Never. Again. Until Next Time - Nikon D80 “Err” Repair
Bought for $50 (CAD) on eBay, complete in box. When half pressing the shutter release, the motor inside would make a whining noise, and fully pressing the shutter release to take a photo the mirror assembly would raise and lock itself in the up position and the infamous “Err” message starts flashing on the top info display. Research on the internet revealed that it is a very common failure on this model, due to a manufacturing defect of a teeny tiny gear that is present on the shaft of the aperture gear motor (3rd photo), the gear splits up and rotates freely on the motor and the camera cannot do its cycle to click a photo.
Tools used: a soldering gun, one Phillips screwdriver, and a pry tool. No repair manual, no parts tray, just a silent YouTube tutorial of a guy disassembling this camera and printer paper with screws taped down and labeled as my parts organizer.
Parts used: Replacement gear from AliExpress for $2
Three hours and several near-death (figurative) experiences later, I have a fully working D80 with 24k shutter count. The wires inside were so thin that stripping them snapped the conductors. I was left with 2mm of slack, had to melt the insulation off with my soldering gun to expose enough copper to tin and reconnect. Then at the very last step of reassembly, I accidentally shoved the LCD flex cable retainer clip inside the connector itself. Had to extract it in pieces with a pry tool, fully convinced I had bricked the camera at the finish line. Taped the flex cable down and it works perfectly.
The funny thing is there was an invoice inside the box from 2014 for the repair of this exact same problem. Same part, failed twice. Nikon replaced it with the same cheap plastic gear and here we are again 12 years later.
This is the most intense I’ve felt repairing a thing. Amazing how complicated these cameras are, even when they’re 20 years old. I can only imagine how complex newer cameras would be to self repair in the future, when they start to break.
Next step: Infrared conversion.