D750 Issues and Panamoz & Nikon Customer Service Experience

Phil Scott

Prominent Member
Joined
May 14, 2008
Messages
1,292
Reaction score
107
Points
290
Location
Surrey
I am creating this thread to document my customer service experience with Panamoz and Nikon having experienced issues with dust/oil on the D750 sensor.

For those that aren't aware, Panamoz products are grey imports. Panamoz offer a 3 year warranty, where any costs for repair work by Nikon are reimbursed by Panamoz.

After a recent landscape trip, I became aware that my few months old D750 had hundreds of spots covering the sensor - ruining many of my landscape shots or requiring hours of touch up work in PP. I contacted Panamoz who advised send it in to Nikon and they will pay any costs incurred.

Dropped my D750 in with Nikon. They had the camera for a month (!) and charged £100 for an hours service which included cleaning the sensor. Panamoz were brilliant and transferred the funds immediately upon receiving the estimate from me.

I received my camera back from Nikon yesterday, so first thing is to do a test to see if the sensor is clean. The result is it is better than when it went in, but there are still visible spots on the sensor. I was convinced it was the shutter mechanism that was throwing debris on the sensor as I rarely change lenses etc, and had clearly stated this in my request to Nikon, so decided to do another test. I shot ~200 images in high speed mode, and then repeated the test image. Sure enough, more visible spots showing up on the sensor, backing up my suspicion. Why the service team didn't perform such a simple test given the information I provided is beyond me.

I contacted Nikon this morning who advised me to bring the equipment back for re-repair and it would be looked at immediately. I dropped the equipment in by hand earlier and was assured it would be seen today. I also left a detailed note with regards to the test I had performed and what I had seen.

This afternoon I get the acknowledgement form for the repair - the fault description is "still dots in sensor image". Great - I expect I will get another crap cleaning job and no investigative work done then as to the actual cause of the issue. I phoned up the service line to find out when the camera will be looked at - now I am being told "some time in the next few days".

Even more frustrating is that, as Nikon don't cover grey imports on the warranty, they are actually being paid for this **** service.

I am pretty disappointed given that the D750 is a pro level body and how much I spent on it. I can't fault Panamoz though - so far they have been great, but I have also contacted them to see if there is anything further they can do to help.
 
"pathetic"
 
...and I'd suggest that Panamoz/you insist on a refund from Nikon Service !
 
If still unresolved after the second repair maybe ask Panamoz for a swap (or refund).

I will go that route if I have to - by all accounts their customer service is excellent. I essentially asked them how they can help me out given the circumstances so will see what they come up with first.

...and I'd suggest that Panamoz/you insist on a refund from Nikon Service !

Indeed - not impressed at all. If the D750 wasn't such a good bit of kit aside from this issue it would be enough to put me off Nikon completely.
 
I've been following your issue on TP as I too thought I was getting oil spots on my sensor, but after posting images most people seem to think that it's dust. I haven't got around to cleaning it yet to see if that's the case, or whether I'll end up with a lot of oily smears. Do you have any test shots (other than the lightroom screenshots you posted on TP) that show what these spots look like, such as how they show against the sky etc?

As regards to Nikon 'servicing' I am seeing a few disgruntled people of late, which is not good. Of course, the internet is skewed and you rarely hear of the thousands of good outcomes, but I still find myself in two minds whether to send my camera back for the shutter issue, which I've never experienced btw. I did send it back for the flare issue (which I also never experienced) and did get excellent service with a 1 week turnaround. It is a shame that we can be put off by one bad experience. Having said that, even with all its faults I still wouldn't swap my D750 for anything else.
 
Unfortunately I have many ruined shots from a trip to the Scottish Highlands - I will have a dig around later and post one up as an example.

Regardless of whether it is oil or dust, it seems to be something that is thrown around by the shutter mechanism, even after a fresh clean by the "experts" themselves.

Having upgraded from a consumer level Canon body, I am pretty disappointed to even have this issue on a body of this level, and even more so with how Nikon have handled it. But I agree, for the price, I can't think of a better body out there at the moment.

I assume you aren't finding the spots to be too much of an issue if you haven't cleaned the sensor yet? I have seen quite a few people reporting similar sorts of issues, but no one else seems overly bothered by it. Perhaps part of that is the genre of photography - landscapes tend to show these sorts of issues up far more than, say, portraits.
 
Unfortunately I have many ruined shots from a trip to the Scottish Highlands - I will have a dig around later and post one up as an example.

Regardless of whether it is oil or dust, it seems to be something that is thrown around by the shutter mechanism, even after a fresh clean by the "experts" themselves.

Having upgraded from a consumer level Canon body, I am pretty disappointed to even have this issue on a body of this level, and even more so with how Nikon have handled it. But I agree, for the price, I can't think of a better body out there at the moment.

I assume you aren't finding the spots to be too much of an issue if you haven't cleaned the sensor yet? I have seen quite a few people reporting similar sorts of issues, but no one else seems overly bothered by it. Perhaps part of that is the genre of photography - landscapes tend to show these sorts of issues up far more than, say, portraits.
It's on landscapes that I notice mine, but they've been fairly easy to remove in PP tbh. This is what mine look like on a 1:1 crop with increased contrast in Lightroom to make them more visible

 
That's pretty bad. My 4 year old never yet cleaned or serviced sensor on my Canon has much less dust spots. If that was me I would have send it back.
 
^ ^ Agreed - mine have been fairly similar to that, spread across the whole sensor, but only really noticeable in the sky. They become particularly noticeable when you process images in certain ways e.g. B&W high contrast, and it has been impossible for me to remove them all. Whilst most are fairly easy, some are not, and also the sheer number of them.

I had several consumer level Canon bodies previously, never serviced or even had to clean the sensors, and never had anything like this.
 
Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying Canon (or any other make for that matter) is better. I'm just giving my Canon as the example, because that is what I have. And I've never yet cleaned the sensor. And I consider it dirty after all of those years with quite a few different sized dust spots all over the sensor. But nowhere near as bad as that.
 
I must change lenses in dusty environments then as my Sony got like this too ;)
 
I must change lenses in dusty environments then as my Sony got like this too ;)
Yeah, looks like it.

I just do this from time to time and it helps

DHvRqCQ.jpg
 
I think that there could well be more dirty sensors out there tbh but some don't shoot with a smaller aperture than f8, and IIRC the spots on mine aren't visible at f8. That example was at f16.
 
I think that there could well be more dirty sensors out there tbh but some don't shoot with a smaller aperture than f8, and IIRC the spots on mine aren't visible at f8. That example was at f16.

... still looks like dust
 
Out of interest would you get more dust inside the camera if you're a habitual zoom lens user, or does the does just remain inside the lens?
 
Out of interest would you get more dust inside the camera if you're a habitual zoom lens user, or does the does just remain inside the lens?
I doubt much dust can get through the whole lens and get inside of the camera that way. Even inside of a zoom lens there usually are only a tiny bit of dust, if any.

As I said, I frequently change lenses. Outdoors, in the field. Usually with no help from anybody else to hold stuff for me, so the camera + lenses stay open for 30 sec - 1 min. Enough time for stuff to get inside. And yet after 4 or 5 years I have less spots on the whole frame than you in that cropped example.

I would seriously consider sorting it out / sending it back.
 
I doubt much dust can get through the whole lens and get inside of the camera that way. Even inside of a zoom lens there usually are only a tiny bit of dust, if any.

As I said, I frequently change lenses. Outdoors, in the field. Usually with no help from anybody else to hold stuff for me, so the camera + lenses stay open for 30 sec - 1 min. Enough time for stuff to get inside. And yet after 4 or 5 years I have less spots on the whole frame than you in that cropped example.

I would seriously consider sorting it out / sending it back.
Well it's not something that overly concerns me but I might mention it to them when it goes in for the shutter issue.
 
Cmon seriously if you were doing the same changes the same way in the same conditions you'd have the same amount of bloody dust. It's a hole that's the same size, unless canons have a force field around the hole! To many variables to even begin to make a valid comparison.
 
Cmon seriously if you were doing the same changes the same way in the same conditions you'd have the same amount of bloody dust. It's a hole that's the same size, unless canons have a force field around the hole! To many variables to even begin to make a valid comparison.
Not sure who or what you are referring to.
 
I "guess" that @snerkler was actually maybe querying if zoom lens users (who by their nature need to change lens less often) get more/less/same dust on sensor but by it being "sucked" in by the use of the zoom action ? - seems pretty obvious to me that if you change a zoom the same number of times as a prime you have exactly the same chance of getting the same amount of dust on the sensor....
 
I "guess" that @snerkler was actually maybe querying if zoom lens users (who by their nature need to change lens less often) get more/less/same dust on sensor but by it being "sucked" in by the use of the zoom action ? - seems pretty obvious to me that if you change a zoom the same number of times as a prime you have exactly the same chance of getting the same amount of dust on the sensor....
Yes my latest query was regarding dust being 'sucked' in by the zoom.

As for the dust, as already mentioned it's not something that concerns me, I've changed lenses in some pretty windy conditions and god knows what gone blown into it. Plus it's only that one corner that's like that, on the other top corner there was one maybe two spots and nothing elsewhere that I've noticed.
 
And people say nikon have better CS then Sony. Really?
I've had worse experience from Sony than Nikon, but you're going to hear good and bad about all manufacturers. I had a bad experience with Olympus too where they damaged the body when it went in for a focus issue.
You have to put it into context though, you tend to only hear bad on the Internet.
 
Yes but the way in which some day nikon are bullet proof in terms of CS is wrong though
 

The latest video from AVForums

Is 4K Blu-ray Worth It?
Subscribe to our YouTube channel
Back
Top Bottom