Nikon Coolpix p600 problem

My only repair option under warranty was to send it to Precision Camera. We had gotten it to take to Hawaii, but it was in repair for the trip. I was to the point I wouldn't have trusted it anyway. I figure in the end we'll have to just swallow the 433 dollars we paid for it and never buy another Nikon.

Thats a shame. I contacted Nikon England on Friday, but its a bank holiday so not expecting an answer until tomorrow. I am hoping for some joy from them as I love the camera and are just getting to grips with it.

Will post their response.

The only thing you get from Nikon is to reset it. Take the sd card and battery out for a minute or two and put only the battery back in and go to menu and reset it to manufacture settings. It may work for a bit or not. Then when it does it again they say to mail it in. Which so far I've found pretty ineffective. If you don't use it much it seems to work ok, but if I turn it on and off a lot to take bird pictures it starts up again and once it starts doing it it doesn't quit. Personally I don't think Nikon cares.

Yup you are right, just got my response?? what memory card, if not approved will be causing the problem, battery? have I checked it? Have I reset the camera? and full instructions on how to reset it?

Absolute waste of time, as is the response I have typed back to them.

As the camera is only 6 months old it will be going back for a refund which is such a shame as I love this camera and spent many months checking out cameras before I chose this one as it had everything I was looking for.

Seriously you can get a refund after six months? When it works right it's great, but it's so sporadic I just don't trust it to work correctly when I want it to.

Good Luck to you.

Ifrabell said:

Yup you are right, just got my response?? what memory card, if not approved will be causing the problem, battery? have I checked it? Have I reset the camera? and full instructions on how to reset it?

Absolute waste of time, as is the response I have typed back to them.

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You haven't learned to play the game properly. You may sometimes reach someone in tech. support that can be helpful, but camera companies have been drastically cutting back on support due to the massive sales declines caused by many people now only using camera phones to take pictures. Not only are many camera types no longer made, tech. support departments are cutting back on service hours. Nikon USA used to answer calls 24x7 but now they seem to keep bank hours.

Even if resetting the camera won't help, do it, just so you can say that you did without lying. I find that it only takes a couple of minutes to refresh all of the menu options that are reset to defaults after doing a reset. A reason why you're asked about the memory card and battery is because the phone tech. support is understaffed and they don't have time to help everyone that calls, so they weed out many callers by asking these questions. In line with keeping "honest", you could buy one of the very inexpensive approved memory cards that Nikon lists in their manual. These include 2GB Sandisk and Panasonic cards SD cards and 4GB SDHC cards from Sandisk, Toshiba, Panasonic and Lexar.

Of course other brands will work, most of the time, but sometimes other brands aren't entirely compatible when used in Nikon cameras. Even if you would never have a problem with them in any of your cameras, a few other people would, and tech. support would find it almost impossible to solve their problems over the phone without taking many hours for these calls instead of minutes. Almost all of the tech. support people would risk losing their jobs if they spent too much time per support call, so play the game. Make it easy to get past their first line of defense.

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Ifrabell said:

As the camera is only 6 months old it will be going back for a refund which is such a shame as I love this camera and spent many months checking out cameras before I chose this one as it had everything I was looking for.

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Have you checked your P600's firmware version? It's currently up to v. 1.2, but that version only addressed a battery charging issue. The previous v. 1.1 firmware fixed an issue that "caused the camera to freeze..." and fixed another issue that could sometimes produce overexposed photos when shooting using "Pre-shooting cache" mode.

Hi, yes I know you are right, they are checking any small thing which may be causing the problem to hopefully solve without spending too much time or money.

The memory card is the one purchased with the camera, it is Nikon approved, I have the original battery, camera is only 6 months old.

I had to send the camera away when I purchased it to get the latest firmware version, as whatever I did I could not update it, so Nikon have done this.

I find it so frustrating when they do not listen to what YOU say, just come back with the usual garbage to get rid of you.

I will try a reset, we go on holiday next week and I really need this camera.

This is the answer I have received today, from Nikon, after telling them about this site and the same issue many other owners are having

"Unfortunately Nikon cannot confirm that the information is accurate on 3rd party websites, including any Internet forums or Nikon Rumours."

So sad, especially as the question I asked of them when first contacting them and before seeing this forum was 'I have this issue, have they had anyone else report it? or have I done something to the settings to cause it? Why can they not just come clean and say its a problem and we are working on it?

I agree, they do not care. I will try what you have advised, but I do switch the camera on and off regularly and as you say this is when it happens the most prolifick.

I have a starling nest in the garden and had the camera on a tripod waiting for the first flights, they were on the edge of the nest getting ready to fledge.

I was out for over 3 hours and go NO decent photos as everytime I set it up ready, it changed modes and lost my set up???????????????????????????????

That really sucks, I've lost a lot of shots with this camera also. I wonder if there is a government agency to file a complaint with about these Nikon cameras?

Has anyone gotten a resolution to this problem? My camera is now 3 months out of warranty do I just throw it away? It's so frustrating waiting for it to settle down and stop switching mode. I have uploaded the latest firmware and conclude there is something loose in the mode selector. What to do?

I have found that my camera does not switch around on U mode (at least so far) probably because it wasn't used so much as compared to other modes. So I just replicated Bird Photography settings to the extent possible on U mode. I don't know if I will face the problem again once the dial gets worn out a bit in that position (if that is the case - most probably, it is just a position encoder).

I have fitted a 52mm UV filter on with the intention of mainly using it as a lens protector having damaged a lens on a previous camera.

BE VERY CAREFUL TO GET A FILTER THAT DOES NO OVERLAP THE DIAMETER OF THE LENS. The lens when the camera is turned off close inside the lens body and a filter that is larger diameter would snag and stop the lens from retracting fully. hope that is a help

Thanks for the tip. I discovered yesterday that the USB port on the camera has broken...it is going to be a hassle to get it repaired, but in the meantime I have ordered an off-market wall charger for the battery from eBay. Let's hope it works.

Just got my p600 back from Nikon UK, they state they have "Replaced and sdjusted printed circuit board"

Not really had a good chance to check that this has resolved the issue but are worried that if the circuit board is the same one and it has been set up the same then the issue will develop again.

I love this camera so I do hope it has been fixed.

I am however going to take out an extended warranty just in case.

I had same issue: Set camera to Auto, look through lens to focus and the icon that shows shooting mode kept moving from Auto to Scene and back without me having touched the dial. Sent camera to Luxtec in Torrance, CA for repair under warranty. They had it listed under "We're inspecting it" mode for a couple of weeks. I called Luxtec: they said they'd call back with update...they didn't. Called Nikon: they didn't seem to care, said to call Luxtec again. Luxtec said they're waiting on a part--been waiting on part for 2 more weeks (so far). Still don't have camera. This is the second Coolpix (the other an earlier model) I've had to have repaired under warranty. In both cases, Nikon has shown a marked indifference to the lack of quality, timely repair, and general support of their customers.

The "Mode Switching" happened on my P600 near the end of the warranty. It went to Precision back in Feb 2014 and came back allegedly repaired. And it again started to act up.... Called Nikon and they sent me a label to send it back to Precision at the end of Nov. 2015. Just called Precision up and they want to charge me for the repair because it's out of warranty. Waiting to see what Nikin has to say about this since it is an Ongoing issue that has been looked at once. After discovering this website... (Thank you DPREVIEW for being here) I am now holding Nikon responsible to handle Precision and their repair charges. Thanks again DPREVIEW.

You should always have a spare battery or two... As for the "Switching Modes" of the P600, I don't believe it really matters whether it's in Auto mode or not. I shoot a lot in "Scene" mode and have found this problem to be the same in either mode. My P510 has never had this problem. As for the battery causing the problem... I don't believe this to be true. I have both Nikon batteries adn after market (Ebay) batteries and both types work well.The problem is with the camera itself and Nikon knows it... I am currently dealing with Nikon now because my P600 has gone back in fior repair again for the same problem. And I'm personally holding Nikon responsible for the repair even though the camera is now out of warranty. (If a mechanic fixes your car and it's still not right... You have the right to take it back to have it fixed again at no cost. Right???)

Report the issue to Nikon. Hopefully the camera is still under warranty. Following their troubleshooting procedures will NOT fix the problem. They should issue you a UPS Label and on the first occurrence Nikon will pay the shipping. After that they'll hold you responsible for shipping (UPS) charges. My P600 has been sent back to Precision Camera and Video in Enfield CT for the second time. Nikon USA phone number is: 800-645-6687

I am having the same problem - started recently. It is very annoying and makes camera sometimes useless.

I purchased the Nikon Coolpix P600 pretty soon after it came out. After reading the few reviews out at the time I thought it would be a good choice for me. The first few months I had no issues at all and I was enjoying my new camera .....and then.....it happened!!!! I was on a vacation with my family and pulled out the camera and it started doing the whole mode changing 'possessed' camera deal! Didn't get a single picture. I tried resetting it a few times and charging the battery up but it still would happen. I was so frustrated. When I purchased the camera it was sold as a package with an extra battery (not a Nikon battery but one sold by Best Buy) and a couple of other things. When I got home from the vacation I tried the other battery and it hasn't done the mode changing craziness since!!! I hope it is as simple as this and does not happen again one day.