Caring for long lens / lens fault

JimL

JimL

New member
Hello,

I’m new here so not sure if this is right place to post this.

I currently have my 200-500 nikkor f/5.6 lens away for an expensive repair. I am going to sell this once I get it back as I now have a 500 pf and only very rarely used the 200-500 at other than 500.

My question is a more general one about how the damage may have occurred so that hopefully I can avoid similar in the future.

I bought the lens new a few years ago and used on d610, 750 and 780. Sometimes with 1.4 converter. I progressively noticed a small amount of play at the mount and camera said f/0, ERR, and failing to focus. Usually if I tried to rotate the lens the issue would go away temporarily- but eventually it was happening too often.

I was told there was an electrical fault and internal damage to the diaphragm and lens mount and tube needed replacing.

I don’t ever remember dropping or bashing the lens. I often carried it at my hip on a strap when walking.

Any ideas how damage might have occurred? And tips on preventing in future? Or have I just been unlucky? Possibly issue got worse when I started using the teleconvertor- is that possible?

Many thanks in advance.
 
BF Hammer

BF Hammer

Senior Member
I don't have any advice for this. I made a decision last year to not transport my camera around in-bag with a long lens attached anymore. I now have an inexpensive 28mm pancake lens I use as a body-cap to stow in my bag. I select a lens when I get to a scene now.
 
BF Hammer

BF Hammer

Senior Member
JimL said:
Thanks BF - why did you make that decision? Had you had problems leaving long lenses attached ?
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No issues, but I just got thinking about it. This also solved a packing configuration problem I had in my backpack. I always had to choose between carrying a Sigma 150-600mm or my Nikon 70-200mm but not both. Now the full kit except my 105mm goes in the pack with the camera compartment now compacted to the size of the body. And if I take out the 14-24mm, the 105mm goes in it's place.
 
Clovishound

Clovishound

Senior Member
I carried the 200-500 attached to my camera in my bag for a year or two with no issues. I would think that carrying it in the field, ready for use, would cause more stress than carrying it in a bag.

You didn't by any chance have mounted the camera/lens combo on a tripod using the camera to attach, rather than the lens foot? That puts a lot of stress on the mounts of both the camera and the lens.
 
JimL

JimL

New member
Thanks Clovishound. I mainly used handheld, but if using tripod attached via the lens tripod collar. But I often carried using a Peak designs strap attached to the camera body while walking. I think I read somewhere on a thread on here that attaching the strap via the tripod collar or collar and body was better. And now I think about it, in retrospect it’s seems rather obvious that my method was putting a lot of strain on the mount. Even so I don’t see how this led to internal damage …
 
Clovishound

Clovishound

Senior Member
If you look at the mount area of the lens you will see the SS bayonet is secured to, presumably, the main outer tube with four screws. There is a another tube inside the bayonet ring that either butts up to, or is attached to the rear glass element. If the screws to the main tube loose their hold on the main tube, everything in the back of the lens starts moving around, and who knows what can happen.
 
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