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I've been attempting to help a chum of mine with his 300mm prime lens. I'm supposed to be the expert one of us but I'm stumped. He's had it in to Nikon twice and had the VR motor replaced twice. We figured that would have done it, but it never worked smoothly after the repairs. Now Nikon seems to suggest that there's nothing wrong with the lens (the old 'no one else is reporting anything similar' line). And, of course, its now out of warranty.
Camera: D300s
Here's the problem:
On half depression of the shutter release button, there is often but not always a noticeable grinding noise and vibration within the lens. This sometimes continues for one or two seconds whilst the shutter is depressed, and it can also occur again immediately the shutter button is fully depressed and released sometimes continuing for several seconds and with noticeable vibration through the lens. The noise is clearly audible to someone standing some metres away. Honestly, its a gruesome sound, like gears crushing. Tests were all hand held.
The most obvious suspects would be the VR motor and/or the autofocus mechanism, though I'm now wondering about alignment of the lens elements themselves. Could they be intermittently going askew and grinding? If so, you'd think Nikon repair centre would have spotted glass dust inside the lens. As far as we can tell, they've simply replaced the VR motor and probably checked to make sure the lens was otherwise within spec, but still the problem persists. It isn't just a noisy VR; you can hear normal VR and AF functioning and they sound fine.
On test, this noise/vibration occurred most frequently when both the VR and autofocus systems were switched on. I believe that it has also occurred when the lens has been set to manual focus, but I have been unable to replicate the noise on manual focus on test today. Sharpness of results is inconsistent, definitely not as sharp as when the lens was new.
To eliminate the possibility of the D300s shutter mechanism being the cause of this problem, we tested it on my Nikon D700. The noise/vibration problem was replicated on many occasions using the D700 almost always when the autofocus was switched on.
The annoying thing is, this is an intermittent problem. After taking a number of test shots and switching both autofocus and VR systems on and off several times, we were unable to replicate the noise/vibration again that day. But on a recent outing he took some 50 shots before the error occurred again, and for the next 50 shots it was present almost every time the shutter was depressed, making the lens more or less impossible to use.
Over the last few days the problem has occured again several times, but intermittently, and it is hard to reproduce the problem. If the previous pattern is repeated again, the lens performance will gradually deteriorate and the grinding noise on depressing the shutter button will begin to occur much more frequently, severely impeding performance.
Has anyone else any experience of this or any similar problem on this or any other Nikon pro telephoto lens? Any suggestions what it might be, or advice on repairs?
Camera: D300s
Here's the problem:
On half depression of the shutter release button, there is often but not always a noticeable grinding noise and vibration within the lens. This sometimes continues for one or two seconds whilst the shutter is depressed, and it can also occur again immediately the shutter button is fully depressed and released sometimes continuing for several seconds and with noticeable vibration through the lens. The noise is clearly audible to someone standing some metres away. Honestly, its a gruesome sound, like gears crushing. Tests were all hand held.
The most obvious suspects would be the VR motor and/or the autofocus mechanism, though I'm now wondering about alignment of the lens elements themselves. Could they be intermittently going askew and grinding? If so, you'd think Nikon repair centre would have spotted glass dust inside the lens. As far as we can tell, they've simply replaced the VR motor and probably checked to make sure the lens was otherwise within spec, but still the problem persists. It isn't just a noisy VR; you can hear normal VR and AF functioning and they sound fine.
On test, this noise/vibration occurred most frequently when both the VR and autofocus systems were switched on. I believe that it has also occurred when the lens has been set to manual focus, but I have been unable to replicate the noise on manual focus on test today. Sharpness of results is inconsistent, definitely not as sharp as when the lens was new.
To eliminate the possibility of the D300s shutter mechanism being the cause of this problem, we tested it on my Nikon D700. The noise/vibration problem was replicated on many occasions using the D700 almost always when the autofocus was switched on.
The annoying thing is, this is an intermittent problem. After taking a number of test shots and switching both autofocus and VR systems on and off several times, we were unable to replicate the noise/vibration again that day. But on a recent outing he took some 50 shots before the error occurred again, and for the next 50 shots it was present almost every time the shutter was depressed, making the lens more or less impossible to use.
Over the last few days the problem has occured again several times, but intermittently, and it is hard to reproduce the problem. If the previous pattern is repeated again, the lens performance will gradually deteriorate and the grinding noise on depressing the shutter button will begin to occur much more frequently, severely impeding performance.
Has anyone else any experience of this or any similar problem on this or any other Nikon pro telephoto lens? Any suggestions what it might be, or advice on repairs?
