For those of you not aware, the D600 is known to have
an issue whereby dust and/or oil collects rapidly on the sensor, manifesting as spots and smears on photos.
I'd not really thought about blogging about this, firstly because it involves going into a level of (mechanical) technical detail which is an area in which I would not normally dwell and secondly because there's a huge amount of content out there already on the subject. What convinced me to write on the subject was that all the other content I could find tended to only focus on one facet of the issue and a lot of it has not been updated as new information has come to light or attempted to reconcile its own content with other content on the web. I thought I'd attempt to summarise everything I've encountered in my research on the issue. An article that covers everything, from perception to causes to solutions, hopefully in a succinct manner, updating as I discover anything new.
Perception: Is there actually an issue?
Not famed for being a source of universal agreement, the Internet is divided on whether there's an issue at all. The ever-high-profile
Ken Rockwell has said that he thinks it's an example of Internet gossip but this would seem to fly in the face of user after user after user who are reporting firsthand experience of the issue, not to mention that it's been reported by no shortage of experts such as
LensRentals,
petapixel and
dpreview. A number of other commentators have gone along the
"all cameras get dust on the sensor" route, but this seems to be missing the point that those citing the issue are stating not that
"it collects dust" but the
speed at which it does it. These aren't first-time camera owners, they've had DSLRs before and are saying that the D600 gets it much faster than any other they've seen, sometimes right out of the box.
So yeah, I think there's an issue. At least for a sizeable chunk of the D600 user base.
What do Nikon say?
Given that the issue had been reported since the product launched in September 2012, it wasn't until February 2013 that Nikon
acknowledged the issue. Reports prior to that include stories of cameras being sent in for servicing being returned with the amount of dust described as being
"within acceptable tolerance".
Even Nikon's announcement from February is somewhat half-hearted. It's not a
"yes, there is an issue" so much as
"we hear a bunch of people are unhappy, here's what you can do about it". And that is to send it to them for cleaning. Shipping at your cost but the service should be free.
Is dust a big deal?
So it's dust on the sensor. Just clean it, right? Sure, that works, but be aware that a typical report of the issue is that it manifests from only a few hundred actuations. Do you really want to be cleaning your sensor (or sending it off for servicing, even) that frequently? Not to mention that I believe self-cleaning may actually void your warranty.
What's causing it?
Short answer- nobody really knows. There are a couple of theories around
mirror box scratches or
short shutter curtains.
Is there a permanent solution?
Since it's a hardware issue, something physical within the machine, it seems likely that there's nothing the user can do. But what about Nikon? A number of users who have returned their D600s to Nikon stated a service category of
B1 or
B2 on their service reports. Both of these denote that camera parts were
replaced (B1 being minor, B2 being major). Are Nikon replacing parts that cause the issue with alternate versions that prevent it? This would also fit with some reports of
speaking with Nikon customer service, although these are hard to verify. Does this also mean that new runs of the 600 are being manufactured with these new parts? Possibly, but we've no real way of knowing (or at least I've not found anyone who's compared the parts suspected of causing the issue on older or newer models).
One thing worth mentioning is that there have been reports of the issue apparently
improves over time.
Are all D600s affected?
Difficult to say. Nikon's serial numbers work by region so it's harder to tell what's a 'newer run' (the first digit denotes the region) and thus whether it's a 'bad batch'. From the research I've done, it seems that cameras get hit (or at least some users report it) regardless of country, run etc. If newer models are being produced with fixes, it doesn't seem to be apparent from the available evidence. But then not all users say they have the issue so could random bodies really just not have it?
Conclusion: Do I get one?
Let's review. From launch, it seems there was an issue affecting a good portion of the cameras. According to some, that gets better. If it doesn't, apparently Nikon can fix it for free if they've not already fixed the route cause on new units.
I'll be honest, it's given me severse cause to hesitate purchasing but I'll keep an eye on news for it while waiting for old stock levels to die down and probably take the plunge before too long.
