Z9 PCB Failure. Anyone Else?

I doubt it's humidity. I've been in rain storms the ducks held umbrellas. Maybe some units had faulty sealing?

The GPS issue wasn't a lack of power it was some sort of weird bug that didn't show up for everybody

sirhawkeye64 said:

I'd be interested of the people who have reported having to have their PCBs replaced what their S/Ns are and when they purchased the camera (ie. how old they are), and perhaps their "shutter" counts and use cases to see if there is any correlation.

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I purchased my Z9 (s/n 3026667) in November 2022, so its around 3 years old.

First PCB replacement occurred with ~660,000 actuations (May 2025). Second PCB replacement was at ~700,000 (Sept 2025). Interestingly, the shutter counter was reset with the second PCB replacement, but not the first one...

I use my Z9 almost daily, and my work varies widely. Everything from portraits to sports to industrial to breaking news, in all kinds of weather and environmental conditions.

ahinesdesign said:

I purchased my Z9 (s/n 3026667) in November 2022, so its around 3 years old.

First PCB replacement occurred with ~660,000 actuations (May 2025). Second PCB replacement was at ~700,000 (Sept 2025). Interestingly, the shutter counter was reset with the second PCB replacement, but not the first one...

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I wonder whether some other component inside your Z9 caused that first PCB to fail. And if Nikon only replaced the PCB, the root cause might not have been fixed and it caused the second, replacement PCB to fail. Or perhaps it was merely a bad spare part in that 2nd PCB.

ahinesdesign said:

I use my Z9 almost daily, and my work varies widely. Everything from portraits to sports to industrial to breaking news, in all kinds of weather and environmental conditions.

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In any case, hopefully Nikon has gotten to the bottom of it, and your Z9 will be fine for a long time until you need to replace it with a Sony ... :-D Just kidding. You will be replacing your (eventually) aging Z9 with a Z9ii or Z9iii.

Thank you to everyone who has chimed in so far; good to hear about the experiences.

I am now on hold until Nikon Repair gets the board; as soon as I get more info I will bump the thread.

C.

Claus H said:

Thank you to everyone who has chimed in so far; good to hear about the experiences.

I am now on hold until Nikon Repair gets the board; as soon as I get more info I will bump the thread.

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Unfortunately, parts hold can be a few days, a few weeks or even months. If you are serious enough about photography to own a Z9, I think a second Z body is a must so that you don't need to go back to your 2005 D200. That is a camera introduced some 20 years ago, in the "stone age" of digital photography, and any native Z-mount lens is useless on it.

I would get a Z8 or Z6iii, or even a used/refurb Z6/Z7 so that you have a second, backup body on hand. Sometimes it is convenient to be using two cameras simultaneously.

Oh, I agree that a second Z9 body would be ideal.

The 200 is really just for my casual shooting when the 9 isn't on deck (like now.) I don't think of it as a real substitute, for obvious reasons. Apples and oranges.

A used 8 body certainly would be excellent for backup.

C.