Back in October of 2014 I wrote,Click Away Digital is Free, or is it?“. I wrote the article when my trusty Nikon D700 reached the end of its life. I arrived at the cost per click by dividing the initial price of my camera by the number of shots I took. The result, it cost me about 2 cents per click, not bad but I missed my camera.

A Tough Decision; Replace or Repair my Camera?

I replaced my the D700 with a new Nikon D810. I love the D810 for portraits but not for sports. I thought about getting a used Nikon D4 but after using a refurbished one, I wasn’t happy with the focusing and the D4s was out of my price range. I thought the only two option I had left was to buy the new Nikon D750 or send my D700 in to Nikon to get repaired. As luck would have it, fellow Photofocus author Nick Minore reviewed the Nikon D750 in an article he wrote, “Shooting with the Nikon D750“. Based on his input, the Nikon D750 is a great camera but it wouldn’t meet my needs for sports. I decided to get the D700 repaired.

I had the repair on my to do list but never sent it in to Nikon. My buddy Gary from Hunts Photo and Video invited me to the Space Coast Birding and Wildlife Festival near my home town of Melbourne Florida. It was at the event he introduced me to Tim McEver, owner of Peachtree Camera repair. We talked for a while before it dawned on me, I’ve heard of Tim through my wildlife photographer buddy Robert Wicker just after my camera died. I told Wicker my concerns about sending my camera to a repair facility instead of Nikon. He assured me Tim is an authorized Nikon repair center. Tim confirmed the fact.

Personal Questions Turned into an Interview for our Readers

The next day I brought my camera to Tim. He looked it over and confirmed the shutter was bad. I started to ask several questions and Nick, who is also my producer and tech adviser, suggested we do an interview with Tim and share it with our Photofocus readers. Great idea, and within a few minutes he had us wired and ready to go. After our talk, I felt comfortable and had him repair my camera and my Nikkor f/2.8 70-200mm VR lens. The repairs were made within 3 days and cost of the camera repair was $537.00 and the lens cost $228.00 including shipping. Am I happy? You bet, my D700 came back fixed plus had all new rubber grips. It looks and feels like a brand new camera.

Adjusting the Cost per Click

To make it simple, let’s say I get another 150,000 images from my repaired camera. When I divide that by the cost of the repair, $537.00, my new cost per click is 0.003 cent. This is great, but I’m more excited my trusty D700 has a new life!

Check out My interview with Tim

http://youtu.be/sqj0foQIgrU