I MUST be doing something wrong

lordbeau wrote:

D200: no probs - probably my best Nikon camera

D40x: sensor developed a prob after 2 years, corrupting all images though they looked fine on LCD. Photos ruined and Nikon wanted £160 for repair. Ditched the camera.

D300: no probs

D700: strobing flash issue, fixed under warranty but the battery grip brought on DBS so couldn't be used with it

D7000: backfocused, returned from Nikon with a terrible FF (courtesy of their UK agent, Johnsons Photopia), then on second visit to Nikon (this time, Kingston), it was fixed. However, AF was still erratic and very hit-and-miss. Got rid of it.

D300s: no probs. Still using it - just unsure where to go now.

18-200mm lens: no probs

105mm VR: no probs

70-300 VR: no probs

50mm 1.4G: focus motor died within 24 hours of purchase. Replaced by Jessops, the late esteemed.

50mm 1.8G: no probs

16-35mm lens: badly decentred and unusable. Replacement copy much better.

24-120mm f/4: poor central sharpness compared to another copy that I borrowed as I was suspicious. Nikon sent it back to me without any adjustment, saying it was within tolerances.

35mm f/2: no probs. Very nice lens.

This is the big one:

16-85mm VR: Just after a year, the focus ring went stiff and wouldn't move. Nikon charged me £109 to fix it. Within a week, the same had happened again. They fixed it for free. I sold it but eventually missed it and bought another. The same happened within warranty. They said it was "impact damage" so I paid the £109 again, thinking they must be right and I must have knocked it. Then the same happened again a while later. This time I just sold the lens as was. I now have the Sigma 17-50mm f/2.8 instead (and very nice, too).

i assumed I was just unlucky with Nikon stuff but now I think that this is an appalling list of woe. However, I am prepared to stick with Nikon if the D300s replacement comes soon and looks interesting. I am not tempted to move to Canon as I doubt it is any better. When I had a 20D, it was plagued with the occasional "ERR99" message which really knocked my confidence in it. The Canon D400 I had was fine, as have all the lenses though one flashgun died on me.

On balance, I have found Canon more reliable but I don't actually like their cameras and lenses very much.