My DSLR won't work

[Synyster1337]

Hi all, I have a Nikon D90, and sometimes when I turn it on and take pictures, it works fine. Most of the time, however, I get an error message and the camera unmounts the SD. Is this something that I have to get fixed by Nikon? I'm not knowledgeable on camera repair or anything like that so any insight is much appreciated. I want to get some good pictures of my parrot cichlids

[Nubster]

Have you updated the firmware? No idea if that could cause the issue or not but might be worth checking to make sure it's up to date. If you're not familiar, check out a site called nikoncafe.com. You'd definitely get an answer there. Also, if you do have to send it in for repair, check out Authorize Photo Service. They are fast, do great work, prices are good, and they are good to communicate with. They are an authorized Nikon repair center and can do warranty work too if your camera is under warranty still. You probably won't get any of that if you send your camera to Nikon.

[Oldskewl808]

Dig into the menu and re format the camera for the card you are using and see if that helps.

[Synyster1337]

Originally Posted by Nubster

Have you updated the firmware? No idea if that could cause the issue or not but might be worth checking to make sure it's up to date. If you're not familiar, check out a site called nikoncafe.com. You'd definitely get an answer there. Also, if you do have to send it in for repair, check out Authorize Photo Service. They are fast, do great work, prices are good, and they are good to communicate with. They are an authorized Nikon repair center and can do warranty work too if your camera is under warranty still. You probably won't get any of that if you send your camera to Nikon.

I would imagine that DSLR repair probably isn't cheap?

[Nubster]

Depends on what the issue is. I dropped mine once and it busted the screen and broke the bayonet mount...with cleaning and focus calibration, total repair was less than $300 which for the damage done, I thought was not bad. Took less than a week too. Yours might just be something in the firmware. Maybe it either needs updated or like Oldskewl808 said, maybe a reformat. It could be that the connections for the card need cleaned or are worn or damaged.

[Synyster1337]

Originally Posted by Nubster

Depends on what the issue is. I dropped mine once and it busted the screen and broke the bayonet mount...with cleaning and focus calibration, total repair was less than $300 which for the damage done, I thought was not bad. Took less than a week too. Yours might just be something in the firmware. Maybe it either needs updated or like Oldskewl808 said, maybe a reformat. It could be that the connections for the card need cleaned or are worn or damaged.

I really hope it's software-related. Thanks for the insight guys, I'll try updating the firmware when I get home.

[kubalik]

just a thought , try using different sd card ?

[zdnet]

Originally Posted by Synyster1337

Hi all, I have a Nikon D90, and sometimes when I turn it on and take pictures, it works fine. Most of the time, however, I get an error message and the camera unmounts the SD. Is this something that I have to get fixed by Nikon?

What did the error message say? It may be something that you can fix.

[Synyster1337]

Update!!!!! It now works!! I don't have a tripod, so really good pictures aren't gonna pop up quite yet. I'll start a thread here in a little bit after I take some photos of my first planted tank, my second tank ever.

[Nubster]

What was it?

[Synyster1337]

Originally Posted by Nubster

What was it?

I Google's it and found out that a common cause of an error message is dirty contacts between the lens and the camera body. A lintless cloth took care of that problem.

[Nubster]

Jeez...such a simple issue...glad that's all it ended up being and you got it working.