Plastic (not so) Fantastic

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colpepper

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You may remember me having a moan about unearthing my old Nikon 601 to find the plastic retaining clip inside the back that holds the metal door catch in place had broken in one corner, meaning the back no longer closes.
Well blow me if identically the same thing hasn't happened on my 601M! It has settled any doubts that the breakage has been due to rough handling as the 601M has had a slide film in for ten years and the back has been closed all that time.

It appears that the metal catch is too strong for the plastic hook and over time it simply snaps one corner off and/or the plastic the back is made from degrades with time. This isn't too far fetched as the first 601 I bought was returned under warranty as the plastic had delaminated.
Okay the value of a used 601 is about twenty quid but they were about £300 new and Nikon must be aware of the issue. Annoyingly I've just bought some new lithium batteries for it. It also makes my autofocus lenses a waste of time.

Worth a phone call to Nikon UK or will they laugh at my presumption after all this time?
 
Should be OK....they may refer you to an independent repairer though...
If Nikon haven't go spares, you might have a problem...
Could you cannibalise another body? I'm not sure if the plastic clip you mentioned is inside the body or part of the back...

As the camera's only worth £20, any repair will be uneconomical - Nikon charge a £35 handling fee...
 
I've called Nikon and they said return the camera to their servicing dept and 'there are no known issues' with the model. This shows the broken corner of the plastic clip that engages with a metal hook when the back is closed. I'd photograph the second one but the size and angle of break is identical in every way. Both have appeared while kept in a high cupboard that's rarely opened.

012-1.jpg


The green part of me says repair the bodies, the pragmatist says buy a Pro Nikon on ebay that uses my AF lenses (F5?). Still a design fault waiting to happen again however you look at it.
 
Ambermile said:
Repair the bloody things, I did on the Elan, might not look pretty but you only see it when the back's open.

http://www.talkphotography.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=218734
Click to expand...

Not sure where to begin with a repair. I may be able to wrap the plastic part in metal and hope it squeezes under the sprung hook, but as you can see the back is a one piece moulding so there are no second chances if the bodge breaks off.

The part that breaks is a hook shape, meaning a small, curved piece of plastic is retaining the back against quite an aggressively sprung metal clasp. As I don't open and close that camera differently to any other I've owned, the 'no known issues' thing sounds like hot air, the thing will break off sooner or later. It's nowhere near as substantial a thing as your EOS Arthur.
 
Crummy brittle plastic that's aged while in a nice, warm, dry cupboard...
You'd have been better off using it every day - it probably wouldn't have broken then...
So, it is the back - can you get a tatty one for a fiver and perform a transplant?

And yes, you should buy a better body...just looked at gray's website and they are asking silly-low prices for some excelleent kit...
Very tempted by the F3P bodies they have in stock...
 
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