Nikon 55-200 DX VR Lens Rattle

Sandpatch

Senior Member
My Nikon 55-200 DX VR Lens is exhibiting a rattle and some odd symptoms. I've had this lens for six years and these just began. Fortunately the images remain fine, but I'm wondering if something is broken inside.

If I tilt the lens end over end, I hear a component rattling inside which is assume to be a VR part. It does this whether the VR is on or the VR is off when I remove the lens from the camera.

When I mount the lens with the VR on and I lightly depress the shutter button, the view in my viewfinder jumps up toward the sky perhaps half a frame, then settles down. It cycles like this two or three times, then acts normally. Images are perfect whether the VR is on or off.

What's up here? The lens has never been dropped. Is there a way I can "fix" this with a reset of some sort or should I just not worry with it? Thank you.
 

Needa

Senior Member
Challenge Team
I had similar with my 55-200 the jump with partial button press, on my d5100, Don't remember there being any loose pieces or being related to VR but did seem more prevalent at the 200 end. As they both have a new home no further testing at this time is possible. Same for mine not being dropped and at last report both are still working fine. If you have loose pieces I don't think any type of reset will fix it.

Sounds like a good excuse to by a new lens if one is in the budget. :)
 

Texas

Senior Member
quote: "When I mount the lens with the VR on and I lightly depress the shutter button, the view in my viewfinder jumps up toward the sky perhaps half a frame, then settles down. It cycles like this two or three times, then acts normally. Images are perfect whether the VR is on or off."

My 70-300 AFS VR has done this sky jump a few times but I cannot recreate it. Works fine, in fact the VR is impressive.
None of my other VR lenses have done this.

And none of my lenses rattle or have any sign of loose internals. But maybe I don't shake them hard enough ? Not going to do it.

 

Sandpatch

Senior Member
Thanks for your replies Needa, 480sparky and Texas. I'll continue to use the lens, but with the expectation that it now has an idiosyncrasy.

Needa:<Sounds like a good excuse to by a new lens if one is in the budget.:)>

That might be a good idea actually, as a 55-300 would be more useful and my old 55-200 could find a home in my teenager's camera bag.
 

RocketCowboy

Senior Member
That might be a good idea actually, as a 55-300 would be more useful and my old 55-200 could find a home in my teenager's camera bag.

The 55-300mm is pretty soft. I prefer the 70-300mm more, actually.

That said, both my 70-300 and my 105/2.8 both have developed a noise when VR is engaged. Doesn't impact the image, but was a little concerning when the noise first developed. Since it's both lenses, and they don't travel together, I'm assuming it's a fairly normal thing and not worrying about it.
 

hark

Administrator
Staff member
Super Mod
Contributor
Thanks for your thoughts Charlie. No difference in price between the two lenses per the Nikon website.

That might be a DX version of the 70-300mm you saw. I'm not sure that is the one @RocketCowboy is referring to. There is an FX version that's been out for several years.
 

lokatz

Senior Member
Allow me to put in a contrarian viewpoint here: IF you want to do it at all, I would replace the 55-200 with a new 55-200 - but make sure it's the VRII. Optically, that lens is substantially better than both the 55-300 and the 70-300 (DX, not FX). German magazine ColorFoto, which I like for their diligent and consistent tests, gave the 55-200 VRII 68 points, while the 55-300 got 57 and the new AF-P 70-300 received 64, albeit with a comment that it performs fairly well at 70 and 150mm but sucks at the long end. Ok, they didn't quite phrase it that way, but they found that the resolution deteriorates considerably at 300mm and the contrast becomes very poor.

Why get a longer lens if you're not going to like the results at the long end? In my experience, scaling a good 200mm image by 50% in a photo software yields better results than shooting with a mediocre 300mm. On top of that, you also save money since the 55-200 is such a steal!
 
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