What's going on with my camera? :(

December 30, 2011 12:25 PM

What's going on with my camera?

I have a Nikon D80 that's served me well for about 3 years. I turned it on half an hour ago to take a photo, but the bit on the small LCD screen that shows shutter speed had err on it instead. I tried changing shutter speeds and shooting modes, everytime i clicked the shutter, it made the sound of taking a photo, but it didn't take a photo. Tried a different lens, no change.

I googled a bit and took the advice to take off the lens and then try to take a photo in manual (and bulb) mode. When i held the shutter down for a few seconds, a few times the mirror didn't come back down after i took my finger off the shutter button.

I've definitely taken over 100,000 photos with the camera, so it might possibly mean i need to replace the shutter... Any other ideas?

posted by revikim to technology (5 answers total)

Sounds like a classic problem of "yeah, your shutter (or something in the release chain) is gummed up / broken." New shutter by a competent serviceman should run you somewhere north of a couple hundred dollars, but they won't be able to give you a hard quote until they take it apart and see what's wrong.
posted by introp at 12:35 PM on December 30, 2011

It sounds like a broken shutter to me, too. Well worth the expense of replacing it if the camera is otherwise good to you, and especially if you don't want to pony up for the cost of a new camera. Take it to your local camera shop. They should be able to pack it up nicely and ship it off to Nikon for you.
I had this done 2 years ago on my Nikon D300. Nikon replaced the shutter and upgraded the firmware. It cost a couple of hundred dollars, including shipping. It took several weeks for the whole process, so I was able to rediscover the joys of my old Nikon D50 backup in the meantime.
I haven't been as hard on this shutter as the last one, but it's been great ever since. Remember to keep your stuff before you send it off (strap, CF cards, tripod plate)!
posted by aabbbiee at 5:25 PM on December 30, 2011 [1 favorite]

I was hoping it could be something as simple as dust or something, but i guess i had the shutter dying coming.

And i hadn't thought of taking the strap off.. Which led me to the fact that I haven't got a body cap, should i'm wondering if i should buy one (they're cheap luckily) or just keep a lens on so they could check how the new shutter works.
posted by revikim at 8:39 AM on December 31, 2011

You can ask your camera shop about the body cap when you drop it off. Maybe they have extra body caps for in-service cameras. Otherwise, yeah, might as well just get a cheap body cap for this kind of thing.
Don't leave them a lens. Your problem can be duplicated without the lens, and you'd hate it if the lens went missing while the camera was being serviced.
posted by aabbbiee at 11:09 AM on December 31, 2011

Body cap it is then! Thanks :)
posted by revikim at 12:23 AM on January 1, 2012