D200 repairs

I have a D200 that went haywire on me. Symptoms were, when you half-press the shutter to auto-focus, the camera went dead. No power at all. LCDs went dead. I sent it to Calif. for repairs and when it came back, it was exactly the same. Same problems. My question is, how much should I push for a replacement camera? I have taken fewer than 150 pictures with this camera and am leery of the repairs, at this point. I have the 18-200 VR lens and I tried two other batteries, three other memory cards, including a microdrive. Any suggestions would be appeciated.

Give it another try before escalating to Nikon for replacement. It could very well be a minor thing.

However, this time, do talk to a supervisor and calmly explain your displeasure that you are having to send the camera back for repairs for the very same defect and it wasn't resolved at all the first time around and that you are losing a lot of photo opportunities because of it.

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Speed is significant and interesting but accuracy is downright fascinating
http://www.pbase.com/pradipta

Unclear on your post if you sent the lens with the camera the first time. The VR may be shorted out on the lens drawing all the power. Make sure you send the lens and the camera together with a description of the problem. Before you do, take a second to clean the contacts on the lens and the lens mount on the camera then try it one more time.

Good luck,
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Skip Teschendorf

.. at the first go?

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Speed is significant and interesting but accuracy is downright fascinating
http://www.pbase.com/pradipta

Nikon told me not to send the lens in with the camera. It happened with both the 18-200 VR and the 18-70 that I borrowed from a friend. The repair order that I got back with the camera the first time stated that they had replaced the DC/DC convertor, adjusted AE Operation, Adjusted Auto focus operation, Cleaned the CCD, did a firmware upgrade and a general check and clean. For whatever that is worth. As I said, I tried two different lenses, three different batteries, the AC adapter, four different memory cards, all with the same results. When you half depress the shutter release, the power shuts off to the camera.

Just to follow up on this repair. After Nikon Calif. had my D200 for over a week, I went back and forth with a nice lady from the customer relations dept. To make a long story short, Nikon replaced the camera with a whole new kit (body, strap, charger, battery, the whole nine yards). Needless to say, I'm happy and the new camera is working fine. Sometimes things work out and I'm sure Nikon doen't hear much from satisfied people, nor do these forums always reflect a positive ending.

... and after much testing, I determined it was AFS lenses only, on their M/A mode only, that caused the problem. (And no amount of electrical contact cleaning remedied it.) When I reported that problem to Nikon, they told me to send the battery and lens I was using when the problem occurred.

Both of the lenses you listed are AFS lenses, which makes me think you may be having the same problem I had. So you might try a non-AFS lens and report the results of that test to Nikon.

My D200 is promised back from Nikon (Melville) this week; I'll let you know how it fares.

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Congrats on your new camera. So refreshing to see that Nikon took care of your problem.

Now if they can come up with a 100% fix for the short banding........life would be very good.

Have a great day!

Ralph Hensley

A somewhat different problem but I somehow managed to crack the top plate LCD screen on my D200, Nikon UK were contacted to check availability and cost of the part. The D200 would have been with them Wednesday 3rd May and I have now just received confirmation that the camera should be back with me Thursday 11th May, to say I am pleased would be an understatement ! a big thank you to Nikon UK especially as the problem was my fault.
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A selection of my images can be found at http://www.photo-genesis.net follow the galleries link then select the Jacks gallery