Gene Stinson - problem with a Sigma lens ( 120-300 F 2.8 DG EX OS AF )

I have a Nikon D7200 camera body, my problem is with a Sigma lens ( 120-300 F 2.8 DG EX OS AF ). I used this lens for a couple of years on a D7000 without any problem. With the D7200 body I found that it needed a firmware update to make the auto focus work properly, I sent it in to Sigma for the upgrade and it fixed the AF, or so I thought. If I accidentally leave the camera on for a few hours the battery runs down and when I insert a fresh battery the AF doesn't work at the focal lengths above about 225 for a day or so sometimes then it starts working, not sure but maybe it starts working again after mounting and trying it on my D7000, then go back to the D7200, not always. Also the battery on the D7200 runs down much faster than it does on the D7000, it may be just with this lens though. Does anyone have any idea or info that may help me with this aggravating problem short of buying a new lens, which I plan to do, but would like to wait a while.

Welcome to the forum,not heard of your problem so sorry cant help.

Welcome to the forum. Wish I had an answer to your problem. I'm sure someone will come along and have a few ideas.

Hello and welcome..................

Hello and welcome to the forum. I am sorry. I cannot help you with your lens problem. I can tell you that when I got my D7200 it took about three charging cycles for the batteries to start performing as advertised. One took 4.

Thanks Danno, your experience could be related, thanks for the info. gene

Get on the phone with Sigma. That lens is not a common beast so it's possible they may not know about this particular issue. Ask for tech support and explain what's what. If they know something about it already they'll let you know, even if they don't have a fix for it. My brother had issues with his 120-300mm and a Canon 1D and it took them a while but they got it resolved.

I don,t have this exact lens but my Sigma 18-250 appears to go in a sleep mode with the camera on without being used. I noticed this by a slight click and the image in the image viewer drops slightly down. When the shutter button is slightly depressed it comes alive and the image raises slightly. I believe it is the stabilization circuit in the lens.

Ok this is just shot in the dark but i have had experience that setting c2 under custom setting menu was changed somehow to very long and that resulted in battery life halved suddenly. Changed it back to 6 seconds and battery life was back to normal.

Thanks Johan, I think you have given me the answer to the battery life problem. Mine was actually set to never go off, I changed it back, like you, and can already see a dramatic improvement. Thanks again, Gene