Dead Nikon D70, Murphy's Law!

[wholenewlight]

Read on friends :huh , Here's my story of Murphy's Law at work in my life:

2 weeks ago (6/5), I'm packing up to go on a trip. I'm heading to Utah for a trip to shoot pics and celebrate my parents 50th wedding anniversary (for which I would be photographer - family group pic and all). So I pack up my photo bag and charge my batteries for my Nikon D70.

So far, so good. Until I put a charged battery into the D70. Hmm, the green compact flash light is flashing . . . and the camera won't turn on . . . no display or anything. Okay, so I swapped out the battery for a second one. Same flashing green light. Maybe a bad CF card?? So I traded cards (all SanDisk Extreme). And the light continued to flash - I'm now starting to worry. I dig in the camera case and find the instruction manual. I press the two reset buttons at the same time . . . no reset . . . same problem. Reading deaper I find that the D70 has a hidden master reset button ( initiated by the infamous paper clip tool). The green light flashes at me mockingly. Now I'm getting mad.

I turn to my desktop computer screen and I type in the words, "Nikon D70 green light flash". The first google response included the text: "flashing green light of death . . . "

Oh, no. More google responses revealed that indeed Nikon D70 cameras occasionally die with no warning and the identifying symptom is an constantly flashing green CF light. Some say it's a memory that needs re-flashed, others say a broken CF flash slot or bent CF pin. Whatever the cause, it's a known Nikon problem that usually seems to happens after the one year warranty expires.

So I'm in trouble. I had bought my camera at Best Buy (no laughing, they had them in stock and had one year no-interest - normally B&H Photo is for me). But for the first time in my life, I had purchased the extended warranty - so I was covered. But what about my photo trip???

I was at Best Buy the following morning waiting for the doors to open. The warranty covered a replacement camera if they couldn't fix the camera. I had my flight e-tickets in hand and hoped to prey on the Best Buy manager's sympathy and get a replacement D70 (certainly they wouldn't be able to fix my camera that same day before my departure . . . hence, warranty replacement coverage??).

No such luck. They didn't even have a D70 in stock. So I suggested them letting me purchase a digital rebel and return it in pristine condition after my trip (yeah, I knew that one was a long shot). They didn't like that idea and at a minimum they would charge me a 15% open-box restocking fee. Understandable but Grrrrr . . .

We did come up with a plan of sorts. I purchased an already open-box Sony DSC V3 and I'm returning it tomorrow for a full refund and no restocking fee. I liked the camera and used it to do the shots I'd committed myself to shoot. But not any more than I had to use it. I wanted to make sure it would be returnable.

So anyway, my D70 is being serviced right now. Hopefully it comes home healthy and happy. I miss it (but secretly hope it's not fixable and I get a new D70s in return, heehee). At least it's supposed to come home home with a clean sensor as well!

Wish me luck!

:bluduh :bluduh :bluduh :photo

Links for broken D70:
http://www.dpchallenge.com/forum.php?action=read&FORUM_THREAD_ID=213976

http://www.stevesforums.com/forums/view_topic.php?id=55191&forum_id=58

http://www.istockphoto.com/forum_messages.php?threadid=16960&page=1

http://www.nikonians.org/dcforum/DCForumID86/6058.html

[Seymore]

Bummmmmmmer!!! But thanks for the heads up!!! And, after reading... it looks to primarly affect the older D70's. (pre Sept 04' manuf) Hope mine is NOT in that bunch. Bought Dec 04'. No probs yet...

[wholenewlight]

Update:

Took the Sony DSC V3 back to Best Buy and they returned it without any problem and without a service/restocking fee.

Now I'm mostly cameraless (I have an older Canon s30 but that hardly counts).

I'm hoping my Nikon D70 arrives this week in proper working order and with a clean sensor as a bonus!

[wholenewlight]

For those who have read the my previous post in this thread, my dead nikon problem has been resolved!!!!

By the way, if you have a D70 and want to read more about the problem my Nikon experienced, just do a "google" search on Nikon BGLoD (blinking green light of death !). Or do a search with the same term on dpreview.com . . .

Anyway, I had been calling Best Buy service for the past couple of weeks. The were friendly but they said my Nikon D70 was "waiting for parts". I have been reading messages at various forums and knew that some service centers were waiting on back-ordered D70 parts. So I was being patient but anxious.

I received a call on Tuesday from Best Buy's service center. They said the parts my Nikon needed were "unavailable". Because of this, my D70 had been "junked" (their words!). I was told to go back to my Best Buy for a new "equivalent" camera. I wasn't sure what their opinion of what an equivalent camera would be - i was a little concerned.

So I went to BestBuy and they were very friendly. I could choose anything in the store for the value of my original purchase! Cool. But my store's stock was limited. They had a Nikon D50, a Canon Digital Rebels, and a Canon 20D. I seriously looked at the 20D - I know their are many dgrinners who love the 20D. BUT, I have two sb800 flashes and one other lens for the Nikon. And I think the kit lens for the D70 is a couple steps above the Canon kit lens. Plus the Canon would have cost me about $300 (after BB rebate) more than a Nikon D70s.

I made the choice to drive to Bel Air, MD to pick up a D70s (as they had one in stock). The transaction was smooth and I have a new Nikon D70s. Yeah, the whole experience was a hassle. And Nikon is now repairing most out-of-warranty D70's experiencing this problem at no charge (I probably wouldn't have needed the EX warranty). But the warranty did get me a brand new kit instead of a repaired one.

All-in-all I'm pretty pleased!:photo

sorry for the length of these posts - thought someone else migh have the same problems with their D70

[gypsy77360]

For those who have read the my previous post in this thread, my dead nikon problem has been resolved!!!!

. .



I too experienced BGLG syndrome , D70 15 mos. old, Nikon says they will fix it free, waiting on parts at present. Never tried taking it back to retailer (Ritz). Hope issue is resolved soon.

[wholenewlight]

I too experienced BGLG syndrome , D70 15 mos. old, Nikon says they will fix it free, waiting on parts at present. Never tried taking it back to retailer (Ritz). Hope issue is resolved soon.For the most part, I think there were some potentially bad batches of D70 cameras made around march - may 2004. I think Nikon is now picking up the out of warranty repair costs for those cameras that might have been constructed within one of those batchs. I'll bet your camera was one of those.

Good news is that the people who have had this problem and Nikon repairs the problem, seem to be happy users upon their camera's return.

[wholenewlight]

This is my update on an old thread that I started.

Here's a quick summary of the posts on this thread -
1) My nikon D70 died,
2) green blinking light but no camera operation, found out that others had experienced the same problem,
3) took it back to dealer where I had an extended warranty,
4) after six weeks of repair attempts, the dealer replaced my D70 with a new D70s - couldn't fix the problem,
6) I'm happy

Now, Nikon acknowledges that this is a potential problem with certain D70 bodies and certain D2h bodies and they will fix the problem for free. Here's text from the service bulletin:

D70 Service Advisory - It has come to our attention that select electrical components in a limited number of D70 cameras may, in some instances, fail affecting camera performance and/or operability. While only a limited number of D70 cameras are affected by this advisory, if (1) when a memory card is inserted, your D70's memory card access lamp blinks, locking camera operations and preventing operation, or (2) with no memory card inserted, the camera will not turn on despite the battery indicator showing a fully charged battery, Nikon Inc. will service it free of charge.

Here's the pdf link (http://www.steves-digicams.com/dl/d2h_d70_n55_service_advisory.pdf)

[JohnR]

Yeah, this advisory came out the day after I sent my D70 in for this exact same problem. I got my camera back the other day cleaned and working great! Cost? $0.00 :):