Birds in Flight
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Nikon 300 mm f4 ED IF Auto Focus Silent Wave Nikkor Lens with the D300. WOWWed for 2 years [FONT="]and approximately 100,000 photos[/FONT]..I am a user, I didn’t buy the camera yesterday and I don’t owe Nikon anything. this may help anyone purchasing a wildlife lens.
Focus Problems With A Wildlife Long Lenses
After two years of photographing wildlife with my Nikon D300, the auto focus suddenly refused to operate. Realizing my biggest fear, I was forced to send it in to repair center. This would have been fine except after four consecutive trips “AND THREE MONTHS!” to the repair shop and it still doesn’t focus.
“This part doesn’t make a lot of sense but after awhile it will”, I’m missing a lens cap for my lens so I shipped it with the lens attached to the body all four times. Nikon says the problem has been me sending the lens attached to the body puts to much pressure on the CPU contacts during shipment, thus causing the focus problem. They publish no warnings and relayed no information to me about this problem so after many phone calls they agreed to repair my camera at no cost this time but said not to send it in with the lens attached again, I agreed.
This caused me to study this problem in length. After talking to other long lens owners, Nikon, Canon and Olympus, I’ve made a few conclusions that I believe pertain to all long lenses.
First, any pressure to a long lens, no matter how small, can cause a problem. I shipped my camera wrapped very tightly, so that little pressure would be put on the lens, “two inches of bubble wrap and 6 inches of popcorn, tightly packed, all around”. For there to be a problem in shipment means that a long lens attached to a body is a potentially disastrous combination in any situation.
Second, if the lens is too heavy for the body the camera manufactures should warn of the potential problem. They must know this is a problem; I caught on from just a few people I spoke to.
Third, the focus problems started a year ago when I began long distance hiking for my wildlife photos. A normal walk swings the camera so I believe this to be the starting point of the focus breakdown. The neck strap is attached to the body there-by causing pressure on the CPU contacts from the heavy lens. I believe this to be a design fault because if the lens can’t take the movement of a normal walk then the neck strap should be attached to the lens not the body. The lens is where the weight is, not the body!
If you have a long lens and haven’t had focus problems yet, you may want to consider these points.
1 – A long lens works best if you can get wildlife to come to you and hold a pose for about ten minutes while you take the lens out of the pack, unwrap it from the bubble wrap, connect the lens to the body and take the shot. After you take the shot you need to remember to remove the lens from the body, wrap it back in the bubble wrap and put it back in the camera case, and wait for the next exciting moment!
2 – Never ship your camera with the lens attached. This pisses off Nikon because they know the CPU contacts can’t take even very small bumps.
3 – Always hold the camera by the lens not the body. Holding the body with the long lens attached puts to much pressure on the CPU contacts.
4 – Never lift the camera by the body with the long lens attached. This also puts to much pressure on the CPU contacts.
5 – Never walk with the neck-strap attached around your neck and attached to the body. This movement apparently puts to much stress on the CPU contacts.
6 - Using the neck-strap, attached to the body, as a safeguard against dropping camera is dangerous to the focus but better than nothing. Ideally it would be great to figure out a way to attach the neck-strap to the lens, performing the manufactures job for them.
7 – Go to Nikon’s wildlife photo school to see if it is possible for ANYONE to accomplish these things.
Good luck, hope you never have focus problems!
Like birds? Check out my youtube.
YouTube - The World Around Me V10.mpg
Focus Problems With A Wildlife Long Lenses
After two years of photographing wildlife with my Nikon D300, the auto focus suddenly refused to operate. Realizing my biggest fear, I was forced to send it in to repair center. This would have been fine except after four consecutive trips “AND THREE MONTHS!” to the repair shop and it still doesn’t focus.
“This part doesn’t make a lot of sense but after awhile it will”, I’m missing a lens cap for my lens so I shipped it with the lens attached to the body all four times. Nikon says the problem has been me sending the lens attached to the body puts to much pressure on the CPU contacts during shipment, thus causing the focus problem. They publish no warnings and relayed no information to me about this problem so after many phone calls they agreed to repair my camera at no cost this time but said not to send it in with the lens attached again, I agreed.
This caused me to study this problem in length. After talking to other long lens owners, Nikon, Canon and Olympus, I’ve made a few conclusions that I believe pertain to all long lenses.
First, any pressure to a long lens, no matter how small, can cause a problem. I shipped my camera wrapped very tightly, so that little pressure would be put on the lens, “two inches of bubble wrap and 6 inches of popcorn, tightly packed, all around”. For there to be a problem in shipment means that a long lens attached to a body is a potentially disastrous combination in any situation.
Second, if the lens is too heavy for the body the camera manufactures should warn of the potential problem. They must know this is a problem; I caught on from just a few people I spoke to.
Third, the focus problems started a year ago when I began long distance hiking for my wildlife photos. A normal walk swings the camera so I believe this to be the starting point of the focus breakdown. The neck strap is attached to the body there-by causing pressure on the CPU contacts from the heavy lens. I believe this to be a design fault because if the lens can’t take the movement of a normal walk then the neck strap should be attached to the lens not the body. The lens is where the weight is, not the body!
If you have a long lens and haven’t had focus problems yet, you may want to consider these points.
1 – A long lens works best if you can get wildlife to come to you and hold a pose for about ten minutes while you take the lens out of the pack, unwrap it from the bubble wrap, connect the lens to the body and take the shot. After you take the shot you need to remember to remove the lens from the body, wrap it back in the bubble wrap and put it back in the camera case, and wait for the next exciting moment!
2 – Never ship your camera with the lens attached. This pisses off Nikon because they know the CPU contacts can’t take even very small bumps.
3 – Always hold the camera by the lens not the body. Holding the body with the long lens attached puts to much pressure on the CPU contacts.
4 – Never lift the camera by the body with the long lens attached. This also puts to much pressure on the CPU contacts.
5 – Never walk with the neck-strap attached around your neck and attached to the body. This movement apparently puts to much stress on the CPU contacts.
6 - Using the neck-strap, attached to the body, as a safeguard against dropping camera is dangerous to the focus but better than nothing. Ideally it would be great to figure out a way to attach the neck-strap to the lens, performing the manufactures job for them.
7 – Go to Nikon’s wildlife photo school to see if it is possible for ANYONE to accomplish these things.
Good luck, hope you never have focus problems!
Like birds? Check out my youtube.
YouTube - The World Around Me V10.mpg