z9 Failure

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Dennis Gray

Dennis Gray

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Last weekend my z9 and three other z9 Nikons at the Velocity Invitational vintage car races at LaGuna Seca Monterey Ca all failed. 1. View finder went black. 2. Rear screen froze. 2. off button failed. 3. i Button failed. And so on. For awhile Fri and Sat I removed the battery to restart the body. Saturday night I used the two green buttons to reset to Factory settings. Only partially successful. By late Sunday it was a brick. A dead brick. On down loading the images I found a number of images numbered out of sequence. A few had duplicate file numbers with -2 added to the file number. Nikon now has my z9 and Bill Wagenblatt’s z9. Bill took delivery of his the Wednesday before the event my z9 was two months old. Both updated. Comments???
 
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Dennis sent the message he posted above to me and I encoraged him to post it here to see if his issues were isolated or others were having issues as well. Below is my response to him.

It’s funny - my Z9 froze yesterday while shooting BIFs. Battery removal got it back on track. I hadn’t had a lockup in awhile, but I also haven’t been shooting a lot of BIF lately. I wonder if it happens when the camera is hitting the buffer really hard. The images that I took just prior to lockup never made it to the card and were lost. In addition, the camera reverted back to previous shutter speed / ISO settings too (I was in full manual). Weird.
 
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When I hear back from Nikon on my z9 i’ll post the answer here. Would like to know if other z9 owners have had similar problems? Maybe not to the extent of shutting the camera down but still losing some features. I will forward any answers onto Nikon NPS.
Many thanks for the help…
 
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I have had zero concerns with my Z9, but I have not ripped off 100's of photos in rapid sessions. Nikon made this camera to bang out and save images fast, very fast - but seems that the slamming away is a problem? Sorry for you and other person for losing opportunities of images. Keep us informed. And I'm following for others comments.
Mr. Gray's concerns are real and annoying to him and concerning to all of us.
 
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super weird. i’ve not seen any issues and i hit the buffer hard doing action shooting. i run a delkin black as my primary card and run in overflow mode primarily.
my first thought was there might be some sort of serious radio interference at the stadium (doesn’t explain Steve’s issues, obviously), but you’d think that would be well within their design considerations.
i guess my second thought is to suspect the card since corruption could clearly cause the camera grief. what card(s) are you running and do you do an in camera format every time you put it back in camera and backup or overflow? if you decide to run with your existing card i’d suggest doing a FULL in computer format then ALSO do an in camera format.
let us know if you figure anything out.
-john
 
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My Z9 got bricked while FW update.

Nikon replaced the mother board on their account.

I have seen quite few bricked on DP forum. All of them during FW update except one which was out of the blue.

I am not a heavy user but I have not seen any odd behavior since then.
 
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Bill and I each probably capture up to a thousand raw images per day shooting in the paddock and around the track. Various 64mg cards..primarily Sony. Changing cards and or battery made no difference.
 
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philippe said:
Today I was using my Z9 and was flicking through the images on the screen on the camera. For some reason, it just stopped on one image and wouldn't flick through the photos anymore. I turned it off and on again. It functioned perfectly again. It is an extremely complicated computer and like all such equipment will now and then act up. If it happens once, I don't get stressed. If it happens twice, I will keep an eye on it. If it happens thrice, I will Google to see if it is a broader problem. If it happens repeatedly and becomes an ongoing problem, I'll get it seen to. I have yet to own a PC or operate a computer programme that does not crash every now and then.
Click to expand...

Z9 has so many PB and I caught my self several times pressing a button while doing something else. I also have seen others doing the same thing.

Maybe your case is different but I thought I need to mention my experience.
 
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philippe said:
In case my comments were misinterpreted, i will clarify what I meant. The original post indicated that 4 (FOUR, if I read the post correctly) individual Z9 cameras all demonstrated various problems at the same event. One camera appeared to require further technical attention. The fact that 4 cameras demonstrated some glitch at the same event suggests that there might be systemic problems with the Z9.
Click to expand...
this make me think there was some sort of external influence (like radio interference)
 
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FYI: I posted this z9 post to let other users know that a random z9 problem turns into a more serious series of problems ending in the birth of a brick. Please accept it in that nature. It is much more prevalent then I thought last Sunday. If u have a z9 you might want to start a conversation with Nikon on preventing your z9 turning into a brick. Ciao Dennis
DennisGrayPhotographer.com

d
 
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Hey everyone - I know that this is a contentious topic and some may feel like it's an "attack" on the Z9. It's really not. We're all Z9 owners (presumably) in this thread and it's tough to go forward with an widespread issue if we can't talk about it calmly. In addition, if you have a Z9 that you use hard and aren't seeing issues, post that as well. We'd like to see what everyone's experience is. If we get enough good info, I'll forward this thread to Nikon.
 
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John Navitsky said:
this make me think there was some sort of external influence (like radio interference)
Click to expand...
That was my reaction too. Especially since four Z9 all exhibited some kind of issue, if I am reading this thread right. I think it would be highly unlikely, that four Z9 have issues at the same event without some outside mysterious force in play. That's a coincidence that seems unlikely to me.

Wonder whether they had WiFi connectivity on and somehow some interference (or they were hacked?) might have been an issue. I know; that was a bit of a stretch. But I have to wonder if some kind of strong interference caused it. Like others, as a new Z9 owner I am concerned too, but to be honest I am not using my Z9 'hard' as the folks that have the issue were. I'll be looking for how this all turned out.
 
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No wifi on the z9 cameras. The four z9s that failed all went through a similar list of feature/controls failures. Each time we lost the view finder or the rear view screen more controls had failed. Fyi the two that did not fail were the oldest of the group. The first z9 in private hands for one and the other purchased last 2021 Sept i think. Mine was purchased last 2021 October and Biil’s two or three weeks ago. The other two that failed I think are just months old but? No strange radio waves or outer space vehicles affecting our z9. I think a major soft ware melt down. DG
 
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I was one of the first people in my country to get a Nikon Z9, i have used it regularly without any issue. I do update my firmware as soon as a new version becomes available, and i use a high quality fast memory card.

Was the cameras up to date? What memory cards were used?

I have heard of issues with the camera model previously and strange as it may seem most issues I've read about could be related back to memory cards. Seems the Z9 is very sensitive in regards to that.

But for all four cameras to develop faults at the same time, i cannot think of a good explanation for that.

Did you USB charge the cameras from the same electrical source?
 
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I have had a pair of Z9 since January and have taken almost 100,000 images and a fair amount of video in all weather and locations -- not a single issue with either of mine. I regularly shoot with others who also have Z9 and have also had no issues.

I would ask the originator to provide much more specific details AND back them up with photos or other evidence so we can understand more about what is happening -- specifically what firmware is in the camera, what battery - is it the original EN-EL18d and has that been calibrated, what lens/lenses were being used, and was the camera sourced new from a accredited Nikon supplier? ETC.
Then I would suggest the originator goes back to who he purchased the camera from and have them look at it Or at least an authorised Nikon Repair Centre.
 
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My firmware is up to date. Last Saturday I had a weird experience, I was shooting out of an open cockpit biplane at various other biplanes flying in formation. Temps were in the upper 40's- low 50's with 80 mph windchill. I was in full manual. One sequence of shots were noticably overexposed. A 1 stop reduction in post brought them back close to the ones on either side. I'd guess there were 30-40 that were over. Of the 800 or so shots, they were the only ones over, the rest seemed fine. I was using a 24-120 VRG with adapter. VR was on.
 
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