I just returned from a three week road trip through the Capital Cities of the Northeast. During that trip, I experienced a variety of equipment issues. These issues related to my tripod (the legs keep slipping and require more tightening than usual), the RRS ballhead (the clamp won't loosen making it difficult to remove the camera), my vertical grip (the controls aren't functioning) and my camera. I'll go into more detail about the tripod, ballhead and grip in a later post. This post is dedicated to the camera.

It's not surprising that my Nikon D800 is beginning to experience a few issues. I purchased it as soon as Nikon made it available about 3 1/2 years ago. My camera has 70,000 actuations now and I have done nothing to maintain it other than sensor cleanings. During this trip, the pad on the back of the camera that moves the autofocus point within the frame stopped working on occasion. Also, the autofocus failed to work on a few occasions. Of course, after capturing thousands of images over the past three weeks and making countless lens changes in the field, the camera needs a good cleaning as well.

Given this, I was pleased that Nikon has offered to clean and inspect my camera for free! I received the following offer from Nikon in a recent email:

When I first received this offer, I was skeptical. I've been using Nikon equipment for years and never received an offer like this before. I thought maybe this was a scam in which someone was trying to collect a bunch of cameras. But, it's a legitimate offer. I checked with other photographers who have already taken advantage of this offer. And, the serial number that's referenced is correct and the shipping address is accurate as well.

This is a perfect time for me to send my camera in for repair. I have thousands of pictures to sort through over the upcoming weeks, so I probably wouldn't have been shooting very much in the near future. Thanks Nikon!