The D600 debacle was last nail in the coffin for me and Nikon.
After 5 years and 10K worth of gear, I sold it all and have moved to Fuji.
At least Fuji listen and respect their customers.

Never again Nikon..... never!

I'm very concerned about Nikon's failure to address their quality control problems in a forthright manner. When prominent independent reviewers confirm persistent reports of serious flaws in your product, it is time to take affirmative steps to reinforce the confidence of loyal customers. At this point, Nikon should have already sent recall notices to all registered D600 owners explaining the technical issues and the procedure for returning the camera for warranty service.

Unfortunately, the D600 oil-spot debacle follows on the heels of the recent D800 left-side focus alignment fiasco. These are not Xboxes or iPads, they are among the finest tools available to professional full-frame photographers. Nikon's high-handed NPS program is not an acceptable substitute for prompt and reliable service and support. In practice, I no longer rely on this manufacturer, but on trusted third-party refurbishment and rental vendors who graciously treat me as a valued, long-term customer.

The best answer they can give. Not only to those with a real problem, but more so to those who suddenly have a problem.

Dust Collector Cameras is the latest Nikon Invention

That's the lamest auto-response ever. Lol @ Nikon.

That being said- wouldn't sending in your camera for repair and getting back a new updated model be a good thing? I'd be stoked.
Who has a problem with this?

"This typical non-committal statement doesn't confirm the truth of the reports, but crucially it doesn't deny them either."

This has got to be one of the worst statements in the world. you CANNOT draw any conclusions based on NO evidence. Declining to speak is not reason to believe either postulation, it means there is no observation to be made, and therefore, no conclusion to be extrapolated from the observation.

The same logic could be used to walk into a dark room, not see anything, and conclude that you wandered into Narnia at night. It doesn't add up.

I wouldn't say that I expect superb quality of news from this site, but this is the lowest of low quality reporting I have ever seen. Please keep the baseless speculation out of articles categorized as "news" from now on, please.

What do they do with the D600 after the swap?
Resell it?

Most posts seem to be from people with no firsthand knowledge; I have a question for those of you… what if people started posting bad & inaccurate reviews about your photography? Solely from hearing about it on the web? From people that you never met, worked with or for?
I don't feel that because we are anonymous, we have the right to screw with a company's reputation... my D600’s oil / dust issues surfaced in the 10th month & approx. 12,000 actuations. I took the Camera, lens & 6 year old flash unit to the LA service center.
Nikon replaced the shutter mechanism, adjusted focus on camera & lens, fixed my out of warranty flash (free); I dropped of the camera on Tues & they called me on Fri to tell me it was ready.
In an ideal world, I would have never needed to go for repairs; since I don’t live in one, I’m happy they honored the warranty & then some!
This is firsthand experience, an experience that does not substantiate all the internet stories!

One thing this has taught me is that if you are not experiencing a problem, the problem is overblown, exaggerated, way out of proportion. If you are experiencing the problem, its not exaggerated or overblown. Funny how that works.

…and people will complain.

People sentenced Olympus to death after their financial scandal, but their engineers keep designing and deplying new and reliable tech. Launching faulty products is way more compromising when you hide or deny what customers deserve. Shame on you Nikon.

I wonder why they keep calling this a dust issue? It was oil droplets that came off the shutter mechanism, not dust. Dust is easy, you just brush the stuff off, if it sticks due to static, de-ionize the air around it. Oil is much worse, you have to use solvents to clean it.

Nothing new here in Nikon's attitude or approach.

I presume the thinking is:

As shutter dust problem for many cameras seems to go away after a given number of sutter activations.

So clean dusty camera.

Run camera for number of shutter activations and check for dust.

If shutter is not throwing dust return cleaned camera to user.

If shutter is still throwing dust give user a replacement camera.

Replacement camera is D600 if refurbs D600 are availible or new stock D610 if not.

The customers D600 is then sent to have shutter replaced with good shutter and becomes a refurb.

This will eventually exhaust the NOS/refurb D600 stock.

If NIkon had issued a service bulletin, every camera they sold would have come in for replacement with a D610. By keeping this to a "case by case" basis, they're preventing a complete economic disaster. They believe that not all the cameras are affected.

I don't know if this is right or wrong, but this is what's happening and I get it.

I didn't wait for Nikon to swab-out, I did it myself.
Sold all my Nikon stuff on eBay months ago and replaced with a Canon 6D and a couple nice lenses. 24-105L, 85 1.8 and Sigma 35 f/1.4
600EX flash...
No more Nikon.

Sounds like "no" in Nikonese.

Doesn't the "D" in D600 stand for "Dust?"

Got my D600 about a week after announcement in USA; i.e. Sep 2012...and struggled with the dirty sensor problem. Sent in for servicing following Nikon bulletin. Returned with essentially a brand new shutter system. I just call it my D600S. Problem solved at no expense. Folks need to move on, IMHO.

Big Deal! I sent in my D40 for repair to fix a faulty battery compartment door and Nikon sent me back a D4!

I had a d600 with lots of trouble, my sensor looked like the Exxon Valdez....
After quite a battle, Nikon offered me a very good solution. But it took some time and a lot of energy.... at the end, all good (as it should supposed to be with a professional company....). It doesn't surprise me at all that the cameras are replaced.

There is a serious issue with the structure of the shutter. Not everyone sees it, but try to make a photo of the air with f22 or higher... if no oil/dust visible, than you are lucky :-) I tell this because when I sold my D800 to a guy who owns a D600... he said he was not struck by an oil disaster.... But he only used the camera with a 50mm 1.4 lens, so f22 wasn't a common setting. After one shot @ F22 or so, he was a bit disappointed ;-) He could have filled his car with the amount of oil LOL.

And for the record, it is a beast of a camera and I loved the IQ. Never had such a great, fast and accurate camera.....

This is an interesting turn of events that confirms Nikon does whatever is necessary to save Nikon money by avoiding servicing faulty cameras. Normally this means staying silent about problems because disclosing problems induces people to send their bodies in for servicing. But now that a rumor is spreading about D600's being replaced with D610's, Nikon's staying silent would cause the opposite reaction - people would start sending their bodies in for replacement. So suddenly Nikon changes their usual silent behavior and releases a timely statement containing a non-denial of a D600->D610 replacement policy...again with the same goal of discouraging people from sending their bodies in to get them properly serviced/replaced.

Can I just say, when I heard about the Nikon D600 being so notorious for dust it's what made me all the more happier and merrier switching to Micro Four Thirds in 2008! ;)

Nikon, the company with about as much soul and customer connection as a rock.

You can almost feel them twisting in the wind. In addition to the "it will cost too much" guy and the "admit nothing guy" there is now the "it's too late to revisit this now" guy. Ouch.

I recently had a (completely D600 un-related) quite good Nikon service experience. Sent my D700 in to check along with a lens that quit focusing. The lens needed repair, which was performed apparently correctly. The camera received a check/clean (for which I've had to pay in the past) plus a replacement rubber grip (which wasn't even peeling bad enough that I remembered it), all for free. Seemed better than previous experiences.
Like many things, Nikon are probably not as good, nor as bad, as people say.

We should just close these comment sections to just those people who actually own a D600 every time these oil sensor announcements roll around. I've had the D600 since release day and I've sent it in for cleaning once with no problems. Everyone here always seems so indignant, like someone owning a Toyota Camry and acting like a Honda Civic issue that a few users experienced makes Honda the worst company in the history of the universe. Buy it, don't buy it, but don't act like THIS is the reason you'll never own a Nikon if you don't even own one in the first place. For the record, I use both Nikon and Canon (and Olympus and Fuji) and each does well for what I need it for.

in Japan Nikon service is better than Canon (maybe only me). Nikon repair things that I didn't notice even the services are for free. so one could expect to receive similar treatment even Nikon don't give you a new D610 this time.

but Nikon seems lucky that Nikon users send their gears for service less often (for they know their gears less). only my impression.

Sounds like the used market is going to have a lot of D600's for people who know how to clean their sensor.

A typical Nikon response... Nikon, for heavens sake please review your marketing & PR practises! Communication to your past and present loyal customer base is dismal to say the least!

I've had my d600 for over a year now and cleaned the sensor exactly once. Absolutely brilliant camera; I don't regret my decision to purchase it one iota.

Yes, I understand the some people have had issues, and Nikon should have addressed these in a more forthright manner. But I also think the whole thing has been somewhat overblown, and that there are many, many more happy d600 owners than unhappy ones...though as always the unhappy owners are the most vocal.

Too many D610 sits on the shell. Need to clear stock.

What a really shitty reply. It detracts even further from my shaky confidence that Nikon will stand behind the product they sold - either Nikon made a mistake and they bite the bullet or they didn't and they tell me why/how their product is ok. I'm in PR and this technique is the last thing is recommend my clients to use. My guess is that bureaucratic defensive impulses have overtaken any common sense in Nikon. God help them.

DPR is now sourcing Nikon Rumours as a news source?? .. the end is neigh!

I don´t trust Nikon, but ... is Canon, Pentax, Olympus,xxx better? Has anyone experiences about that?

Typical Nikon.

Deny, delay, obfuscate. Never, ever, admit to a problem.

Makes me wish I had gone Canon.

This is the kind of statement that made me quite Nikon.
Why not admit the problem? Every brand has its problems/mistakes. There is not a big issue with that. The issue here with Nikon is that they don't admit they have a problem.
They seem to prefer save the recall than save the customers.

Wow. Well, kudos to Nikon for doing that. Should make for some really happy customers.