My Nikon D70 has died at *exactly* 23000 shots

[yeroen]

So my D70's shutter locked up tonight at exactly 23000 actuations (you can see the shutter count using exiftool on a NEF file). There is now only a blinking ERR on the top LCD.

Looks like I'll be calling Authorized Photo Service in Chicago Monday morning to get an estimate for repairs (it's well out of Nikon warranty). Before I do:

1) Has anyone here had to get their shutter repaired? I'm assuming here the shutter is the problem, and not a symptom of something else (I could very well be wrong). How much does this typically cost? Will I just be throwing good money after bad? Unfortunately I don't have the $2K at the moment to spend on a new D300..$900 on a used D200, maybe.

2) Why exactly 23000 exposures? I'm well aware of the fallacy of attaching any special significance to this, but to crap out at such a nicely even number strikes me as suspicious; as if this was hardcoded by Nikon in the firmware.


Any thoughts or comments would be appreciated.

 

[xUKHCx]

Seems like you are below average

 

[juanster]

tahts a pretty nice website some nice info, is there a way to tale care of teh shutter so that it last longer, I just got a Rebel XT round a month ago maybe less i ve already got like 7000 on it...i got it used at under 5000

 

[yeroen]

Seems like you are below average

I saw that, it didn't make me feel any better.

I gently dicked around with the mirror lever a bit, and got it to go back to normal. I tried snapping another shot, this time it got stuck halfway.

 

[OreoCookie]

**** happens.
I would recommend you look into a D80 as well. It's viewfinder is much, much better than that of the D70 and I find the UI smoother, too.

 

[jbernie]

Looks like I'll be calling Authorized Photo Service in Chicago Monday morning to get an estimate for repairs (it's well out of Nikon warranty). Before I do:

1) Has anyone here had to get their shutter repaired? I'm assuming here the shutter is the problem, and not a symptom of something else (I could very well be wrong). How much does this typically cost? Will I just be throwing good money after bad? Unfortunately I don't have the $2K at the moment to spend on a new D300..$900 on a used D200, maybe.

step 1, get a free repair quote, if you are paying for a quote then you are pretty much on the way to paying for the repair.

step 2, take said quote and decide on the value. hopefully it really is something minor, maybe the mechanism just needs a minor adjustment. But as you hit a few hundred $$$ you have to step back and realize that it is a good down payment on a new body.

With the way the cameras are developing and changing if you do the repair now, maybe use it as a way to delay purchasing a new body in the future and retire this one to being a backup?