Excellent point.
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D810 Returned as "Unrepairable"
- Thread starter billd17
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- nikon d810
It's not static discharges that kills an electronic device in presence of water. Water can conduct electricity (when it is not pure water) and creates shorts which will quickly fry any electronics. Google electronics water damage and see for yourself how common this issue is (mostly these days with smartphones) :-(
About the amount of damage, it's all about how long the battery was left in the camera once humidity has built up.
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Thierry - posted as regular forum member
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T O Shooter
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You were lucky because the short created by the water only prevented the phone from working properly. Once the water removed the phone was back to working again.Not my case. I was in a lake for at least 5 minutes with the Iphone submerged below water. I took it to a 3rd party who fixes water damaged Iphones and I was told it was beyond repair. I charged it, plugged it in to try to try to power it up, hooked it to a USB port to see if I could retrieve any info ( impatient type ) Finally, I stuck it in uncooked rice for a couple of days, then a couple of weeks which gave some indication that I was getting somewhere with it. Than I left it for another month ( probably checking it from time to time - again inpatient type ) It certainly didn't fry because I didn't do my best to fry it.
But that's often not the case. The shorts will damage circuits.
BTW very bad idea to connect the phone to a charger before drying it up completely. You were double lucky
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Thierry - posted as regular forum member
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A couple years ago I almost went through a similar situation with my d4 and d300s. Hiking in Yosemite around the top Yosemite falls and got caught in a thunderstorm on the way back down. Storm was complete with hail.
Halfway down the d4 stops working. when power on continued shutter release. at the trail head the d300s stopped working..it just would not power on. It ruined the rest o the trip as I had no means of shooting anything.
Sent everything to nikon and fortunately both were fixable. about $1300 and $4oo for the d300s. When I contacted the tech support about "weather sealing" I was told flat out that weather sealing does not mean weather proof. Now when I am out hiking I make sure I have a good water proof plastic back I can place my cameras in to prevent such damages.
I suspect in your case it may have been saltwater damaged which would damage every contact the saltwater touched....even working with rice and other desiccants will not fix saltwater corrosion. As others have said replace it perhaps more economically feasible.
Halfway down the d4 stops working. when power on continued shutter release. at the trail head the d300s stopped working..it just would not power on. It ruined the rest o the trip as I had no means of shooting anything.
Sent everything to nikon and fortunately both were fixable. about $1300 and $4oo for the d300s. When I contacted the tech support about "weather sealing" I was told flat out that weather sealing does not mean weather proof. Now when I am out hiking I make sure I have a good water proof plastic back I can place my cameras in to prevent such damages.
I suspect in your case it may have been saltwater damaged which would damage every contact the saltwater touched....even working with rice and other desiccants will not fix saltwater corrosion. As others have said replace it perhaps more economically feasible.
There's that - if water gets in and is conductive enough, it can create a short to ground and conduct more current than components are able to handle.
However, this is a cell phone submerged in water. The OP is describing humid conditions where his camera was in a waterproof sock and water never got in. Different thing. In this case, I think the damage was already occurring from some other incident.
In this case - assuming enough water got in to create a direct path to the battery and that it was conductive enough. But I don't compare this situation - the OP's description - to a cell phone being submerged in water. He had a waterproof cover on it.
Condensation may occur inside the camera if the conditions are right (high humidity due to rain and temperatures getting warmer).
Can't exclude anything but water damage seems the most likely culprit IMO.
Absolutely, but that takes a lot more time to create "irreparable" damage. This is why I think the Alaska trip isn't where it all started. I also wonder if the waterproof sock actually made things worse - kept any condensation in.
Remember - the Nikon repair station wrote "corrosion damage". Granted, this could be their catch-all term for any kind of damage that comes from water, but I think they are describing visible corrosion.
I definitely think it was water damage, but not from that particular incident. That much damage had to be occurring over time. I also don't think he got any water in his camera from that described trip. It was already there.
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mrgs1
Senior Member
Kubicide
Leading Member
Interesting they say the AF sensor is corroded. That's a lot more that 2mm up from the bottom.
Repair Invoice from Nikon
In case people are interested, this is the "repair invoice" I received back from Nikon with the unprepared camera. They state corrosion damage to "many parts". I wonder how many parts they are willing to replace before they give up and say "unrepairable".
Have any pics to show the body and inside the lens area? Curious now!
Absolutely agree; never met a waterproof digital dslr camera, and water resistant generally means if you get water on it, there's no guarantee it will continue functioning.
I could be wrong, water generally doesn't cause corrosion unless it contains a corrosive element.I don't think they're lying, but I'm quite surprised at the amount of damage. This amount of water damage takes a significant amount of exposure to moisture.
Repair Invoice from Nikon
In case people are interested, this is the "repair invoice" I received back from Nikon with the unprepared camera. They state corrosion damage to "many parts". I wonder how many parts they are willing to replace before they give up and say "unrepairable".
Ferguson
Senior Member
That's true, but the problem is the residue often left on circuit boards during manufacture, combined with water, can make it conductive and cause corrosion even if the original water was pure (pure water is not even electrically conductive).I could be wrong, water generally doesn't cause corrosion unless it contains a corrosive element.I don't think they're lying, but I'm quite surprised at the amount of damage. This amount of water damage takes a significant amount of exposure to moisture.
Repair Invoice from Nikon
In case people are interested, this is the "repair invoice" I received back from Nikon with the unprepared camera. They state corrosion damage to "many parts". I wonder how many parts they are willing to replace before they give up and say "unrepairable".
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amateurphotographer
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Hi, sorry to hear about your D810. May have been answered elsewhere but just want to share my experience with a "weather-sealed" D4s. I was shooting in all-day drizzle conditions. My D4s controls started to fail and eventually was unusable. The problem wasn't due to the rain droplets, but more to do with condensation. If you read the manual, this camera and in fact many other cameras (unless totally waterproof) are not protected against condensation which may impact the circuits. I did use a dehumidifier but this wasn't powerful enough to extra the moisture. I should have used my dry box - stupidly I didn't think. Well the next day it stopped raining and the camera started to steam up as the moisture started to evaporate, this created a second impact, so I just left it to dry properly. After a while, all was working properly again. So the lesson learnt, remember to deal with the condensation (dry box - silica gel, etc.) , which may have caused the D810 motherboard to short circuit.
agrumpyoldsod
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Hi - you said you sent the camera into an Authorised Repair Centre in LA - correct?
I assume therefore this was not the Nikon Service Centre - Nikon has factory service facilities at its headquarters in Melville, NY and in Los Angeles, CA.
Your next step is to send it in for a Factory Repair Self Service Product Repair Submit a product for repair .
Given the age of the product -- is it still under warranty? If it is make this clear in your application AND include a copy of your invoice.
Are you an NPS member? If you are I would call your NPS rep and have the discussion with him/her before sending in the form.
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