mckraft

Don't know about Nikon but have been very happy with Canon. Had several repairs on camera body and lenses , charge was $100, if the were unable to repair they exchanged for a refurbished item at approx. $100.

RichardSM Loc: Back in Texas

I wouldn’t pay $500.00 to get that lens fixed either as you can buy a new one for $500.00-$600.00 for version 1. I bought mine new in a white box for $600.00 and with an USA warranty I got mine from eBay you can get some great deals just let your fingers do the walking on the internet.

Dano Loc: North Carolina

For what it's worth, I've used Canon 4 times to repair various cameras and have been exceeding pleased every time. The process is seamless, great communication, easy to talk to real people who gave real answers, and very fast turnaround. Repairs were always top notch. Hope that helps.

repleo Loc: Boston

Yes.
Imagine if you bought a car in Ohio and couldn't get it repaired in Michigan because it was a different wholesaler or distributor's region. Or, if you bought a used car in Michigan that was originally purchased in Ohio and you were stuck on the side of the road in Pennsylvania and had to get it towed back to Ohio to get it fixed. Same difference. As a consumer and end user of the product, I expect the manufacturer to put me first - not the middleman.

jbk224 Loc: Long Island, NY

Rjay, who made you head grammarian or orthographer? If you have a point, make it without disparaging someone! And, FYI... some people use auto correct and it may be possible that when typing 'came loose' the auto spell checker provided 'can lose'. And, Rbart did not notice the error. You 'can lose' the attitude.

Brent Rowlett Loc: Atlanta, GA

On the plus side I have heard from many pros that Canon is SO MUCH better for color. Nikons have a reputation for being flat and on the blue side with images. It is kind of a Fuji-Kodak issue where Fuji films were crisp and blue where as Kodak film was warm and rich with color. I was a faithful Nikon shooter for years before digital...have no ax to grind either way. Thanks for reinforcing my views on Canon service. Just knowing while on an assignment, I can get a loaner tomorrow if something goes wrong, the CPU service is worth it.

Picture Taker Loc: Michigan Thumb

Canon and Nikon are night and day. I use to tell new camera people when asked should I get a Canon or Nikon? Both are good you choice. Now I will tell them, They are both good but, if you have a problem with Nikon you screwed. I use Canon and had one Nikon and after dealing with Nikon service with a New Nikon (Out of the box) I can't say anything nice.

amfoto1 Loc: San Jose, Calif. USA

No, his complaint was actually about the dependability and reliability of the product... and the cost of repair. It really isn't a customer service question at all.

Cost likely would have been about the same and both manufacturers make fairly similar quality products with similar possibility of failures.

However, most who have had experience with both will tell you Canon is generally a lot nicer to deal with and has a faster turn-around of repairs. Canon also warrants their "factory" refurbished cameras same as new, while Nikon treats theirs as used with a 90 day warranty. Nikon USA also has policies in place that severely limits where you can get repairs done.... They will only provide replacement parts to their approx. 20 authorized repair shops. Nikon won't provide parts to independent repairers (Canon does). They say that's done to insure the quality of repairs, but it sounds like a somewhat monopolistic effort that would enable them to control the cost of repairs as they see fit.

It sucks that a three year old camera that hasn't seen particularly hard use should fail so catastrophically. I have to think it's an outlier and that there's no guarantee that Canon would serve better (though I've been using their DSLRs for going on 20 years without ever having a catastrophic failure)... but that doesn't help the OP at all!

This website tries to compile some data on camera failure: https://www.olegkikin.com/shutterlife/nikon_d7100.htm (click the "site map" link to see other brand and models of cameras)

It shows approx. 75% of D7100 survive to 100,000 clicks on the shutter or more (shutter actuations being considered the measure of a camera's usage, like the mileage odometer of a car). HOWEVER, this site's info is gathered on a purely voluntary basis and the samples are pretty small. Also it specifies "shutter failure", so some other types of catastrophic failure may or may not be reported. In other words, it's far from a very scientific poll of users and the numbers should only be considered rough estimates.

dmeyer Loc: Marion, NC

AMEN! Made that mistake on a used D610.

Michael1079 Loc: Indiana

I'll let you know in a week or so. I have a canon 24mm 1.4 usm lens that use to take gorgeous photos. Lately, i noticed the auto focus would hunt, and even hesitate. Focus was way off.
I sent it in for repair yesterday. This is pretty much a 1500 dollar lens, and i am crossing my fingers. It should arrive in virginia on march 8th, and they claim to have a 7 day turn around.
We'll see!!!!

chemdoc Loc: West Coast

I had been a Canon user since the 70's and in 2013 decided to get a digital SLR and went with a Canon T4i. What really impressed me with Canon customer service was the technical expertise of the folks answering the phone. During one conversation I mentioned that to the rep and he told me that Canon employees actual photographers to answer the phones which is why he was so knowledgeable. A couple of years later I decided it was time to move up to a full frame camera, and since my current lenses wouldn't work on a Canon full frame body, I had the opportunity to start fresh. I spent many months evaluating both Canon and Nikon and in the end, the D750 seemed like an excellent camera for the price, and I have been very well pleased with its performance.

However, the first time I called customer service when the camera had a focus issue I was amazed at how little the person knew about their cameras. It reminded me of tech support in India where you can tell someone is reading a script off of their screen and have no idea what it means. I was up in Yosemite at the time (and no, I wasn't carrying the owners manual with me) and hoped it was a simple fix. While the rep tried to figure out what was going on I realized that I had inadvertently moved a switch on the back of the camera, and moving it back resolved the issue. At the time I had just bought the camera and was unfamiliar with the Nikon, but one would think that a Nikon rep would have enough knowledge to resolve what ended up being a simple issue. And this was not an isolated issue. I have yet to speak to a customer service rep at Nikon who seems to have much basic knowledge about their products.

Other than that I have been quite pleased with Nikon cameras and lenses. The 14-24 F/2.8 lens is amazing and I love my new D850. Boy, is it sharp! I just wish that Nikon would employee support staff with a better knowledge of their camera equipment.

Joe Blow

Canon makes their own sensors. Nikon uses Sony sensors except for the new D850 which apparently is made by TowerJazz (a Pentax partner) in Israel.

Joe Blow

If you are out of the warranty then it isn't a good idea to go to the manufacturer for a repair. This is similar to taking an old car to a dealer for a repair; it'll cost twice as much.

If there is an independent repair facility nearby then take it to them first. If they can help then great, it's guaranteed that it will be cheaper. If they can't help then you've lost nothing.

Brent Rowlett Loc: Atlanta, GA

I worry about the longevity of my cameras. At work we went through Nikon 300s like water. Those pieces of crap did not last more than 200,000 shutter counts each. But the cameras were cheap compared to other models and they did the job. We took 3000 pics per day- computer fired on a turret and burned each camera out in 3 months. The output was a 360 view of the product parts.

I have never heard anybody boast about a more durable shutter and censor in the high end cameras versus the low end $1000 models. Seems a shame. Film cameras last literally forever. I guess that is what we get for converting to computers.

rjaywallace Loc: Wisconsin

And the OP can learn to re-read what he just posted and correct it, JBK. And the point is that cameras don’t fall apart via ‘immaculate conception’ - despite denials, his camera was dropped or abused.