Camera problem

A friend brought me her camera because in the last day or so her pictures have all looked something like this:

Either a bad card, bad camera to computer cable or bad card reader.

Could be her sensor is on the way out.

Take Care,
Cheers, Patrick

FlyingPhotog wrote in post #14647094
Either a bad card, bad camera to computer cable or bad card reader.

Card - same result for one of hers and one of mine.
Camera to computer/card reader - looks same on camera, used my card reader and computer which works fine.

Odd part is that it does vary picture to picture.

Must be camera/sensor

I have seen a sensor fail like this. It was years ago in a Minolta camera with a Sony sensor. Sony admitted their fault and replaced the sensor free although the camera was out of warranty.

I would also say a card failure. But since you tried it with two different cards already, the most likely cause is a malfunctioning sensor.

It is also possible that there is a problem with one of the flash connection pins or it's connection to the circuit board. Or another problematic circuit board connection as the issue seems to vary which looks like the connection is variable.

Interesting thoughts, thanks folks. Sounds like a trip to Nikon will be necessary if she really wants to revive it. For some reason she really loves that camera.

If it were an occasional shot with a problem like that, I'd be more inclined to think memory card or card reader, connectitivity between reader and computer...

But if it's all shots coming oun this way... I also have seen failures like this and it wasn't the memory etc.... It was the camera. Not sure if it's the sensor or the A/D converter or other "downstream" component failing... I've seen very similar when one or the other of those components were failing and the problem seemed to vary depending upon temperature or something.

Basically I'm pretty sure it's a dead camera and might or might not be worth repairing. (Nikon has recently stopped selling parts to independent repair shops, so you have no choice but to use their factory repair facilities for any kind of service work.)

To follow up on this problem. I talked to her yesterday and she healed the camera. It has a hard reset button on the bottom, she reset it and the pictures are good again.

After all that...Nice to have a happy ending.