This post isn’t really about my camera – it’s about working on something I’m afraid of.

I bought a used Nikon D70 camera from a professional photographer friend in January 2009. Since then that poor camera has been bounced, vibrated, and jiggled over thousands of miles on my motorcycle. For two months it was in ocean coast conditions so humid the lens fogged and had to be sent back to Nikon for repair – but that was under warranty. All to say the camera has not led an easy life in the 3 years I’ve had it.

A year and a half ago I started getting CHR and FOR errors when trying to take pictures and when I downloaded the images to my computer some would be corrupted with unexpected end of file errors. It was occasional at first and over the last year and a half has deteriorated until recently I took pictures and three quarters of them were corrupt.

Anything that’s under warranty I let the pros handle — that’s part of what you pay for. But this camera is way, way out of warranty so I would have to pay for repairs myself.

Internet research

I researched and found posts that suggested several solutions: 1) clean the compact flash pins on the camera 2) take the camera apart and connect the cable for the compact flash that may have become partially disconnected 3) check for bent pins and replace the compact flash connection 4) buy Nikon batteries since the off brand batteries can cause errors.

Being a coward with my newly acquired first ever dSLR camera I took the least invasive solution and tracked down a pin cleaner for the compact flash pins. It helped a little for a while. I was skeptical about the battery idea, and afraid of opening the camera to check the compact flash or replace it.

Cleaning the pins wasn’t a fix so I reread the posts and tracked down a D70 repair manual online and downloaded it. There were great illustrations of the screws to remove and where the actual cable for the compact flash was located and what direction it was connected in.

Then I research how much it would cost to have someone take a look at the camera — $200 just to open it. I wasn’t sure if I should pay that much, just replace the camera ($800 I can’t really afford), or try the repair myself. In the end I decided the only logical thing was to see if I could open the camera myself.

Getting over the fear

The most difficult task was finding a tiny screwdriver for the screws. I made a diagram of the bottom of the camera and marked it with the various sizes of screws I removed so I would make sure I got them back in the right place – there were 3 sizes.

I got the bottom off the  camera and with the help of the diagrams located the cable. I took a small screwdriver and

pushed on the plastic cap of the ribbon cable and was pretty sure it moved. It’s really small, so I wasn’t entirely sure. I pushed on both sides of the cable cap a couple times to make sure it was firmly attached and put the camera back together again.

I took pictures with no CHR or FOR errors. I downloaded the images to my computer and they were all good with no corruption errors.

I will continue to monitor how the camera does and if it behaves itself will probably replace my off brand batteries with ones I found on Ebay that are compatible.

My point to this post is that I am totally intimidated by my dSLR and was afraid to open it up. Home repairs – no problem. dSLR cameras very scary. The first time I cleaned dust off the sensor I was scared to death I’d screw up the camera.

When I did the work I made sure I had a clean work area and carefully tracked what I did as I disassembled. I was very, very, very gentle with the cable for the compact flash.

But in the end – it was no big deal. I did what was needed and got the camera back together with no problem. And I’m very hopeful it will resolve all the errors I’ve been having. It took me all of 20 minutes, didn’t cost a dime, and bolstered my confidence that I can deal with a complicated camera.

So far, so good with the camera – no errors or corrupt images. Maybe dSLR cameras aren’t quite so scary after all. Maybe some other repairs I’m hesitant to try wouldn’t be too scary either.