z9 Failure

If you would like to post, you'll need to register. Note that if you have a BCG store account, you'll need a new, separate account here (we keep the two sites separate for security purposes).

Status
Not open for further replies.
Member's gallery
Dennis Gray said:
No. They specifically asked for body only. No lens, battery or cards. Ummmmm???Perhsps they have an idea or two of what is going on. DG
Click to expand...
Not likely lol they are gonna slap a new board in it and send it back. The trouble with these more advanced cameras is they are more and more dependent on tiny surface mount diodes, resistors and capacitors any one of which could go tits up and cause any number of issues. Tracking down the issue is far more difficult than swapping out a board.
 
Member's gallery
I will say this, the z9 images I captured on track of vintage cars at speed are some of the best I have gotten. Because of the “failing z9” I held back on the more creative shots and focused on being sure I had what I needed in coverage. For anyone interested VintageRaceCar.com will publish 50 to 90 of my images today. Maybe not an eagle in flight but a red 57 TR250 in flight down The Corkscrew is still a neat image.
DG
 
Member's gallery
I had that happen with two cameras in the past and each time it was a defective memory card. When the camera writes a file to a memory card it needs to receive back an acknowledgement at the end of the write cycle and with a defective memory card this may not happen and there is no recovery routine to time out and reset the operation on Nikon cameras. With both cameras after I removed the memory card and put in a new one the problem no longer occurred.

The faster the write speed of the camera the more likely it is that it will overwhelm the memory card and lock up the camera. I had a problem with an early XQD card from Lexar and another from Sandisk. Both were replaced by the manufacturers.

With the Z9 the safest cards to use to avoid problems are the higher capacity ProGrade CFexpress and the Delkin Black cards - at this time.
 
Member's gallery
Calson said:
I had that happen with two cameras in the past and each time it was a defective memory card. When the camera writes a file to a memory card it needs to receive back an acknowledgement at the end of the write cycle and with a defective memory card this may not happen and there is no recovery routine to time out and reset the operation on Nikon cameras. With both cameras after I removed the memory card and put in a new one the problem no longer occurred.

The faster the write speed of the camera the more likely it is that it will overwhelm the memory card and lock up the camera. I had a problem with an early XQD card from Lexar and another from Sandisk. Both were replaced by the manufacturers.

With the Z9 the safest cards to use to avoid problems are the higher capacity ProGrade CFexpress and the Delkin Black cards - at this time.
Click to expand...
My initial thought was this coupled with pulling the battery repeatedly to turn it off while the camera is doing something caused some random error that got written into whatever kind of config file the camera boots from. That is pure conjecture on my part tho.
 
Member's gallery
This is great. The first really positive idea on why the problem might have happened. But the way three of these four froze was progressive. First the view finder, then the i button controls then off button and so on. But after pulling the battery to turn off the z9 the camera returned to 100% or at least seemed to. Next it would fail in another sequence. I used a number of different cards and two batteries. No change. Also what seemed unique to these three z9 was that they occasionally listed image files out of sequence. Over the three days and + or - about two thousand images it filed twenty images with the same file number by adding a -2 to the file number. This seemed to be a new problem to the Nikon guys. Saturday night late I attempted to reset to factory settings with the green dot buttons. Some settings reset but not all. I have a Samy’s Camera z9 for my upcoming shoot and have ordered new fast 64GB cards for it. I am also taking my son’s z6ll body as back up. DG
 
Member's gallery
We all tried that and other combinations. The cards are downloaded each night and reformatted. Bill’s to his z9 and mine to mine. The batteries are recharged. When I pulled the battery out of my z9 i kept it out for various times probably 10 seconds to a multiple of minutes. Depending on track action and needing to capture specific cars on track. Friday and Saturday during lunch I pulled the battery for 45minutes. But after taking five to ten minutes to walk back to my car and support bags.
The duplicate file numbers I did not catch till Sunday night. The number of duplicates increased from Friday to Sunday. Note: Bill charged his battery in the z9 body. I removed my battery and charged with the Nikon external charger. I also had a second battery I kept charged and used interchangeably. Both new. Somehow while working the 3D with Automobile recognition focus worked well. Except after Saturday morning I could
not go to any other focus choices. frozen out.
DG
 
Member's gallery
Were cards and/or batteries swapped between cameras? I can't help but feel one of the cards or batteries was defective and cauing an issue to be virused into each of the cameras.
 
Member's gallery
No swaps on the cards…no swaps on the batteries …Once Bills z9 went south I loaned him a spare battery but by then he already had problems. The other two z9s i did not know about until Saturday afternoon on one a Sunday on
the other. No cross pollination. Hope to hear from Nikon tomorrow. I am going to stop in Samy’s Camera around 10am and see if I can push them to contact Nikon. Depending on what do or do not learn from Samy’s I will email NPS with questions tomorrow afternoon. I’ll stay in touch with this site.
 
Member's gallery
Dennis Gray said:
No swaps on the cards…no swaps on the batteries …Once Bills z9 went south I loaned him a spare battery but by then he already had problems. The other two z9s i did not know about until Saturday afternoon on one a Sunday on
the other. No cross pollination. Hope to hear from Nikon tomorrow. I am going to stop in Samy’s Camera around 10am and see if I can push them to contact Nikon. Depending on what do or do not learn from Samy’s I will email NPS with questions tomorrow afternoon. I’ll stay in touch with this site.
Click to expand...

Were you all using the 100-400 Z lens?
 
Member's gallery
Bill had a brand new 100/400 and I had one that i purchased when they first arrived. Some months ago. A fabulous lens. Sharp with great contrast. All in a small size for the mm and performance.
 
Member's gallery
This may sound like a reach but is it possible there was some sort of electromagnetic interference? That would account for multiple cameras being involved. Just a thought.
 
Member's gallery
Well I guess there could be but Laguna Seca is located around the edge of a valley and down into the valley. No radio wave producing facilities with in miles. At inside turn 8 and inside turn 11 I am within a few feet of the cars as they go by at what must be 60plus MPH but I can’t see the engine’s electronic ignition causing a problem. Plus these are vintage cars with vintage ignition systems. Many have just enough electric pulse to drive the engine let alone shut down a z9.
 
Member's gallery
Dennis Gray said:
Bill had a brand new 100/400 and I had one that i purchased when they first arrived. Some months ago. A fabulous lens. Sharp with great contrast. All in a small size for the mm and performance.
Click to expand...

I've heard that lens brings out this type of problem in the Z9, but it's not exclusive to it. Could be firmware in the lens. Could be overheating. All of the "I've never heard it happening" bullshit on this thread is inconsistent with the dozens or so threads on Dpreview talking about the same problem, with the only solution being a motherboard replacement. People sending in cameras to NPS are getting them back DOA with the same problem.

One example:

"Just got my Z9 back from repair at NPS today, when checking and loading in my settings, the camera will error if I'm in the video mode, and hit the + key to zoom in and check focus. Is this a known bug? I can't find anything online.

Z9 went into repair for a motherboard replacement. Camera would lock up and crash after about 15 minutes of shooting.

This makes digital medium format look reliable..

EDIT: Does it in photo mode too now..

EDIT 2: Camera now errors out and crashes when I try to take a photo, with or without cards. Reset the settings, no changes, crashes when I try to zoom in or shoot a photo.

Edit 3: Camera seems to shoot a picture if I have the body cap on, and at less than 1/4 second shutter speed.

Looks like it's back to NPS again...

Takes the cake for the most unreliable camera I've ever used, and I've used Hasselblad digital backs.."
 
Member's gallery
i would assume that modern sports centers have a lot of different types of radio used for communication within the facility, broadcast like microwave, and cellular towers including the new 5g ultraband. that said, this is the kind of environment you'd expect nikon to plan for. 🤷‍♂️
 
Member's gallery
My answer to the radio wave question was aimed at unusual sources of radio waves. But you are correct we were surrounded by radio waves but really no more then I would be in down town major city.
 
Member's gallery
tickle_my_nikon said:
All of the "I've never heard it happening" bullshit on this thread is inconsistent with the dozens or so threads on Dpreview talking about the same problem, with the only solution being a motherboard replacement.
Click to expand...
When mine failed I spent quality time searching the net for Z9 failures. Almost all failures were in DPreview. Only one was mentioned in a blog. It was a couple of months after FW 2,1 was released. In Fred Miranda I was the only one as far as I know who posted Z9 failure

I have not come across "dozens of failures". I seen 5 failures including mine. Four where during FW update(Including mine), and one failed outside FW update and during regular use.

Edit : I just checked DPreview and I could not find more than 4 threads and as I said two during FW update, one ran fine for few hours after FW update. Apology in advance if my search key words was not used in some of those threads, The keywords I used " Z9 failed" and "Z9 bricked" . I am also a regular member there for many years in Nikon forums.
 
Last edited:
Member's gallery
When Steve first asked me to post my z9 failure experience I was not very excited. But after a few days I have a few more guys who have posted problems plus another dozen+ emails from z9 owners with bricks. Let’s see what Nikon USA says caused the problem. I’ll post it right here as soon as I hear. I am emailing questions on my z9 status to NPS later this morning.
I am almost to a place that I hope it is user caused then software or firmware or any other ware or parts problem. Easier to fix me then my z9???
 
Member's gallery
Thanks for posting this. It is very valuable information and a wake-up call for me.

I shoot in a fashion very similar to the way you describe. Set up is a Z9 received in January 2022, usually 24-70mm f2.8S (but used lots of different S lenses), Nikon batteries, Delkin Black 256 GB CFx cards. GPS enabled. Shoot mostly single shots. Recently lots of flash. Shoot gigs almost daily, currently, 1 to 20 hours long, 50 to 1000+ frames. Seldom switch lenses as I have multiple bodies. All modes of exposure and focus. A lot of low and high-contrast lighting.

I am not a gentle user. My Z9 once slid a short way down a concrete culvert with me chasing after it. 😳

I have had zero problems.

Recently, I am shooting a particular venue with only one camera. Your post has just changed that practice and I will now carry a backup.

I have two thoughts:

- There is an airport, with radars, about seven miles from Laguna Seca. These are sources of em radiation. Just sayin'.

- You can borrow my F5 if you need a backup. 🤔

Glad you didn't let the trolls get the upper. hand.

Edit: I just noticed that I am on Firmware Version 2.10.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top