Need some help troubleshooting my Nikkor 70-200mm 2.8 ED VR

Heimsund

Heimsund

New member
Hi everyone !
My trusty 70-200mm f/2.8 ED VR (mk1) suddenly came to a complete halt today, completely out of the blue.
The lens has never been dropped, and I both transport and look after my gear with utmost care.

The lens has shown no sign of having any issues prior. No weird noises or anything of the sort. I was in the middle of a shooting session, when all the electronics in the lens just suddenly stopped working.

Symptoms:
- AF motor is not responding
- VR stabilizer is not responding
- Non of the switches on the lens seems to work.
- There are no noises or movements coming from the lens at all when pressing the focus button.

I have tested the lens on both my D4 and my D810, but the lens doesn’t respond on either camera. No error messages in the display. I know that the lens is somewhat old at this point, but I expected there to be some sort of warning signs before it suddenly failed.

Is there any common failure point on this lens model that are known to cause these issues ?
 
BF Hammer

BF Hammer

Senior Member
You did confirm the lens is what failed by testing on another camera. Now inspect the AI pins on the lens. Do they look damaged or perhaps got some dirt over them?

Otherwise you may be looking at internal electronics failure. I have the same lens so I feel a tiny amount of the pain here. I want mine to last some more years until I save enough for a replacement Z-mount version.
 
Heimsund

Heimsund

New member
Thanks a lot for the advice ! It’s so easy to get stressed out when expensive camera gear suddenly stops working..!

I went over to my neighbor this morning and borrowed a can of electronic contact cleaner.
And I gave all the lens pins a proper good clean, even though they didn’t appear dirty or faded. I also sprayed a good amount in between each of the switches on the control panel of the lens, and flicked the buttons back and forth hoping the spray cleaner would penetrate down to the actual contact points inside.

After letting the lens dry for a few minutes i mounted it to the D4, and now it’s all good, the lens is back in action ! I just hope dirty contact points is all there was to it.
 
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