D200 problem

[Ross]

Was at Brands Hatch yesterday for the Time Attack series and as such was shooting bursts of shots in continuous high speed mode with af-c tracking.

After a while (few hours) the camera started playing up. The battery indicator started flashing, the camera refused to focus and the shutter refused to release. OFF was flashing briefly in the top display.

I changed batteries to another fully charged one but after a dozen shots the problem reoccurred. Checking the battery meter on both batteries revealed the first one had around 65% remaining and the one I changed to had 95% remaining.

The only way for me to keep shooting was to turn the camera off, and remove and replace the battery. I could then shoot another dozen shots or so before it happened again.

I tried disabling the VR on my 70-200 but no difference, I also cleaned the contacts on the body and the lens, no difference either. The batteries have small scoring on the contacts but were certainly not dirty, but I cleaned those as well in case but again no difference.

Spoke to Nikon Professional support this morning and the guy I spoke to had not heard of this problem before and suggested sending the camera in for an engineer to take a look at it. I would be without the camera for 10 working days and as it's a fair way outside warranty now I will also have to pay for any parts and labour.

So, before I send it away, has anyone experienced this problem before and if so, is there anything I can do myself to resolve it?

FWIW I have tried to reproduce the problem today and have not been able to - perhaps it only occurs after the camera has been used for a few hours?

Cheers in advance

 

[King_Boru]

Similar thing happened to me at RIAT. The top LCD kept 'dimming' as if it were about to konk out. You know, like watching your kids fall asleep in their high chairs feeling. I put it down to the continuous burst/heavy use. The rubber where your thumb sits next to the rear LCD screen was quite warm to touch. This lead me to believe that the internals were not being cooled sufficiently so I put the camera back in the bag for an hour, shot film and tried it again. All was fine once it had cooled off. Perhaps you experienced something similar?

King.

EDIT: How are they kept cool anyway? This new D300/D3 must run mighty hot inside with all this tech passing through them.

 

[gibbo]

Hi my D200 had a similar fault, 18 longish exposures or even a short burst of shots would show the battery as drained or just lock up the camera, remove and replace the battery and all was well.
I was lucky the camera was only 3 weeks old & Jessops just exchanged the camera body for a brand new one. They said they had not heard of this fault before.
The salesman who exchanged it for me said he was saving for one himself and had not heard of any faults on th D200. I phoned Jessops a few weeks ago to ask if there was any follow up from the fault and they will not hear anything back from Nikon. He went on to say the camera would be resold as a Managers special once returned to the shop.

 

[King_Boru]

Hi my D200 had a similar fault, 18 longish exposures or even a short burst of shots would show the battery as drained or just lock up the camera, remove and replace the battery and all was well.
I was lucky the camera was only,... SNIP

Sounds like he wanted to pick it up cheap himself. Hense the ease in swapping it for a new one.