken by it, the serial number is embedded in those, and there are websites that will tell you the serial number if you upload such a photo.

My D800e was bought about 4 weeks ago. Since D800e is in pretty tight supply, I would assume it is fresh out of manufacture. Unfortunately I have already return it to the seller and did not write down the serial number.

I have used mine a lot lately with no problems (knock on wood). Looked at my plug socket and it seems to be sturdy. I wonder if it is a certain batch of 800's. Mine is 3033xxx. Maybe we can compare. I don't know how many people with 800's use remote shutter and if there is enough members here to come up with a batch of 800's to compare to. I feel for those of you with this problem. Bummer.

I have had my D800 two weeks and for some low light photography this evening plugged in my DC-30 remote. I lined up the lugs and pushed it in gently. I noticed it felt wobbly and removed this to see the socket was misaligned and pushed back, very similar to the photo above.

Reading the earlier points raised here as well as by users with the same issue on Flickr and DPreview certainly suggests this is a design fault.

This is a big inconvenience at least, and I expect will incur some extra cost (shipping) and delay without the camera which I already had to wait for.

I will contact Nikon and let you know the response.

regards

I saw on another forum that someone using a bluetooth gps adapter broke the connector, and Nikon wouldn't cover the repair under warranty, charged him around $250 to fix the camera. The gps unit's website has a warning about connecting their unit to the D800, that you need to grind down the cover and warns that you will break the 10 pin connector and Nikon will not repair under warranty. I don't know how they can tell if it broke from the MC-36 or some after market gps unit. The unit in question is by Aokatec

Hi! everyone, I am a new user here. This same thing happened to my just bought D800e couple days ago. I never had problem with my remote trigger on my D700 but the first time on this D800e and I had this problem. I am not sure whether I broke it or it was came in that way. I suspect this 10-pin socket part is a very weak one to begging with. Took the D800e to a local Nikon repair shop. The tech said it was broken and will take a lot of effort to replace it. He need to take out the mirror to access the broken part. Anyway, I returned the camera back to the seller and waiting for a replacement. Bottom line, everybody should watch out when they use this socket. It is very easy to break it!

I had the exact same problem today. I used a Nikon remote shutter release and it worked fine. Then I tried to install a cable for a GPS unit and I couldn't get it seated. Turns out that, like yours, the connector in the camera was loose and off center. Great. I'm leaving for a trip to Europe in 2 days. Ya think Nikon will get it fixed for me in time?