secondhand Buyer, beware!
I wanted to get in touch regarding a recent unfortunate event regarding my Nikon D3.
After reading about many cameras, I wanted to upgrade to FX from my old DX camera. I purchased a pre-owned D3 from an online company. The camera was in great condition: just the odd scuff and a couple of screws missing, in its original packaging. I thought it was great for £1200. The D3 had taken just 70,000 clicks (I checked this myself), which on a camera capable of taking 300,000 seemed fine.
I have owned the camera for nine months and taken around 2000 images with it. However disaster stuck on my recent honeymoon when I was faced with the dreaded ERR message. As you can guess I was pretty concerned.
I sent the D3 back to Nikon, who advised me that the camera needed £660 worth of parts fitting, including a new shutter and base plate unit which controls the aperture etc. As you can imagine I am pretty annoyed with the camera and the fact it failed me on my honeymoon!
The company I bought it from offered me a six-month warranty which had expired. They offered me advice from a third-party repairer, but I preferred Nikon experts to put the D3 right for me.
I thought it worth emailing you and warning others who may be in the market for pre-owned gear… I will never touch pre-owned camera equipment again with a bargepole! Call me unlucky, but this is a valuable lesson learned for me!
Nikon are repairing my D3 at the moment and I have been left considerably worse off. I’ve spent nearly as much cash as I could have on a brand-new D800. Cristian Heather Di Lauro, via email It does sound as though you’ve been terribly unlucky, Cristian. Usually, buying through a reputable retailer, and getting a guarantee, means secondhand purchases will be safe. We haven’t heard of many cases like yours, and completely understand why you’re annoyed!