Newbie needs a bit of help..

[DJM1981]

Hi there

I would appreciate a bit of help with my camera. D5100 I purchased the camera body in perfect working order however the seller said that the camera would only work in manual mode. I suspected from the description that he was unsure even if he had the correct lens in the first place. I took a gamble and received the camera without any lens however he included two nikon batteries and charger. I purchased a lens witch I assume is compatible to make things work in auto. Don't get me wrong manual is a good thing to make me learn photography in general and the camera does indeed work manually with this lens. But for some reason or another I get an error message saying lens not attached. I understand the reasons why it comes up with this error.. the lens or camera can not communicate to each other. So how does one go about sorting out this issue . I've tried cleaning the contacts on the camera and lens and they look perfect to me. However to my untrained eye maybe there could be issues. I've taken a photo of the lens to see if its compatible or not and the contact points in the camera. Any help would be Appreciated.

 

[Needa]

Welcome.

The lens is compatible. While it is possible to have two two lenses exhibit the same problem it is less likely the problem is with the lens. It is always worth a second attempt to clean the contacts. My preferred method is a couple drops of DeOxit on a micro-fiber towel.

If the same results are obtained try a two button reset by holding the I button with the menu button for 2 seconds these a usual red.
https://nikonites.com/forum/threads/is-she-dead-jim.45073/post-751037

If that doesn't work.

Not sure if this is relevant to this make/model, but on Canon body, I was able to reset things by doing the following: 1. Switch off, 2. remove battery and card 3. switch on 4. Hold down the shutter for at least 15 seconds 5. switch off 6. re-instal battery and card 7. switch on and keep your fingers crossed.
It worked for me and cleared unusual issues I was having with it.
This was apparently a suggestion from a technician in one of their factories and was not widely known in the public domain. It makes you wonder if this is what they do when people send their cameras in for a repair costing a fortune

This has worked for several Nikon user as well.

The last ting to try is to update the firmware. Both the manual and firmware can be obtained here:
https://downloadcenter.nikonimglib.com/en/products/23/D5100.html
Please read instructions carefully.

Good luck!

 

[DJM1981]

Thank you for your reply. I will give those tips a try and see if it works. I hope it does. But all is not lost. Thanks again.

 

[Marilynne]

Please let us know if Needa's suggestions solved your issue.

Also, please feel free to introduce yourself here - new member

 

[DJM1981]

I'm afraid after trying the above suggestions from other members of the forum that they didn't work for me. So now im thinking the contact pads / ribbon cale or combination of both inside the camera are broken or just failing to make proper contact with the lens. I'm tempted to put some solder flux on the pads and a bit of solder. I do have solder skills and im confident doing the work but id rather not. Iv looked endlessly today to try and find this part or even what the technical name for it is. All I have found is a compatible mirror box on alliexpress and I don't think that part is included. I can only assume that this ribbon cable connects to the main camera board somewhere hopefully its worked itself loose and can be plugged back in. I can do trace repair on boards but ribbon cable is more challenging. Copper conductive tape at the ready.

 

[Needa]

Maybe of some use?

https://www.manualslib.com/manual/1796061/Nikon-D5100.html?page=1#manual

I have never downloaded any only look at construction so use due caution.

 

[DJM1981]

Just a tiny update... I took of the rear back of the camera this morning and discovered this ribbon flex cable. To me it looks like is not seated correctly and the wires below it are kind of sitting funny not allowing it to seat properly where it needs to be. Fingers crossed this could maybe sort out my problem.

 

[DJM1981]

Well i now have discovered the problem. So as mentioned above I believed it to be the ribbon cable but it turns out whoever had this camera before me I suspect had tried to repair or replace something within the camera. And they have ended up creating a short near the internal battery on the main board. It's pretty easy to see what they had done. Picked up the body with a well placed thumb and squashed the metal protector to the main board. Crazy how there is no protection what so ever on the underside of that metal plate. Anyway I have now re assembled everything and it seams as though the colours on the lcd display are all weird colours now lol. But im putting that down to the faulty main board. Strange it was working correctly in the beginning though. Ohh well. New main board or just scrap it. If you look carefully you can probably see the capacitor thats gone near the battery. It was hard to get a close up. Anyways all I suppose this has been at least solved. However id like to keep the thread alive just so I can update it. Or someone else might have the same issue as I have had. And they you use and check my photos just for there checks if they choose to.

 

[BF Hammer]

Take a chance, you win sometimes, you lose sometimes. Somebody else digging inside the body was not the top of my list of guesses.

Things do happen to old gear. The D80 I bought in 2007 I used very hard on geocaching hikes for several years. I bought a 2nd D80 used when I saw how beat-up the original body was getting. That beat up first body was what I selected to do an infrared conversion on, and I sent it to one of the usual shops that do it (not the leading one). A solid 5 months after getting it back, it permanently went into an E-code that checked out as related to the autofocus motor in body. Maybe something was damaged during the IR conversion, or maybe it was simply going to fail anyway being 13 years old at that time and living a hard life. I just decided to eat the loss on the cost of conversion and deposited the body in landfill.