Did I buy the worst two Nikon cameras (or are they all this bad?)

I thought Nikon was a good brand name so I bought from Costco two Nikon
cameras over the years - both of which have been fraught with failure. I
even read the reviews before I bought which never mentioned that these
Nikon cameras were pieces of ... well ... you know. They don't work.

Nikon replaced my Coolpix 3100 once under warranty and then it broke about
a year or so later. Same spot. The battery latch door has a flimsy loop of
plastic which eventually snaps off necessitating the entire body being
swapped out at the factory. I can't believe they made the Coolpix series to
break like that but there's no way it can't break, it's so badly designed.
A kindergarten kid could recognize the flaw from the outside just by
looking at it. Yet the reviewers all missed it.

I figured this was a fluke until I bought the Nikon Coolpix 5000.

I bought the Nikon Coolpix 5000 because the reviewers said it was sturdy,
having a METAL body. Whew. No more broken flimsy plastic battery doors, I
thought. Wrong. My Nikon Coolpix 5000 died often, but this time it was the
battery itself. After three or four or five batteries, I gave up, since the
replacement batteries would end up costing more than the camera was worth.
That Nikon Coolpix EATS up batteries! They worked fine for the first six
months or so. But then they died like they were placed on a charcoal fire.
I ended up having to leave the batteries on the charger because they'd have
nothing left in them after two or three days, they were so bad. After a
while, I couldn't get a dozen pictures out of the camera even hot off the
charger, .before the battery died.

Funny thing, a friend has the Nikon D50 and he says it works fine. The
battery lasts days and the battery door hasn't fallen off yet.

What gives? Did I happen to buy the two worst Nikon cameras on the planet
or did the reviewer miss a biggie or is my experience just a fluke or does
Costco only sell the Nikons that nobody wants but the reviewers don't know
that or is the entire Nikon Coolpix lineup a sham ... or what?

 

I don't know about the Nikon 5000 battery (probably Nikon engineers goofed
on the charger because the batteries would presumably come from a variety
of suppliers). Nikon has a bad reputation for battery chargers.

But I do know about the Nikon Coolpix battery door latch flaws as I had the
Coolpix 2100 which uses the same idiotic design.

Here is a photo of the latch from a clueless reviewer
http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/NikonCP3100/Images/battcompartment.jpg

Here is a photo of the common Nikon engineering flaw the reviewer missed
http://files.myopera.com/mcduret/blog/IMGP0065b.JPG

See how a paperclip & superglue were used to fix Nikon's engineering flaw
http://www.uthunter.com/images/Nikonfix.jpg

See how a tripod screw & plate were used to fix Nikon's engineering flaw
http://files.myopera.com/mcduret/blog/IMGP0070b.JPG

Here is a photo of how Nikon fixed the flaw themselves
http://www.scaredpoet.com/images/E7600_batterydoor.jpg

I would think that Nikon fixes these under a secret warranty for free even
after the warranty period has expired.

Does anyone know how to invoke the Nikon secret warranty?

 

Tell 'em you're a class action attorney ;-)

--
|~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~|
| Malcolm Hoar "The more I practice, the luckier I get". |
| Gary Player. |
| http://www.malch.com/ Shpx gur PQN. |
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

My Nikon 900, 990, 5700 and 8400 all work fine. And so does my D40. I
should add that my Panasonic FZ5 and my wife's Panasonic FZ20 are also
working correctly. As is my Ricoh R5, but the image quality on that very
compact camera is not as good as the others.

Maybe you got other customers' returns?

David

 

Plastic-c-c-c-c-c-c. The days of the fine old METAL P&S cameras are
gone, quality having given way to megazooms, crappy lenses, TINY,
HORRIBLY noisy sensors and rotten plastic bodies. They make me sick.

 

Reviewers have complained about these flimsy doors so much that it's
almost an item that they no longer bother mentioning because so many
cameras have this problem.

The 5000 is indeed a very flawed camera. Supposedly the upgrade, the
5100, solves some of the problems, but not many reviews on it yet.
Battery life is even worse on the P5100.

The CoolPix 3100 suffers from the usual problem of cameras with AA
batteries and doors that must hold the batteries against the
spring-loaded contacts, but with the added disadvantage that it's the
camera body that breaks, not just the door which can be replaced fairly
cheaply.

The P5100 seems attractive, especially because it seems to be about the
cheapest camera with a hot shoe that uses Li-Ion batteries (the G9 is
much more expensive). However I'd opt for an S5 over the P5100, despite
the larger size.

 

There are differences in the quality of the plastics and the design. If
the design takes into account the weaknesses of plastic in certain
components then a plastic or polycarbonate body can be fine.

The worst place for plastic is in areas of constant stress such as in
battery compartment covers on cameras with AA batteries that put
constant pressure against the cover (which is part of the circuit. It's
one reason to avoid cameras with AA batteries if possible, though I
still have bought Canon cameras with AA batteries and have not had problems.

Ironically, it's often the ultra-compact point and shoot cameras that
are still made of metal because using metal helps make the camera smaller.

I still use my very plastic Canon G2. The early G2 production did have a
plastic problem but Canon repaired these at no charge.

 

Here and there Costco sells off what a manufacturer has too many of.
And one reason the manufacturer has too many is because he can't sell
them as the word has gone out about the problems. Costco hides
these jewels so they are hard to tell from Costco's perfectly good
merchandise.

That sounds like the charger. Do you have another charger or are they
proprietary available-from-Nikon-only batteries?

_Everybody_ screws up sometimes. They are more likely to screw up on
something they are doing for the first time - Leica M8 anyone?

Wisdom has it one should always hold off until Version 3.21a is released.

 

OMG, replace cheap plastic with more plastic?????

 

Nikon is a good brand name and Costco is okay, but Costco does not
carry Nikon's best cameras and Nikon's point & shoot cameras are not
special. However, you should see the *really* fragile junk put out by
the likes of Fuji and Minolta. Fujis are notorious for the slightest
moisture, even condensation or breathing on the camera, causing
irreparable damage. They also are extremely sensitive to heat, to the
point where you cannot use lithium batteries in them. Minolta point and
shoots tended to be just flimsy.

The reviewers didn't miss it. It is just that flimsy battery doors are
so common that they are considered normal. It is one reason that Apple
did not put one on the iPhone. Camera battery doors (and memory card
doors) are usually cheap pieces of junk. It does not get better with
the expensive DSLRs. You can buy a $5000 DSLR and not only will it have
an easily broken memory card door, it will have external contacts for
shutter release and the like covered by a little plastic button that
has to be completely removed when the contact is in use. These buttons
are usually lost very quickly. And let us not even get started on
flimsy lens hoods. I have replaced several on my Nikon lenses. One lens
in particular, the 18-200 mm VR, is now on its fourth lens hood. That
one is broken, too.

Your charger is bad, or you are using third party batteries, probably
from Best Buy or Ritz. These are made in China. In my opinion, they
make good fire starters.

Many Nikon fans suspect that the entire Coolpix line is a sham. Nikon
does nothing outstanding there. Just a whole bunch of me-too cameras
with average features, performance and build quality.

 

<snip>
While Nikon's DSLRs are among the best, their current point and shoot line
is nothing special. The P5000 was a dissapointment in performance from the
reviews I've seen. I may be a Canon Fanboy, but you'd be much better served
by a Canon A6xx series camera. You may be hard on the cameras battery covers
and break off the Canon's too.
John

 

The battery doors are uniformly fragile on almost all digital cameras;
the Nikons you mention are perhaps a little bit worse than average. I
have experience with the 3100; with careful use it can be made to hold
up. But as you mention, the stupidity is that the door is not designed
to be easily replaced. I've also noted flimsy battery doors all the way
up to my D80.

Your 5000 battery experience is atypical. I've had good performance
with Nikon battery packs back to the CoolPix 995. In fact the battery
that came with mine years back is still fine. Are you buying genuine
Nikon batteries?

 

You might want to mention some specific models, as I've used
several of Fujis (mostly the S-series), and far from being fragile,
they are quite robust, and have performed well for several years.
Do you have first-hand experience, or did a birdy whisper some
nonsense into your ear, causing a wee bit of irreparable brain
damage from the accompanying traces of moisture?

 

C J Campbell wrote:

<edited>

Hello, Christopher:

Okay, then, my Pentax K100D must be an exception to your "rule." In
September, I paid well under $500 USD (body only), for this entry
level, 6.1 megapixel DSLR...and yet, it's very ruggedly constructed,
including the memory card/battery doors (it takes four AA cells and
SD).


Cordially,
John Turco <>

 

I have owned five Fuji digitals. I will never buy another one. All of
them either died of battery overheating or they stopped working after
being exposed to Puget Sound fog.

 

Fuji makes DSLRs as well as several different lines of P&S
cameras. Is there some reason you don't want to identify the ones
you've used? ALL of the ones I've used are extremely battery
efficient, so there should be no problems with overheating unless
less efficient, battery draining models are used, many pictures are
taken rapidly using the flash, especially if lithium AA batteries
(which can produce a lot of heat) are used. I suspect that dense
fog isn't kind to more brands of cameras than just some of Fuji's
models. Equally strange, is that you'd choose to not identify the
cameras that you deem to be good for use in dense fog. Perhaps
you're not really confident that they're much more reliable than
Fuji's cameras when used in highly humid environments?

 

I found this wonderful thread while looking up how to fix my son's Nikon
Coolpix 3100 battery latch door camera body broken problem.

I latched onto the paperclip idea but nobody said which glue to use. I
bought Locktite superglue and Locktite epoxy but I think one or both of
those glues melted the camera body a bit. The camera body plastic is pitted
slightly and indented where the glue was wet but now has dried.

Does anyone know what the camera body plastic is made up of? The package
insert says not to use the Locktite Quick Set Epoxy on "polyethylene" or
"polypropylene".

Also, the articles didn't say WHAT SIZE drill bit to use so I used a #55
(0.052 inh) drill bit which seemed to work to drill the holes in the ribs
in the inside of the Nikon Coolpix camera body to hold the long legs of the
paperclip.

In addition, nobody said which dremel bit to use, and I munged up the
camera body by using one that was too large and unwieldy.

You can see a dozen step-by-step photos of my operation to recycle my son's
Nikon Coolpix 3100 camera at http://usera.imagecave.com/coolpixfixer/

 

Here are a dozen photos showing how I used the advice in this thread to fix
my son's Nikon Coolpix 3100 digital camera body which broke at exactly the
same spot in all the photographs listed above.

http://usera.imagecave.com/coolpixfixer/

You'll notice nobody said which drill bit to use, nor which dremel bit to
use, nor which glue to use - and I think I screwed up in all three but the
results still seem to work. It's a bit messy because I use the wrong dremel
tool and probably the wrong glue (it melted the camera body a bit).

It's too late for me but does anyone know what the Nikon Coolpix camera
bodies are made up of and therefore what glue to use which won't pit the
camera body everywhere it touches it wet?

 

Where can we put these instructions and photographs so that the next
thousand people with a Nikon Coolpix camera can fix it themselves?
http://usera.imagecave.com/coolpixfixer/

Not only did the prior articles (which were wonderful, mind you) not say
which dremel tool to use, which drill bit to use, which glue and epoxy to
use, but they also didn't say how to adjust the paperclip on the Nikon
Coolpix 2100 & 3100 camera body to fit the Nikon Coolpix battery latch
door.

I photographed a three-step description for the next hapless Nikon Coolpix
owner.

STEP 1
Pull the paperclip out of the Nikon Coolpix camera about a quarter inch
http://usera.imagecave.com/coolpixfixer/fix_nikon_coolpix_3100_battery_latch_007.gif

STEP 2
Gently close the Nikon Coolpix camera battery door on the paperclip
http://usera.imagecave.com/coolpixfixer/fix_nikon_coolpix_3100_battery_latch_008.gif

STEP 3
Open the camera battery door so the paperclip is now automatically adjusted
http://usera.imagecave.com/coolpixfixer/fix_nikon_coolpix_3100_battery_latch_009.gif

Even my glueing was a three-step process that wasn't described in the
otherwise wonderful notes on how to fix the Nikon Coolpix 2100 or Nikon
Coolpix 3100 camera battery latch.

STEP A
I drilled two 0.052 inch holes in the inside ribs of the Nikon Coolpix
camera body for the legs of the paperclip and I notched out two spots for
the paperclip in the edge of the camera body.
http://usera.imagecave.com/coolpixfixer/fix_nikon_coolpix_3100_battery_latch_004.gif

STEP B
I glued the paperclip in place with superglue on the Nikon Coolpix camera
http://usera.imagecave.com/coolpixfixer/fix_nikon_coolpix_3100_battery_latch_005.gif
http://usera.imagecave.com/coolpixfixer/fix_nikon_coolpix_3100_battery_latch_006.gif

STEP C
I added liberal amounts of epoxy for strength on the paperclip and Nikon
Coolpix 3100 camera body.
http://usera.imagecave.com/coolpixfixer/fix_nikon_coolpix_3100_battery_latch_010.gif
http://usera.imagecave.com/coolpixfixer/fix_nikon_coolpix_3100_battery_latch_011.gif

In the hopes of helping someone else with the Nikon Coolpix line of
cameras, what is the best way to post these photographs to help others?
http://usera.imagecave.com/coolpixfixer/fix_nikon_coolpix_3100_battery_latch_012.gif

 

For the record, I had called Nikon Service Relations at 800-645-6678 and
they basically said that many people have the problem with the Nikon
Coolpix series battery latch door breaking and that it wasn't something
they cared about.