Z9 Failure

[averity]

WT! happened to my Z9?
I thought I was taking good care of my camera, it has just a couple of months of use, it is a serial number affected by the recall for the lens mount, I haven’t returned it yet for rework due to workload. Today I took it out to shoot my sons rugby match and found it wasn’t working, upon closer inspection I found this!  It has lived most of its life so far inside a big camera bag fitted with the FTZII and the 24-70mm f2.8E ED VR with the lens cap on.

[Birna Rørslett]

The camera with lens has pointed towards the sun for some time The shutter shield tiles hence are partly melted or fused together.

[averity]

The camera with lens has pointed towards the sun for some time The shutter shield tiles hence are partly melted or fused together.

that is certainly what it looks like, but I cannot see how this is possible, with the way I use the camera, anyway, I expect it is going to be expensive.

[Akira]

Sorry about the mishap.  I didn't know that this protection shutter curtain was made of plastic...

[Snoogly]

Ouch. If it is indeed sun damage, is it likely to be regarded as self-inflicted by Nikon support/service?

[Erik Lund]

Looks like it was happening over several occasions,,, Tracing the suns movement,,,
The sensor filter package is likely burned or scored as well, if the sunlight when trough the shield curtain.
I'm also baffled that the shield curtain appears to be made form some sort of plastic,,, 

[averity]

I am totally lost on how this could have happened, my camera lives in its bag and this looks like it has been exposed for hours looking directly at the sun and as you say Erik, like multiple marks of sun track over the cover.

lets see what Nikon say, I will try to drop it off today

[Birna Rørslett]

We all are curious as to what Nikon service has to say on this problem ....

The shutter shield is mainly for keeping dust and dirt off the sensor, so is comprised of light weight plastic tiles. Actually I dislocated these a number of times when I was experimenting with my X-ray to Z adapter. The tiles ride on a small peg, which may become undone if the shield encounters force from the front. Using a small tweezer, I became adapt of picking the tiles up and navigating them to their correct position.

The reason averty's Z9 'died' is probably it was set up to activate the shutter shield when the camera was turned off. Now the shield tiles are fused and cannot retreat as they should do. Have you tried deactivate the shield and switch the camera on/off several times?

[MEPER]

Which lens was attached to the Z9 body?
The sun-rays (if caused by sun) has been very concentrated at the "curtain-point"?
Does is make sense that rays have its "burning point" at "curtain-level"?
It probably depend of which lens was attached?   .....so if we know the lens focal length?     

[MEPER]

Ok......24-70 with cap on..... :-)

[Erik Lund]

Cold be prior owner of the Z9 if second hand or was it brand new when you got it?
Did you lens it out to someone?

[averity]

We all are curious as to what Nikon service has to say on this problem ....

The shutter shield is mainly for keeping dust and dirt off the sensor, so is comprised of light weight plastic tiles. Actually I dislocated these a number of times when I was experimenting with my X-ray to Z adapter. The tiles ride on a small peg, which may become undone if the shield encounters force from the front. Using a small tweezer, I became adapt of picking the tiles up and navigating them to their correct position.

The reason averty's Z9 'died' is probably it was set up to activate the shutter shield when the camera was turned off. Now the shield tiles are fused and cannot retreat as they should do. Have you tried deactivate the shield and switch the camera on/off several times?

the leaves of the shutter are welded together, I did try to pass a thin piece of plastic between them and where the worst part is they are quite solidly welded together.

[averity]

Cold be prior owner of the Z9 if second hand or was it brand new when you got it?
Did you lens it out to someone?

the sequence of events which makes me doubt my own sanity,,,,,
camera was purchased new, from Grays in London,
collected 1 week of December 2022

recently -----  4-hour commercial photoshoot inside a hairdressers shop using continuous lighting three weeks ago the camera worked perfectly,

spent two weeks away working on a ship with the camera in the boot of my car in a big Lowepro bag with the lens cap on inside the bag.

This last weekend took the battery off of the camera charged it fully put it back in, formatted both cards and took it to my son's rugby match, took it out of the bag replaced the 24-70mm 2.8 with the Nikon 105mm 1:1.4 AF-S as I wanted to do some individual portraits of the team members before the game, (didn't remove the converter until I looked for a reason why it didn't work,) switched the camera on and saw the back screen all black

some tears

photo of the above damage with my iPhone upon returning home.

[Jack Dahlgren]

Based on the pattern of travel it would appear that the lens cap was not on at the time this occurred. Perhaps the lens was being put away when a strong infrared heat source was in the vicinity which had wavelength which allowed it to focus on the shutter plane. Given the right focus and a strong enough source it would not take much to melt that plastic.

Next up for the Z9II - ceramic curtain blades.

[averity]

Based on the pattern of travel it would appear that the lens cap was not on at the time this occurred. Perhaps the lens was being put away when a strong infrared heat source was in the vicinity which had wavelength which allowed it to focus on the shutter plane. Given the right focus and a strong enough source it would not take much to melt that plastic.

Next up for the Z9II - ceramic curtain blades.