Luckily, Nikon says the problem is not a hardware matter

Aug 20, 2014 07:46 GMT  ·  By

The much-anticipated refresh of the Nikon D800 finally arrived in the wild as the D810 back in June. And just a few months since the camera was announced, the producing company has issued a service advisory for owners of the device.

It appears that, while shooting long exposure, the device is faced with some thermal problems which materialize themselves in the form of white dots/bright spots that appear on the photographs.

Before you start fretting, we should inform you that the problem is not caused by some sort of physical defect and the issue can be fixed by virtue of a firmware update and a pixel defect compensation. Nikon itself states this in an internal memo.

“After looking into the matter, we have determined that some noise (bright spots) may on occasion be noticeable when shooting long exposures, and in images captured at an image area setting of 1.2 x (30x20).”

So if you are the owner of an affected camera, Nikon is offering to service your device free of charge.

“Nikon service centers will service these cameras that have already been purchased as needed free of charge to the customer. We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience this issue may have caused.”

If you haven’t noticed the effects yourself, you might still want to check if the camera is among the problematic models. Head on to Nikon US, Nikon Europe or Nikon Japan and check your product number in order to find out.

As we told you, the Nikon D810 was released a few months ago. The DSLR arrives with a 36.3MP FX CMOS sensor, but doesn’t take advantage of an optical low pass filter.

It has a native ISO range starting at ISO 64 and going as far as ISO 12,800. This can be extended from the equivalent ISO 32 to ISO 51,200.

Some features found in the D4s have been taken by Nikon and smeared on top of the D810. For example, the device arrives with the EXPEED 4 processing engine, which should bring about higher definition, improved depth/clarity and accurate Auto White Balance to your shots.

When it comes to video, the device is capable of recording full HD video (1080p) at 50p/60p frame rates and is equipped with FX and DX sensor crop formats and an HDMI out.

The camera has been made available for purchase ever since July and if you want to pick up yours, you’ll have to take $3,299 / €2,419 out of your pocket.