Caveat emptor

Caveat emptor Rodney, caveat emptor.

In something of a Del Boy moment, I bought a camera with a view to repairing it and selling it for a tidy profit. Where do these ideas come from?

It was a Nikon D40, so not a particularly high value item and it certainly wasn't going to make me rich however, one that would be a low risk attempt at learning more about camera repair if nothing else. There is a sub text here which is that  I have a more valuable D3400 which keeps reporing that the lens is not attached when clearly the lens is attached. I'd like to open it up and see what's wrong but I'm not brave enough yet, hence the D40 seemed like a good opportunity to gain some knowledge.  

The D40 had been advertised with the problem that the lens kept falling off. That sounded like a simple enough fix as the bayonet fitting on these budget Nikon's is a plastic ring and it was reasonable to guess that one of the lugs had broken off. 

I ordered a replacement mount and waited for both camera and mount to arrive in the post. 

Oh joyous day when they both arrived last weekend. Sure enough the bayonet was missing one lug so I set forth and replaced the lens mount with the new one. 

I attached the lens to the body and went to take my first photo. "Lens not attached" error flashed up. I tried another lens which I know is good. Same message. 

I tried a third lens and this time the shutter fired ( along with the flash although it hadn't popped up from it's housing. Another problem to fix) and I thought I was on the road to redemption. 

Now, by the miracle of a self healing camera, the camera body would accept it's original lens and it would take photos but then another error appeared on the screen. "Err, press shutter release again"

This appears to be a fairly common problem with this generation of Nikon's and the internet advice ranges from removing the bottom part of the body and turning a red gear wheel to stripping down the camera and fiddling with the internal components. 

I tried the red gear fix but that achieved nothing so I have opted to strip the camera apart and see what lessons I can learn from the process which might help me to repair the D3400. 

Four lessons have been learned so far:

1: Caveat emptor, Buyer beware, particularly when buying from Facebook Marketplace

2: There are a lot of tiny screws in a Nikon D40

3: my eyesight isn't what it use to be, hence the magnifying glass in the photo above.

4: I'm going to send my D3400 to Nikon for repair.

Anyone want to be a recently repaired lens? I'll pop it on marketplace 😉. .. .I'll bung in a few tiny components too as a bit of a bundle deal. Well, it's nearly Christmas 🎄

Caveat emptor.