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If you send it in for service they will clean and calibrate it but i doubt it will have a marked difference, You would be best waiting until something goes wrong and a part needs replacing as a full service is normally part of the cost of opening it up for repair anyway.
Quote: If you send it in for service they will clean and calibrate it.
What is there to calibrate?
Maybe after 5 years the internal battery should be changed before it leaks, but this is something you can do yourself too - though all custom settings may be lost.
Quote: What is there to calibrate?
The metering system ?
I used to get my hand held Minolta Spot Meter done each year at Focus On Imaging.
There's no mechanism on a digital camera to mess with the metering system AFAIK. I can't think of anything on a digital camera that can be "calibrated" except for the focus of a DSLR - and that's a specialist (and very expensive) job.
Quote: If you send it in for service they will clean and calibrate it.
What is there to calibrate?
/http://desktoppub.about.com/cs/colorcalibration/a/cal_camera.htm
There's nothing in there about calibrating the camera - it's about the monitor. Digital cameras have various colour controls in their menus (like the colour space) and they also have white balance adjustment for individual shots. You not seriously suggesting that when you send a camera off for servicing they're going to check the colour - are you?
Nikon suggest every 2 years, or more frequently if very heavily used.
I am reasonably sure this advice is intended for professional cameras used mainly by pros.
Speaking specifically Nikon it is not likely to be economic to get something like a mid grade low (by today's standard) MP body like a D70 serviced.
Good though the 5D was 5 years ago only you can decide if it is worth probably £100 + for a full service.
Quote: If you send it in for service they will clean and calibrate it.
What is there to calibrate?
The majority of digital SLRs have a mechanical shutter, albeit the speeds being electronically controlled. I can see no reason why this cannot drift from factory calibration nor why it cannot be recalibrated. Same goes for exposure measuring devices. AF systems also have mechanical components and sensors that could need calibration versus the control systems. Some cameras are designed to self-adjust by closed loop control system. However, this does not preclude them from requiring calibration at some time. There are also mechanical interfaces to the lens such as the aperture control lever. If this gets distorted during use, either by mis-mounting of a lens or wear and tear, then the exposure system could read different to the actual exposure. Again, this can be remedied.
So, to sum up, digital SLRs are not just a box with a sensor that has no mechanical dependencies that can veer from centre calibration.
Quote: The majority of digital SLRs have a mechanical shutter, albeit the speeds being electronically controlled. I can see no reason why this cannot drift from factory calibration nor why it cannot be recalibrated. Same goes for exposure measuring devices. AF systems also have mechanical components and sensors that could need calibration versus the control systems.
Like you say there are a lot of things that can go wrong on a digital camera (or can be wrong from new) but most of them can't be "calibrated" - i.e. you can check the shutter and find that it's running too slow but there isn't a mechanism to adjust it, to the best of my knowledge. Same goes for metering and colour accuracy. In the case of metering the algorithms used for things like pattern metering are so complex that it would be very dangerous for anyone to mess with it.
AFAIK the only thing that can be "calibrated" is AF (on a DSLR) where there are a few screws that can adjust the position of the AF sensor, but again this is a very complex job and best left to the manufacturer. I know people often mess with this and claim to get good results but I doubt that they do, because you need to reset data in the firmware and only the manufacturer knows how to do this. Lenses can be "collimated" - some people also claim that a lens can be "calibrated" although I've never seen a satisfactory definition of this. In most cases I think they mean that the lens has been rechipped (like in the case where a third party lens has been sent out with the wrong data in the ROM - think Sigma usually).
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