Nikon lens servicing recommendations?

[john_e]

Just bought a second hand 500mm f4 VR and I think it needs a service, it focusses fine on items that are relatively close but the results for more distance subjects is uniformly poor - very soft although the lens appears to 'snap' into focus, the resulting shots are soft. From looking on the Nikon website they seem to recommend Fixation or Lehmann's as their authorised service centres, just wondered whether anyone has any other recommendations?

 

[bigbigblue]

John, That is a bit spooky - I just packed off my Nikon 300mm F2.8 (which I use for lowfly photography - spotted your avatar !) to Nikon today (rather than Fixation or Lehmann's) for a similar problem - my 300mm's focus is 'off' and I haven't been happy with the shots for a while. The reason it went back to Nikon is that although Fixation and Lehmann's can 'focus calibrate' the lens, they need the body because as far as I can tell, all they do is use the Micro Focus Adjustment within the camera body to optimise the focus. The problem with my 300mm is that the maximum micro-focus adjustment wasn't sufficient to bring the lens into sharp focus.

Whilst investigating my problems, I came across a piece of software from a UK developer called Reikan FoCal which automates the AF miro adjustment for both Canon and Nikon cameras / lenses. I used it to test my 300mm and it told me it was so far out it couldn't be adjusted using the micro adjustment, hence its return to Nikon. The software did successfully calibrate ALL of my other lenses and I can calibrate all my lenses to both my camera bodies for a single cost of the licence.

I highly recommend the software if you want to get the best out of your glass. Of course, other than being a very happy customer, I have no connection with Reikan Technologies.....

 

[john_e]

Thanks for the reply Peter, that's really helpful. I'm pretty confident it's a bigger problem than MFA will be able to deal with. Think I'll just bite the bullet and send it to Nikon themselves.

 

[NikonKev]

Whilst investigating my problems, I came across a piece of software from a UK developer called Reikan FoCal which automates the AF miro adjustment for both Canon and Nikon cameras / lenses. I used it to test my 300mm and it told me it was so far out it couldn't be adjusted using the micro adjustment, hence its return to Nikon. The software did successfully calibrate ALL of my other lenses and I can calibrate all my lenses to both my camera bodies for a single cost of the licence.

I highly recommend the software if you want to get the best out of your glass. Of course, other than being a very happy customer, I have no connection with Reikan Technologies.....

Thanks...This is something i wanted to get for a while but didn't know what it was called or where to get it..

 

[meonshore]

I can also recommend dropping/sending it into Nikon House directly. Collected my 400mm last week having had it cleaned, checked, and focus matched to my main body. Mine was via NPS but it gets worked on by the same engineers.

If you can send in the body as well then I would absolutely recommend it. It isn't a case of them just doing a micro-adjustment in the body, but if they only have the lens then all they can do is set it to a mid-point within specification. If your body is ++ or -- out from mid-point of specification then you might still not get it perfectly set (i.e. a 0 adjustment in Focal). These adjustments are done internally and not in the menu system

I would also suspect this is the case for Lehmans and Fixation - both Nikon certified servicing centres, who wouldn't just do a MFA. Don't forget MFA is a relatively new feature and in the past before it was possible to do that lenses were matched to bodies all the time.

If you are going to do it though I recommend pulling your finger out the summer sees a number of events at which there is an NPS depot (Wimbledon, F1, and the World Cup) and it will put a drain on engineers who attend those onsite to look after the accredited media, and step out servicing times.

 

[john_e]

Although dropping it off in person would be my preferred option, distance makes it a non-starter so it'll need to go via courier. Good point about the upcoming summer events, I'll get it sent off in the next week or so.