2.02.2024

Goodbye, D1X...

I had my Nikon D1X out to get some exercise a couple days ago, and when I went to take a shot, the shutter made a weird noise and it looked like the mirror didn't cycle properly. I powered it off for a quick count of ten Mississippi and turned it back on again and everything seemed to return to normal.

Then yesterday afternoon I was out with it again and when I went to take a shot the mirror stuck in the up position. I was able to manually lower it with the camera off and the battery removed. Even with a fresh fully-charged battery, the camera just makes a muted whirring noise when the shutter button is pressed and the mirror doesn't budge.


I think this is the end for my D1X. Time to put a body cap on it and shelve it alongside my Canon EOS-1Ds Mark II, which had taken to spending more time throwing error codes than functioning properly.

Considering that Nikon launched the D1X in early February of 2001 with serial number 5100000 and mine is serial number 5100496, it's an old one. I was down to one really good NiMH battery pack and one that was on its last legs. It was too old to even work with my favorite Nikon DX lens, because it couldn't control the electronic diaphragm on the 16-80mm f/2.8-4E.

At this point it's a 20+ year-old DSLR that, to judge by the body, saw years of hard pro service before I bought it back in 2015; the equivalent of a workhorse getting a job giving kiddie rides at a petting zoo as a retirement gig. It's not economically repairable, but I've had some good times with it. Took it to Blogorado back in '15, shot some roller derby with the Atomic Nerds in Albuquerque, and it accompanied me on plenty of neighborhood walks.

I knew this day was coming, but I'm still a little sad.

Good job, Nikon.






4 comments:

Jim Grey said...

Farewell to your faithful friend. :-(

Tam said...

Jim,

Aw, thanks. At least it went out doing what it was made to do: making pictures!

Gewehr98 said...

I haz a sad. Your D1X was such a faithful chonk of APS-C metal and glass!

Tam said...

Gewehr98,

It's especially sad to me because of the low S/N. I really wish it could tell me about the places it's been and the things that it's seen!