# PLEASE HELP Nikon D50



## photofrenzy (Oct 18, 2010)

So in my previous thread i posted how i was looking at getting a camera. I found a used Nikon D50 that I just bought tonight. It didnt have an sd card and the woman claims she didnt use the camera much and it was too much for her needs. I got it home and am trying to use it and either I am completed dumb or something is wrong. I have it set on auto (to test it out) put in my 512mb scandisk sd card, formatted it and set the date and time. Every time I try to take a picture the i hear the shutter, nothing on the lcd display and it flashes ERR on the screen in the viewfinder and on the menu lcd on the top of the camera. I am trying to read the manual but all it says is ERR has something to do with camera malfunction of the shutter..can anyone help me or have i been ripped off?


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## BuS_RiDeR (Oct 18, 2010)

Did you test it before you paid for it? Or is this a new problem? 

Did you try it with a different SD card? Did you try your SD card in a different camera (or computer for that matter)?

These would be the first steps in the troubleshooting process...


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## photofrenzy (Oct 18, 2010)

I tried it without the SD card as she did not have one and it didnt work, I was gullable and bought her story about it not working unless there is an sd card..the sd card i put in is from my old camera and worked in that and on the computer. It did format from what I can tell but the camera isnt working.


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## tirediron (Oct 18, 2010)

'Rider is correct, eliminate all the variables.  Try a new card, try a different lens (if you have one), do a reset to factory settings.  Does the shutter sound normal?  Does 'Err' stay flashing on the display?  When the shutter in my D70 died some years ago, it would flash 'Err' until I pressed the release again, but there was a very distinct 'wrong' sounding noise as well.  Good luck!


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## photofrenzy (Oct 18, 2010)

it sounds like its working..but i am so new to this I dont know?! oh man this is disappointing. it flashes err for a bit then goes out. and when i try to take a picture it doesnt take one or reduce the number of pics left on the memory card


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## photofrenzy (Oct 18, 2010)

so if it is the shutter what can I do? I am pretty sure this girl knew that it didnt work when she sold it to me..how much would it cost approximately to be fixed and where could i take it? I am so bummed out..not a good experience with my first camera


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## tirediron (Oct 18, 2010)

It would have to go back to either a Nikon service centre, or a qualified repair shop; last shutter replacement I priced was about $350 Cdn.  I would make a real effort to track the seller down and demand a refund.  I realize it's a long-shot, but it sounds like she sold you a pig in a poke!  Sorry!


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## photofrenzy (Oct 18, 2010)

She told me that the problem was "odd" and I told her I want my money back .She said she is out all day tomorrow but could meet me Wednesday during the day. I told her I would really like to meet up sometime tomorrow and Im waiting for a response. I dont want to soak $350 bucks into a camera that isnt even worth that..add that money to what i paid for the camera and i could have bought a working used D70 at least.


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## sobolik (Oct 18, 2010)

I've used off brand batteries and when they fail it causes all kinds of goofiness with the camera.  Also is the SD card's little locking  slide out of position.


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## photofrenzy (Oct 18, 2010)

It the original battery that came with the camera when it was bought. The LCD said the battery was fully charged but I thought maybe I should charge it anyways and  it appears to be charging and has been for the past half hour now so Im hoping that will work. In terms of the SD card, its just a ScanDisk 512mb, I also tried a Kensington 512 mb and a Maxwell 1Gb but am I suppose to be using a special more powerful memory card? When I slid the lock on the side of the card and put it back in the camera it read 0 as the number of pictures available to take and It wouldn't allow me to shoot any pictures (the shutter wouldn't work at all) so I slid the thing back and it showed 922 images available (in auto jpeg format) and when I tried to take a picture the counter wouldn't go down, the picture would appear and then I would get the ERR message on the display even though I heard the shutter click. Im stumped, I just hope this girl who sold it to me is decent enough to give me my money back if it doesnt work after I charge the battery fully.


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## KmH (Oct 19, 2010)

Most of the noise made when the shutter is released is from mirror slap, not the shutter.

Unfortunately, it sounds like the camera is not functioning properly.


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## DirtyDFeckers (Oct 19, 2010)

I would try to get my money back for sure... Don't sink 350 bucks into a camera that isn't worth that.  In the future, make sure you test these things out before you pay for them... If she didn't have an SD card, you should have brought one.  Good luck, I hope it all works out for you.


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## o hey tyler (Oct 19, 2010)

photofrenzy said:


> So in my previous thread i posted how i was looking at getting a camera. I found a used Nikon D50 that I just bought tonight. It didnt have an sd card and the woman claims she didnt use the camera much and it was too much for her needs. I got it home and am trying to use it and either I am completed dumb or something is wrong. I have it set on auto (to test it out) put in my 512mb scandisk sd card, formatted it and set the date and time. Every time I try to take a picture the i hear the shutter, nothing on the lcd display and it flashes ERR on the screen in the viewfinder and on the menu lcd on the top of the camera. I am trying to read the manual but all it says is ERR has something to do with camera malfunction of the shutter..can anyone help me or have i been ripped off?



When you are buying off hand or used stuff, buy from a reputable dealer. If you are forced into buying locally from someone on craigslist...

ALWAYS TEST THE EQUIPMENT FIRST. TRUST PEOPLE AS FAR AS YOU CAN THROW THEM. Unless an infant has a camera for sale. I don't advocate throwing a baby. 

Best advice I can give.


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## photofrenzy (Oct 19, 2010)

Thanks everyone. I know I should have been smarter about all of this. I didnt know it needed the SD card to work and their wasnt any stores near by to purchase one or I would have. I was leary buying it without trying it but since she seemed like a nice lady I thought It was ok (and im usually the most skeptical person there is). She said she can meet up with me tomorrow to give me my money back so I hope she stays true to her word. I bought it off Kijiji. There are some ones on sale on there that are int he $400 range for D70 and D3000, one has about 6000 shutter actuations. Does that seem like a good deal?


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## o hey tyler (Oct 19, 2010)

Sounds like a decent deal, assuming the cameras work.


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## Dao (Oct 19, 2010)

Just in case it is the lens.  Did you try to set the aperture (on the lens) to the highest number if any?


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## KmH (Oct 19, 2010)

Dao said:


> Just in case it is the lens. Did you try to set the aperture (on the lens) to the highest number if any?


Not locking the aperture ring gives the error code *FEE*, not ERR.

For all Nikon dSLR camera's, the ERR code only states "Camera Malfunction" "Release shutter. If error persists or appears frequently, consult Nikon-authorized service representative."


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## Dao (Oct 19, 2010)

KmH said:


> Dao said:
> 
> 
> > Just in case it is the lens. Did you try to set the aperture (on the lens) to the highest number if any?
> ...




Got it, thanks for the correction!

I remember when I bought a used D50 for a friend of mine, I saw few errors and one of them was related to setting the lens to the highest aperture.  And of course, the other one was dirty lens contacts. (The original owner did not use the camera for a long time)

So OP, you may want to remove the lens from the camera and check the metal contacts.


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## sobolik (Oct 19, 2010)

photofrenzy said:


> Thanks everyone. I know I should have been smarter about all of this. I didnt know it needed the SD card to work and their wasnt any stores near by to purchase one or I would have. I was leary buying it without trying it but since she seemed like a nice lady I thought It was ok (and im usually the most skeptical person there is). She said she can meet up with me tomorrow to give me my money back so I hope she stays true to her word. I bought it off Kijiji. There are some ones on sale on there that are int he $400 range for D70 and D3000, one has about 6000 shutter actuations. Does that seem like a good deal?



My D90 starts over with 1 after 10,000 actuations. Check to see if the ones you are looking at do likewise


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## photofrenzy (Oct 20, 2010)

Thanks everyone. I did try cleaning the contacts but didnt have another lens to try. I took the lens off and it looks like the mirror is getting stuck in the "up" position and once I hit the shutter release again it then goes down but no picture is being taken. The lady who sold it to me said she would meet me today to give me my money back so fingers crossed she shows up. 
As far as actuations go... how do I find out if any other models other than the D90 roll over back to 1 after hitting the 10 000 actuation mark? I am looking at a D70 and D3000 right now. People could tell me theres only 5000 actuations but If those are models that roll over I guess there is no way of knowing how many times (if any) that it has rolled over right? 
Maybe is someone can help me by telling me which years some of these models are from. I know the D50 is 2005 but are other models like the 60, 70 etc each a year later??
Thanks again to all of you who have been helping me with my first camera, i am looking forward to hopefully getting one that works soon so I can start taking some nice Autumn Pictures!


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## rpm (Oct 20, 2010)

Nikon D50 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

bottom of the page has all nikon D cameras by year of release etc

ive personally never really heard about the actuations rolling back before but then im fairly new to all this (started 2009) - is the firmware up to date?


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## KmH (Oct 20, 2010)

photofrenzy said:


> ....I took the lens off and it looks like the mirror is getting stuck in the "up" position and once I hit the shutter release again it then goes down but no picture is being taken....
> .... if any other models other than the D90 roll over back to 1 after hitting the 10 000 actuation mark?....


_It sounds like the shutter is set to "BULB" or a timer mode. In bulb mode, you would see the image sensor when the mirror is up, otherwise you would see the shutter curtains._

None of Nikon's cameras roll the shutter actuation count back to one. That is the file numbering count, and it doesn't actually rollback to 1.

The only way to read the total shutter count is to make a JPEG image and then use an EXIF reader to find the line in the EXIF data that shows shutter count.


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## photofrenzy (Oct 20, 2010)

So..surprise surprise Im stuck with the broken camera as I drove 30 minutes to meet the lady who sold it to me as she said she would meet me at 1:30 today to give me my money back. She never showed and I waited a half hour..now shes not answering her phone either. I've been had! oh well looks like I will have to buy another Nikon body so then at least the lens should be compatible right?


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## rpm (Oct 20, 2010)

lens will def be compatible. what lens did you get?


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## photofrenzy (Oct 20, 2010)

its a Nikon DX AF-S Nikkor 18-55mm, 1:3-5.6G  ED


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## photofrenzy (Oct 20, 2010)

KmH said:


> photofrenzy said:
> 
> 
> > ....I took the lens off and it looks like the mirror is getting stuck in the "up" position and once I hit the shutter release again it then goes down but no picture is being taken....
> ...


 what does the image sensor look like? and the shutter curtains? then I will have a better idea if its stuck in the bulb or timer mode


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## tirediron (Oct 20, 2010)

Take the camera into your local bricks and mortar camera store or camera repair shop (NOT the local big-box store that sells cameras), explain what happened and ask them if they can give you a better idea of what the problem(s) may be.

I don't think this is in 'Bulb', however it's possible.  The sensor will look like a small, flat green-ish glass rectangle.  The shutter curtains will be flat black and mettalic.


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## photofrenzy (Oct 20, 2010)

I see the shutter curtains when the mirror is stuck up.


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## photofrenzy (Oct 20, 2010)

OK so is it possible that the shutter was just stuck from sitting for a long period of time? the woman who sold it to me said she never used it much, I took off the lens while the mirror was stuck up and i touched the shutter curtains..moved them a little then put the lense back on turned on the camera took a test shot and voila--no ERR message and now its taking pictures!!! WOOO HOOO Im so excited!


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## Bitter Jeweler (Oct 20, 2010)

:shock:


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## SrBiscuit (Oct 20, 2010)

post her number on here....we can all **** with her.


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## tirediron (Oct 20, 2010)

photofrenzy said:


> OK so is it possible that the shutter was just stuck from sitting for a long period of time? the woman who sold it to me said she never used it much, I took off the lens while the mirror was stuck up and i touched the shutter curtains..moved them a little then put the lense back on turned on the camera took a test shot and voila--no ERR message and now its taking pictures!!! WOOO HOOO Im so excited!


 
Yes, that's possible... seems unlikely to me, but hey, if it's taking pictures, that's great.  Not to rain on your parade, but I wouldn't be at all surprised if the problem re-appears.


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## rpm (Oct 20, 2010)

id do what another poster recommended, take it in and ask them to give it a run through just to be safe.


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## sobolik (Oct 25, 2010)

KmH said:


> photofrenzy said:
> 
> 
> > ....I took the lens off and it looks like the mirror is getting stuck in the "up" position and once I hit the shutter release again it then goes down but no picture is being taken....
> ...



Please show me the link to the EXIF reader that will tell me the shutter actuation's of my D90.


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## KmH (Oct 26, 2010)

Did you try doing a google search;

Google


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## photofrenzy (Nov 8, 2010)

Thanks so much for all of the info. I downloaded the EXIF reader and loved how user friendly it is. I found out by using it that my camera only has just over 2600 actuations on it, and just an update that the camera is still working great since I managed to fix it myself. Never did get ahold of the girl who sold it to me and was under the impression she was ripping me off, I think for $160 I definately got a great deal!


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