If you read my infrequent ramblings here, you’ll know that back in May, I ordered the recently announced Nikon Z8. Unless you’ve been living under a rock or you’re not a Nikon shooter, then you’ll know there have been a couple of issues found with the camera. These problems have resulted in two official Nikon Z8 service advisories.

The Z8 is the first camera I’ve ordered immediately after it’s been announced. When purchasing my D500, I waited until the retailer had stock. This meant I ended up waiting over a year after the launch before I got my hands on it. This time around, I didn’t want to wait. About a week after the announcement, I placed a pre-order with my preferred retailer. Much to my surprise, as I wrote in a previous post, the camera was in my hands about two weeks later.

Soon after release when the first users got their hands on the production models, a few reports of issues started appearing.

The First Issue

The first issue to be noticed was a problem with the lens mount. Users were reporting that lenses would not lock securely to the lens mount. Reports of lenses falling off the mount started to emerge. Initially the number of reports were low, but they caused some concern among Z8 users. This lead to the first of the two Z8 service advisories on the 23rd June 2023.

I had no issues with my Z8 body, so I was in no rush to return it to Nikon. The camera had only been with me a couple of weeks and I was still learning the features. I wanted to keep it a while before parting with it again. It would also give me time to get a sense of how long it would take for it to be repaired and returned. I kept a close eye on the user groups to see how the repairs were progressing.

While watching the vaious user groups, I started seeing a report of another issue. This was a single report, but it went viral very quickly.

The Second Issue

The second issue started with a single report coming out of China. It seems that a Z8 owner had experienced one of the strap eyelets breaking from the camera. This was shortly followed by another report from a photographer, Bart Ros, based in the Netherlands.

These reports were widely reported and reposted, making the issue appear more common than it actually was. Nikon eventually issues a response that they were looking into the issue.

This eventually lead to the second of the two Z8 service advisories, issued by Nikon on the 7th August 2023.

As I had not yet attached a strap to my Z8, I again elected to wait before returning my Z8 to Nikon. I normally use a Black Rapid camera strap with my larger bodies. I only use the eylets or lugs to attach a Peak Design clutch. While this issue was a concern, I hadn’t puchased a clutch for the Z8. I wanted wait in order to avoid the rush and potential long wait time. I also wanted to see if any more issues would come to light.

Time for Repair

After seeing no further issues reported with the Z8, and hoping the majority of owners had returned their Z8s for repair, I decided it would be a good time to arrange repair of my Z8. I had already checked my serial number using the checker available on the Nikon website and knew it was affected by both of the advisories.

I raised the service request on the 21st of November. This was a simple enough process using the form on the Nikon UK website. I received a copy of my service request via email shortly after and a notification that the camera would be collected in the next three working days.

The package containing my Z8 was collected by UPS on the 22nd November and I received a notification from Nikon that they had received it on the 23rd of November. It’s now with a technician awaiting the repair to be completed.

I am now waiting for an update on the repair and an indication of when the camera will be returned to me. Indications are that this will be around five working days, based on others experiences. I will update this post once I know for sure.

Hopefully once I have my camera back, this post will help give other users who have yet to return their camera some guidance on how long it took and how smooth the process is.

Thanks for stopping by, look out for updates in the coming days.

*** Update 30th November ***

I received an update from the Nikon Service Centre on the 28th November saying my camera was repaired and ready to be dispatched back to me. It was dispatched from Nikon on the 28th and arrived back with me on the 29th.

Both repairs have been completed. I can’t notice a difference with the lens mount, as I didn’t have any issues before the repair. The strap eyelets do looks like they’ve been replaced and the collar that sits against the camera body now look to be metal instead of plastic.

All in all, the service was quick and my camera was returned to me exactly as I sent it, all the settings were unchanged. I have to admit, I was a little worried about sending it back. It’s the first time I’ve had to send a camera in for service and to date, it’s the most expensive one I’ve owned. Seems my worries were unfounded.

I hope if anyone is reading this and has the same concerns about sending their camera back to Nikon for serivce, that this post will go a long way to a-laying those fears.