D500 Down!

Ugh. So this happened.

See that large dent in the pentaprism housing (aka the “CVR-VF cover” according to Nikon)? The damage occurred when the D500 detached from the Luma Loop 3 sling I had attached to the camera. I could blame Luma Loop, but this was at least partly my fault. The loop attaches to the tripod screw on the bottom of the camera. I normally have a Really Right Stuff ball head quick release plate on the camera base. Luma Labs doesn’t support attaching the Loop 3 to the camera indirectly this way.

The Really Right Stuff plate includes its own tripod mount, so I happily attached the Luma Loop to the plate. I had, however, failed to read the fine print in the Luma Loop literature. The Loop 3 includes rubber padding that minimizes the risk of the Loop mount unscrewing when it’s attached to the camera. As with many cameras, the base of the D500 has a textured surface, which the Loop mount grips nicely. However, if you attach the Loop to a QR plate, which has a smooth metal surface, the rubber mount can slip. Slippage means the Loop 3 mount gradually unscrewing itself.

This happened to me on my recent vacation. The Loop 3 mount unscrewed itself from the RRS plate and the D500 went crashing to the ground.

So my lovely D500 is off to Nikon for repair, which will set me back $345. The real downside, however, is that the “CVR-VF cover” isn’t normally kept in repair stock, so it may be weeks before I get the body back. In the meantime, I’m going through DSLR withdrawal. I do have this $350 gift card from B&H, so maybe I can do something with that…