My Right Arm…

….is in this box!

Yikes! It feels like my right arm has been cut off. My faithful Nikon camera that never leaves my side and is used nearly every day has been sent away for a well deserved service. Along with my most used lens (18-300mm) which requires the zoom rubber on the outside of the barrel to be replaced. A rubber that has stretched considerably because of the constant zooming in and out.

I’ve not been looking forward to sending my camera away because, depending on what is required, it can take 2-3 weeks before it will be returned. Of course they won’t give any indication of a time frame, just it’ll take as long as it takes. I have my fingers crossed for a quick return- not only because I need my camera but because a quick return should mean a less expensive bill! I hope.

So for the foreseeable future, my blog post photos are going to have to be taken with my phone’s camera. That should be fun. Not.

I was interested to see how many ‘clicks’ I’ve taken with my Nikon. I had bookmarked a website- myshuttercount-  which I’ve used before, where you upload the last photo taken and the programme reads the metadata to give you the actual shutter count of the camera. 

So, I’ve had this camera for 15 months now, I wonder if you can guess how many photos I’ve taken during that time?

10,000? Not even close.
20,000? A token amount!
30,000? You & David think alike. But you’re still so wrong.
40,000? I wish- that would mean that I would have had a lot less post processing & deleting to do.
50,000? Really? You think I took that many photos, shame on you!
Because you’re still wrong!

Here is the total-

Yeah I know, blew me away too!

60,000 photos = 4,000 per month = 131 photos per day! But haven’t you enjoyed them!

I really need to learn to limit my clicks, it would save me one hell of a lot of work. But to be fair a lot of these are when I’m trailing different techniques, learning different settings……and taking  nearly 10 of everything ‘just incase’.

‘Nuff said.

Nikon- Customer Satisfaction

As most of you know I'm an avid amateur photographer. Last September after a lot of research I "jumped ship" from a Sony DSLR(Digital Single Lens Reflex) to Nikon, this was a major purchase because not only did I need to buy the camera body but lenses as well, you can't just swap glass between brands. I also purchased a few "necessary" extras.

But this post isn't about what I bought last year, it's also not about the customer satisfaction of purchasing Nikon (although I am completely & happily satisfied with my choice) This post is about the excellent customer PR I received from the camera shop I dealt with. And what they did to retain my custom.

I became aware through various means that the D7000 body I had purchased new was in fact not, it had just over 2000 clicks(shutter count) already on board when I opened the box(which in the scheme of things isn't that many, but still, it was not new). And it wasn't as straight forward as it sounds but it took me a few months to query it with the shop. I sent an email to the manager/owner outlining the issue & almost immediately got a personal call back from him.

He was very, very apologetic & explained to me what he had found out. Basically without going into too much detail, the camera had been returned to the shop after about 2 weeks use by a long term customer  and had been left on the stock desk in its packaging with a note indicating it was second-hand and that's the last anyone can recall it. It went into the computer stock system as second hand & was in fact still showing as being in stock. It would seem that somehow the note went missing & it was placed in the new camera stock & it was picked as new. I was happy with the explanation & believe it to be genuine. The manager was unsure why it hadn't been picked up in the stock take that it was missing & has apologized but assures me it was a genuine mistake.

And now for the PR & customer satisfaction. He offered me a number of options to rectify the problem; a new replacement, return of my money, an upgrade with a price difference or discount off other goods. I decided to upgrade my D7000 to the D7100 body which came out in April. I had to pay the difference between the price I paid back in September & the D7100 retail price, this I was more than happy with. I also received some discount off another lens I required & when I opened the box they had thrown in a free 8gb memory card too.

Now that is the way to keep customers happy & returning. I won't mention the name of the shop because I don't believe it serves any purpose but it was a large well know shop in NZ's biggest city. It's pleasing to know that there are still businesses out there that are prepared to accept their mistakes & look after their customers 100%.


Taken with my phone & out of focus!