Has the D800 left side focus problem been remided on newer built cameras?

Accretion Disc · Jul 5, 2013

Hi,

Does anyone know if the D800 left side focus problem been remided on newer built cameras?

Did Nikon find & fix the cause so if I buy one now I won't have the same problem?

What about the yellow LCD screen on the back? Has that been fixed?

Lastly, the issue with the print on the buttons rubbing off easily, has that been fixed?

I was hoping these problems would be remedied by Nikon if I waited, but I can't find any info about it.

Thanks,

AD

TOF guy · Jul 5, 2013

The best source of information - one who calls a cat a cat even if many of his readers don't like cats - is Thom Hogan. Thom confirmed that the mis-calibrated AF sensors was fixed by Nikon on new cameras sometimes in the last quarter of last year and, sure enough, the number of reports about this kind of problems on new cameras declined dramatically at about the same time. There were a very few users who were still experiencing minor miscalibration in the 1st quarter of this year but we haven't read anything about it in the last 3 months.

Bottom line: problem solved.

The tint on the back LCD only occurred at the very beginning of production. The problem was not that common to start with and quickly disappeared.

There were other rare reports of minor flaws at the beginning, such as the button issue you describe or the 10-pin connector not glue properly. It's been a year or so that we haven't read any such report.

Conclusion: there is no reason to be concerned about these issues and they should not stop your from buying a D800 or D800e today. It still remains though that Nikon let its customers down in this story. Therefore it's perfectly understandable that some will not buy any Nikon gear considering the way it handled a serious QC issue in a high end and expensive camera.

Gosman · Jul 5, 2013

TOF guy said:
TOF guy wrote:

Bottom line: problem solved.

Conclusion: there is no reason to be concerned about these issues and they should not stop your from buying a D800 or D800e today.

TITCHY · Jul 6, 2013

it is widely accepted that Nikon fixed the problem at assembly level last year , around june/july , thom hogan and others have confirmed it ,and any cameras manufactured after that date should be free of the problem .

of course we still get a fair bit of paranoia, with some new owners (myself included) worrying about it , and not performing the tests properly does not help in getting to the truth , but my recent purchase (early june) and a few others that I know of, who have purchased recently have all found no tangable evidence of any problem in that department .

of course there will allways be the rare occassion when a camera will slip through the QC department with a (one off ) issue , in that, Cameras are no different from anything else thats sold ,from expensive cars to a 5 dollar memory card, there is allways the potential for a rogue component that can "break" the system .

In my oppinion ,i dont blame Nikon that a fault occurred ,but I think they should have come clean about it and not continued selling a model that they new was faulty . but thats history , for the time being all appears good in the D800/e world .

Simon Garrett · Jul 6, 2013

Gosman said:
Gosman wrote:

Gosman said:

TOF guy wrote:

Bottom line: problem solved.

Conclusion: there is no reason to be concerned about these issues and they should not stop your from buying a D800 or D800e today.

Click to expand...

TOF guy · Jul 6, 2013

Gosman said:
Gosman wrote:

Gosman said:

TOF guy wrote:

Bottom line: problem solved.

Conclusion: there is no reason to be concerned about these issues and they should not stop your from buying a D800 or D800e today.

Click to expand...

elliotn · Jul 6, 2013

Brand New D800E Autofocus Problem...What's Your Opinion?

I just received a brand new D800E in the mail from B&H this morning. SN: 3014xxx. According to the camera's clock it left the factory 14 days ago. I wanted to make sure it is not suffering from the autofocus issue that people have been reporting, so I did a couple of tests to make sure. It...

www.dpreview.com

reginalddwight · Jul 6, 2013

I had an issue with an early production copy (S/N 3000XXX) but for all intents and purposes, most newer samples have the left AF issue fixed.

Buy and test for yourself.

Simon Garrett · Jul 6, 2013

elliotn said:
elliotn wrote:

http://www.dpreview.com/forums/thread/3504926

I wonder if the production throughput of D800E models is lower, and they hadn't cleared out the old ones when he bought his?

My D800 (not E) bought earlier this year with serial number 610xxxx had no problems I could detect.

VictorTrasvina · Jul 6, 2013

So whats to be considered to be the ‘safe zone’ ? What serial numbers should new buyers look for ? Im considering selling my D800 and getting a D800E but I’m still a bit afraid of buying again into the drama i went thru last year…

Mine did have the problem but after sending it in it came back just fine but ill admit to not being trilled with losing it for weeks at the time…

Also what about the D600 ? Ive been waiting for Nikon to resolve the oil problem but I’m still unsure of what serial numbers should i be in the look out for ….

TOF guy · Jul 6, 2013

elliotn said:
elliotn wrote:

http://www.dpreview.com/forums/thread/3504926

Touché, but that's still only one negative feedback. Compare that to what was happening in the first months of shipments when we would read on a daily basis from new owners having just bought the D800 and found that the AF was defective. How about these owners who bought 4 or 5 of them until they got a good one (which tells us a lot about how bad the situation was) ? That's gone too.

The problem has gone from prevalent to very rare. There is no camera of this complexity without ever any QC issue. So I stand by the statement that there is no reason today to hold back from buying the D800 or D800e out of concerns of QC issues. The way Nikon has addressed the issue on the other end is a stain on its reputation which - rightfully so - won't go away anytime soon.

rdrebit · Jul 6, 2013

I got this result with my second D800, which came a couple of weeks ago. Still there but I'm told that this is is about as good as it gets with Nikon's second run. Some cameras are better, the first run was much worse. First one was a 500xxx this one a 501xxxx.

New D800

elliotn · Jul 6, 2013

TOF guy said:
TOF guy wrote:

TOF guy said:

elliotn wrote:

http://www.dpreview.com/forums/thread/3504926

Click to expand...

Touché, but that's still only one negative feedback. Compare that to what was happening in the first months of shipments when we would read on a daily basis from new owners having just bought the D800 and found that the AF was defective. How about these owners who bought 4 or 5 of them until they got a good one (which tells us a lot about how bad the situation was) ? That's gone too.

I'm not sure if the volume of chatter on dpreview is a good indicator of the status of the D800's AF problems.

reginalddwight · Jul 6, 2013

Thank you for sharing your findings.

I sent my copy to a local NSC last summer to have it serviced. Upon return, the camera's left AF was much improved. Some DPR forum members were fortunate like me, while others reported improved left AF but then encountered focusing errors with the other AF points.

TOF guy · Jul 6, 2013

elliotn said:
elliotn wrote:

elliotn said:

TOF guy wrote:

elliotn said:

elliotn wrote:

http://www.dpreview.com/forums/thread/3504926

Click to expand...

Touché, but that's still only one negative feedback. Compare that to what was happening in the first months of shipments when we would read on a daily basis from new owners having just bought the D800 and found that the AF was defective. How about these owners who bought 4 or 5 of them until they got a good one (which tells us a lot about how bad the situation was) ? That's gone too.

Click to expand...

I'm not sure if the volume of chatter on dpreview is a good indicator of the status of the D800's AF problems.

People have not been shy of reporting issues with D600 D800 etc. So to the contrary the volume of complains going away is a clear indicator that the problem has been solved.

TOF guy · Jul 6, 2013

rdrebit said:
rdrebit wrote:

I got this result with my second D800, which came a couple of weeks ago. Still there but I'm told that this is is about as good as it gets with Nikon's second run.

This cannot be true. There is no reason for the sensors on the left side to perform any worse than the ones on the right side.

Get it exchanged one more time.

Lilien · Jul 6, 2013

TOF guy wrote:

TOF guy said:
This cannot be true. There is no reason for the sensors on the left side to perform any worse than the ones on the right side.

Tell this to Nikon. New D800 may be better, but there are still cameras, that can't be 100% fixed in the service (without the left side still back focusing, at least with a wide angle lens).

According to the Nikon service they see the problem, but it's within (their) specs, so I wouldn't be so sure about new cameras.

Regards!

Lilien · Jul 6, 2013

rdrebit wrote:

rdrebit said:
I got this result with my second D800, which came a couple of weeks ago.

What lens/f-stop did you use for this test?

Regards!

TOF guy · Jul 6, 2013

Lilien said:
Lilien wrote:

According to the Nikon service they see the problem, but it's within (their) specs, so I wouldn't be so sure about new cameras.

Many have had their cameras properly calibrated by Nikon service centers. But from time to time a Nikon technician comes with this excuse of "within specs". Users should not let themselves intimidated by these statements and they should demand a proper fix.

As far as new cameras are concerned, again people have been diligent (rightfully so) in testing their newly acquired d800. In fact most of us would not be aware of a problem if it wasn't for users testing their cameras and reporting the results.

We've read no reports of issues recently - or very rarely - means the problem is gone.

elliotn · Jul 7, 2013

TOF guy said:
TOF guy wrote:

We've read no reports of issues recently - or very rarely - means the problem is gone.

There have been plenty of reports of people having AF issues with cameras bought over the last 6 months. These reports are generally met with scorn or ridicule by the dpreview community.

Has the D800 left side focus problem been remided on newer built cameras?

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