Advice Wanted Shutter issue or something else..?

[Coksic]

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[agentlossing]

Looks like a sensor readout issue, or could be a write issue. Those are my guesses.

 

[MoonMind]

Looks like a sensor readout issue, or could be a write issue. Those are my guesses.

I agree - not a mechanical problem, an electronic one. I suspect either sensor or, actually more likely, the main board (or a software hang-up), not a write failure - you can probably rule out a write/card issue by swapping out the SD card; to be more specific, if it happens with all cards, it's the camera - but I certainly don't hope so.

Pull the battery (for at least 10 seconds) before trying again - that should eliminate any transient firmware issue.

Good luck - I hope it'll remain a one-off problem ...

M.

 

[Hendrik]

I have seen stuff like this on the D70, which suffered from cabling issues, specifically with the card mount. With the D70, it was always a random event. It has to be digital in nature.

Given the persistence of the main subject, I wonder if it is caused by problems with image compression. I don't recall the D90 offering uncompressed raw files.

Perhaps not quite what you intended but a cool effect, nevertheless! Found art, thanks to the camera.

 

[Coksic]

Thank you, everyone! The card is SanDisk Extreme 64 GB. At this point, it's not much cheaper than the camera itself. lol.

 

[MoonMind]

Thank you, everyone! The card is SanDisk Extreme 64 GB. At this point, it's not much cheaper than the camera itself. lol.

That much may be true, but it'd still be sad to lose the D90 - it is an extraordinarily well balanced camera, the only DSLR I sometimes regret selling. It just feels good in the hand, and while the sensor has its limitations, if you play to its strengths, it provides really nice images - as you have shown time and again. Plus it can drive older AF lenses ... Simply great for what it is, the last of the sensibly compact enthusiast DX bodies before they become really bulky. They went back to a smaller form factor with the D7500, but unfortunately, I really didn't like that camera in the hand - YMMV, of course.

Anyhow, to me, the Z 50 is the spiritual successor to the D90: Nothing "special", just a capable, no frills camera that punches solidly above its weight and feels very comfortable and familiar in use. But of course, the Z 50 can't AF with screwdriver lenses - though starting with "D" lenses, MF confirmation works well with either of the FTZ adapters (I prefer the second version on the Z 50), even better than with purely manual lenses. Just a thought ...

M.

 

[Coksic]

Don't get me wrong, I love my D90. It's been with me for a while now. No SD card is worth the machine that writes what we create, on it..
As for the camera itself, if I could nitpick; it has a rather strong AA filter - or so it seems to me. The files are visibly less sharp than on my X-E1. But, the colors are better on the D90 (in my opinion)!
I love the old screw-drive lenses. They are, somehow, more interesting, for the lack of a better word. A lot of the cheap zooms(and some expensive ones) have a close-up mode, and, they have an aperture ring. Also, in my opinion, they are some of the most beautiful lenses ever.

 

[rayvonn]

For my own selfish reasons I do hope this gets resolved, I've become so accustomed to seeing these D90 images every day. I know the mirrorless offerings are said to have the same sensors as the DSLRs but time and again the DSLRs seem to me to have a much nicer rendering (well to my eyes anyway and yes, I know this is due to the person behind the camera, but I do love what the old Canikons and Pentaxes churn out).

 

[agentlossing]

Same. My D40 put out really amazing images when the light was good.

 

[MoonMind]

Don't get me wrong, I love my D90. It's been with me for a while now. No SD card is worth the machine that writes what we create, on it..
As for the camera itself, if I could nitpick; it has a rather strong AA filter - or so it seems to me. The files are visibly less sharp than on my X-E1. But, the colors are better on the D90 (in my opinion)!
I love the old screw-drive lenses. They are, somehow, more interesting, for the lack of a better word. A lot of the cheap zooms(and some expensive ones) have a close-up mode, and, they have an aperture ring. Also, in my opinion, they are some of the most beautiful lenses ever.

Not to contradict you or anything, but the 12Mpix sensor of the D90 will never *look* as crisp as the 16Mpix X-Trans; that doesn't meann that images coming from the D90's sensor aren't appealing - on the contrary. I kept that camera around for a long time after it had been "superseded" by the D5500 in my kit - because I really liked the results, and because the D90 handled better with bigger lenses, too. That said, the D5500 was another amazing small DSLR ... *sigh* Bygones ...

All this talk almost(!) made me pick up not a D90, but the 16-85mm lens I used to shoot with it - that combo was really something for its time ... Then I had to remind myself how happy I am with the results coming from the Z 50 with its Z 18-140mm companion ... and how good the Z 16-50mm is. Nostalgia usually just doesn't help ...

Again, I hope you can somehow resolve the issue. Meanwhile, I'll take the D750 for a walk - with an old 35mm f/2 AF (non-D!) lens on it ...

M.

 

[John King]

View attachment 328555

Sorry to see that, Mladen.

I hope it's the card and not the camera.
My niece had a D90. It was a nice camera in the hand, not unlike my Olympus E-510.

 

[AlwaysOnAuto]

If I had had this problem with my D80, I'd take the battery out and charge it fully. Pull the card out and format it in a computer then put it in the camera and format it again in camera.
Then I'd try it to see what happens.
Good luck!
The D80 was the first, well second really, Nikon I had that I really fell in love with after having 'held' one for a friend while he went to the restroom at a cars and coffee meet. It felt so good in hand that I almost filled his card up shooting with it.

 

[Coksic]

It's still a random ''act/occurrence. Now, that I think of it, this SanDisk card showed some signs of ''slowing down'' in certain situations. recently. Not in shooting, but rather in general camera operation, such as, viewing images, turn on and time to operate times.. I'll test it some more, and see. Weird...

 

[Coksic]

..oh, and, it does seem to take longer to format in camera, than before. I'm quite convinced it started happening recently.

 

[Brian]

I would use a smaller capacity card in this camera. I tend to stick with smaller capacity/ slower cards, tend to be more reliable.

The other options to check: reload the firmware for the camera;
Change format modes for storing images.

 

[Coksic]

I would use a smaller capacity card in this camera. I tend to stick with smaller capacity/ slower cards, tend to be more reliable.

This may very well be true. I don't remember any issues with a 16 gb cards on my D90. Also, this card (64 gb) was working fine with with Ricoh GRII and X-E1!

 

[John King]

Mladen, it could well be a card capacity problem. IIRC a lot of cameras had problems with cards bigger than 32 GB around that time. There was a similar problem with cards bigger than 4 GB earlier on.

Try a smaller card. As another has already said, I always do a long format in my computer (NOT Apples ... ), before 'formatting' the card in the specific camera it will be used in. Never use any card in multiple cameras without reformatting it in the specific camera.

 

[Coksic]

Mladen, it could well be a card capacity problem. IIRC a lot of cameras had problems with cards bigger than 32 GB around that time. There was a similar problem with cards bigger than 4 GB earlier on.

Try a smaller card. As another has already said, I always do a long format in my computer (NOT Apples ... ), before 'formatting' the card in the specific camera it will be used in. Never use any card in multiple cameras without reformatting it in the specific camera.

Thank you, John. I guess, it's something like putting to much power on an old chassis. I'll try with the smaller/slower card.