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Nikon D4/D800 issues

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lectricist

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lectricist said:
I also have a lot of 'dust' specs in photos on the D800 when stopped down. One 'spec' looks more like a hair, it causes a large area to be filled with specs and other odd diffraction shapes (light and dark). Furthermore there are specs of dust - and a hair or fibre - visible through the eyepiece in the same location (but they can't be the same thing, can they?). The specs in the eye piece were there since new, but I haven't taken the camera back, I assumed it was just on the mirror.

Since I now see specs on the images I think I should return it for inspection.

Sorry - I tried to edit and quoted instead - Admin please remove.

Posted 1 year ago #
KarinHvG

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I have the same issue with my battery. Never had this with other Nikon bodies either. I bought a second battery, which performs much better. I use Lexar Professional SDXC 64GB and Lexar Professional CF UDMA7 16GB.

Posted 1 year ago #
KarinHvG

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lectricist said:
I also have a lot of 'dust' specs in photos on the D800 when stopped down. One 'spec' looks more like a hair, it causes a large area to be filled with specs and other odd diffraction shapes (light and dark). Furthermore there are specs of dust - and a hair or fibre - visible through the eyepiece in the same location (but they can't be the same thing, can they?). The specs in the eye piece were there since new, but I haven't taken the camera back, I assumed it was just on the mirror.

Since I now see specs on the images I think I should return it for inspection.

I think you should. I have spots, bubbles (oil?), "question marks" and thingies that look like hairs.

Posted 1 year ago #
Mishu

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KarinHvG said:
I have the same issue with my battery. Never had this with other Nikon bodies either. I bought a second battery, which performs much better. I use Lexar Professional SDXC 64GB and Lexar Professional CF UDMA7 16GB.

Well, at least in your situation it may be a fault of the first battery... but I tested three batteries...

Posted 1 year ago #
KarinHvG

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Mishu said:
Well, at least in your situation it may be a fault of the first battery... but I tested three batteries...

Yes and as I had lots of dust on the sensor, I returned the body to the shop (including the first battery) in order to get a new one, so I hope to get a better battery with my D800 to be.

Posted 1 year ago #
lectricist

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KarinHvG said:
I think you should. I have spots, bubbles (oil?), "question marks" and thingies that look like hairs.

Same here - not just spots, bubbly looking diffraction patterns from, I suspect, fibres not lying completely flat on the sensor. At least I hope it's not something worse.

Here's a pic I uploaded to flickr:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/78388395@N03/7083460603/sizes/o/in/photostream/

EDIT: after reading some more posts esp the D7000 oil splash issues it seems much more likely that is the case. Not happy about that Nikon!

Posted 1 year ago #
VinnieJ

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I've had the D800 since day 1 like others and have no issues to report EXCEPT the dirty sensor problem. I'm up to 7500 actuations and I've had to use a sensor swab on it twice already. Plus these spots have popped up on my focus screen which I've had to wipe down to get rid of it.

Posted 1 year ago #
KarinHvG

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lectricist said:
Same here - not just spots, bubbly looking diffraction patterns from, I suspect, fibres not lying completely flat on the sensor. At least I hope it's not something worse.

Here's a pic I uploaded to flickr:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/78388395@N03/7083460603/sizes/o/in/photostream/

EDIT: after reading some more posts esp the D7000 oil splash issues it seems much more likely that is the case. Not happy about that Nikon!

Wow, that's even worse than what I had looking at your photo. I just got some advice on the DP Review forum :

QUOTE
1. go back to your photo store and have the camera cleaned.

2. My last 3 Nikon DSLRs have all had oil splatter on the sensor. You replacement D800 will get the same. Most new Nikons will do this over and over fornthenfirst few months, depending on how much you use your camera.
Go ahead a get a sensor brush, Eclipse, swabs and bulb blower. The anti dust feature in the D800 is good but will not remove all the dust and none of the oil splatter.
I, too, can not believe that the store took your camera back when it just needed cleaning. As far as the other things like hair, etc. you need to clean your lenses. Be careful using compressed air as it will most dust into areas when you can not longer get to it.

3. Unless you have oil on the sensor, a static charged Nylon brush will remove the dust. You only need to use the wet method for oil.
For the wet method, use Sensor Swab Plus Type 3 and Eclipse liquid. The swab should be used for one swipe per side and then the pad replaced by one made from PEC-PADs.
UNQUOTE

Hope this helps.

Posted 1 year ago #
Lumenatic

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Lumenatic said:
D800 won't accept any memory card *surprise*

I realized that the above statement can be misunderstood. For clarification: I meant that the D800 does not accept _every_ card ("Any" implies that no card is being recognized).

Posted 1 year ago #
lynne24

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All of these recurring issues with the D800 are really disturbing. I still have it on pre-order. It seems to be having far more issues than the 5DMarkIII. Can someone tell me is this usual to have so many issues with a newly-released Nikon or with any camera in general? Also do Nikon tend to resolve everyone's issues satisfactorily under the warranty? Really hadn't expected this especially with such an expensive camera. Wondering how widespread all these issues really are. I have a good price garuanteed so don't want to turn it down when my order comes in but this thread is making me very nervous! Haven't noticed a single statement by Nikon addressing any of these issues to date.

Posted 1 year ago #
NSXType-R

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Lumenatic said:
D800 won't accept any memory card *surprise*

Kingston CF ultimate 600x 16GB is not recognized by the camera.

This is technically speaking not an issue, since Nikon lists certain card types which are guaranteed to work with the D800 and Kingston cards are not on that list.

I've had a Kingston SD card fail on me once while I was on vacation, so I never trust Kingston's flash memory now.

The card decided to change the file name hierarchy all by itself, which meant that certain files were hidden and unreadable by computers. I eventually was only able to recover about 3/4 of the photos.

Posted 1 year ago #
Lumenatic

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*UPDATE* disregard what I wrote there. There is no problem, I was seeing ghosts. The shutter is blocked to prevent overheating of the popup flash. It is a normal safety feature and no bug. I tested the D300s and the D800. With each camera I made three series of images, each image taken after 1, 3 and 5 seconds. Both cameras blocked the shutter after the same amount of images.

I was seduced to see this as a problem since I never encountered it during studio sessions with the D300s.

Sorry for the false alarm.

Posted 1 year ago #
Pierre

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lynne24 said:
... so don't want to turn it down when my order comes in but this thread is making me very nervous! Haven't noticed a single statement by Nikon addressing any of these issues to date.

I don't think you have anything to worry about; surely Nikon will address these problems as they did for the D7000 that had similar oil splashing on the first production batches. Their production line is probably not fully debugged yet and I am sure they are working very hard to solve the few issues they have. After all, fixing in post-production is a big penalty for them so.

My friend sent his D7000 to Nikon 3 months after the warrantee was expired and they fixed his mirror-box issue and even paid for the sensor clean-up he should had done last year.

There is always a risk to be the early adopter on anything, this is why I am still waiting for mine when soo many already have theirs.

Posted 1 year ago #
scottbump

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I have found that none of my 3rd-party flash equipment works with my D4. My Quantum Q-Flash with its TTL cable does not even register as present on the camera. My PocketWizard ControlTL gear is extremely unreliable (flashes once in ten tries). Nikon shrugs and says they don't test 3rd-party equipment and both Quantum and PocketWizard indicate that they need to wait until they can purchase a D4 at retail before they can start to solve the problems. Both indicated that I should consider the current equipment to be incompatible with the D4 until further notice. I am still shooting my old camera for all work requiring flash. Miraculously, all of my older Nikon flash equipment seems to work just fine.

Posted 1 year ago #
PabloSRT8

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screenbyte said:
I can't access the mirror up for cleaning option, it's greyed out.
I've been back to my local camera store and he couldn't do it even with two new and fully charged batteries.
The reason I needed to get the mirror up was to try and blow the sensor clean as I seemed to have picked up more dirt on the sensor in two weeks with this camera than I had in 7 years with my last 3 Nikons for some reason.

Same dark spot on my sensor. Less than 100 shots and I have OIL drips on the sensor.
This oils apparently comes from the mirror mechanism.
Only notices after I stopped down to f/22
Air did not work, had it wet cleaned locally and it took many swipes.
At first we thought the sensor was cracked. It was a tiny drip of oil that wound move.

Posted 1 year ago #
scottbump

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I have also needed to clean oil from my D4 sensor. The first time was after only 30 frames and there are now several more spots after about 2000 frames.

Posted 1 year ago #
msmoto

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I have not had the spots on the sensor of my D4, but some interesting focus issues. Does not want to focus on a straight line when the 16-35mm f/4.0 VR is on. Also, a lot of "hunting" in the focus in some cases. Now, i do shoot in low light which require 10,000 ISO sometimes, and the camera for the most part performs outstandingly well. I am learning a lot as I note that if I am shooting in one of the "banks" I created, a lot of menu items disappear (grey out). So, I went back to an undefined "bank" and things begin to work. Many strange things have happened, but I think it is primarily because I have not been fully acquainted with the proper procedure.

Posted 1 year ago #
Baba Ganoush

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I have a question for other D800 owners here. If there is dust on the sensor, won't there be dark dust spots showing up at in the image at all aperture settings? On photos with my D800, I can see "smudges" which are similar to the one in NR Admin's picture just over the bird's head, but which show up only at f/11 and smaller apertures, the smaller the aperture the more smudges I can see. By f/22, quite a few of them are visible against a uniform sky, for example. They are definitely extended, not point-like, and they show up in the same general location for different lenses, my 24-120mm, 70-200mm, and 70-300mm. At larger apertures, the smudges are faint, being nearly invisible at <f/7.1. In addition, there is a thread-like feature similar to what others have described that shows up in the extreme upper right hand corner as I stop the lens down. It's more obvious at the shorter focal lengths in pictures with the 24-120mm, mostly because this lens suffers a lot of vignetting in the corners at the shortest FLs and so the "thread" becomes more prominent in the dark corner.

Posted 1 year ago #
PabloSRT8

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Baba Ganoush said:
I have a question for other D800 owners here. If there is dust on the sensor, won't there be dark dust spots showing up at in the image at all aperture settings? On photos with my D800, I can see "smudges" which are similar to the one in NR Admin's picture just over the bird's head, but which show up only at f/11 and smaller apertures, the smaller the aperture the more smudges I can see. By f/22, quite a few of them are visible against a uniform sky, for example. They are definitely extended, not point-like, and they show up in the same general location for different lenses, my 24-120mm, 70-200mm, and 70-300mm. At larger apertures, the smudges are faint, being nearly invisible at <f/7.1. In addition, there is a thread-like feature similar to what others have described that shows up in the extreme upper right hand corner as I stop the lens down. It's more obvious at the shorter focal lengths in pictures with the 24-120mm, mostly because this lens suffers a lot of vignetting in the corners at the shortest FLs and so the "thread" becomes more prominent in the dark corner.

Mine was right on the middle. It would only show up after f/22 and smaller.
Locked mirror up and used a magnifying glass made for dslr and I could see
The oil spot very well. I could actually see it with the naked eye.
But under magnification it looked like a tiny crack. If I had to guess, it was
Covering about 500,000 pixels.
It took a many passes from a wet cleaning to get rid of it.
I hear it could happen again.
I can't believe Nikon would let something like this happened.

Posted 1 year ago #
Teo

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The only reason for this is that it is located on the AA filter (in front of the sensor) and thus, a slight gap is between the dust and the sensor, this is why it mostly shows at smaller apertures.
I have some all over mine...
I will probably try a wet clean.
is swab type 3 and eclipse liquid a good idea ?

Posted 1 year ago #
Andrew Johnson

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I have an issue with the Mirror. I noticed at the weekend that about 1/2cm up from the bottom of it and about 2cm in width centered there is what looks to be a hairline scratch. My previous Nikons did not have anything like this. I spoke to Nikon and they grabbed a D800 whilst on the phone with me to discover theirs had exactly the same mark on it.
I don't see how the mark could be made by the camera so it looks like a manufacturing issue to me. Obviously it doesn't affect the photographs and it's not noticeable through the viewfinder. If it is somehow made by the camera though, potentially it could get worse.

Posted 1 year ago #
spraynpray

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Andrew Johnson said:
I have an issue with the Mirror. I noticed at the weekend that about 1/2cm up from the bottom of it and about 2cm in width centered there is what looks to be a hairline scratch. My previous Nikons did not have anything like this. I spoke to Nikon and they grabbed a D800 whilst on the phone with me to discover theirs had exactly the same mark on it.
I don't see how the mark could be made by the camera so it looks like a manufacturing issue to me. Obviously it doesn't affect the photographs and it's not noticeable through the viewfinder. If it is somehow made by the camera though, potentially it could get worse.

Does it go from edge to edge (indicating the possibility of a stress fracture) or does it start and stop in from the edge indicating - as you said - that is is a scratch from the manufacturing process?

Posted 1 year ago #
Andrew Johnson

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spraynpray said:
Does it go from edge to edge (indicating the possibility of a stress fracture) or does it start and stop in from the edge indicating - as you said - that is is a scratch from the manufacturing process?

It doesn't go edge to edge. It looks centered with about 1cm-1.5cm either side and .5cm from the bottom.

I tried to view it from different angles to make sure it wasn't any kind of reflection - it definitely looks like a scratch to me.

Posted 1 year ago #
spraynpray

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In some ways it pays not buy a new model for six months after first available so that they get the new plant/tooling/processes/training sorted before they make the camera you buy.

Posted 1 year ago #
ibtm

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I have orders in for both the D4 and D800----so as I get them, if I have any issues I will let you know. Hopefully by the time I get them--they will be perfect!!

Posted 1 year ago #