D100 300mm Autofocus Problem

I returned my D100 to Wolf. They did not have another one for me to try so I took all my lenses and went to Showcase, a pro shop in midtown Atlanta. They had one D100. Same problem, the 300mm did not autofocus. They tried it on a film body, not sure which one, and it autofocused OK. It worked fine on the Fuji S2 also. They called Nikon from the shop and, after a long long wait on hold, were told that it should work and to send the camera and lens to them.

After two D100s out of the box that did not work I bought the Fuji S2. $500 more but all lenses work.

I feel certain that it is a problem with the D100. I also think that Nikon is in denial and I urge everyone having autofocus problems to keep the pressure on them. It might be firmware. They might eventually issue a fix.

I meant to attach the previous message to this thread but I messed up:

http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1021&message=5448900

Malcolm Needham said:

I feel certain that it is a problem with the D100. I also think
that Nikon is in denial and I urge everyone having autofocus
problems to keep the pressure on them. It might be firmware. They
might eventually issue a fix.

Click to expand...

Having owned both the 300/4 AF-S and 300/2.8 AF-S, (Yves owns the older 300/4 AFD with no problems) I had never experienced a single problem with either. Did you try to clean the contacts with alcohol or an eraser?

Sounds odd.

Brendan
==========
Equipment list in profile -- where it BELONGS!

It is the F4 300mm AFS-D, I did clean the contacts and two camera shops have looked at it. The folks today were pretty good Nikonians I think.

Also, check the previous thread - I'm not the only one with this problem. Other threads refer to the fixed 300mm and also the 80-200 F2.8.

But I know lots of people are not having problems. Something is strange though. My 300mm worked fine on my F5, but on the D100 did not even attempt to focus. And, as I say, today it worked fine on two other cameras.

I'm not getting down on Nikon, I'm a Nikonian from way back. But with my old eyes I have to have autofocus. And as one of our friends said, it's too much money not to have autofocus.

Group Idiot said:

Malcolm Needham said:

I feel certain that it is a problem with the D100. I also think
that Nikon is in denial and I urge everyone having autofocus
problems to keep the pressure on them. It might be firmware. They
might eventually issue a fix.

Click to expand...

Having owned both the 300/4 AF-S and 300/2.8 AF-S, (Yves owns the
older 300/4 AFD with no problems) I had never experienced a single
problem with either. Did you try to clean the contacts with alcohol
or an eraser?

Sounds odd.

Brendan
==========
Equipment list in profile -- where it BELONGS!

Click to expand...

Malcolm Needham said:

I feel certain that it is a problem with the D100.

Click to expand...

Malcolm

It must be that camera, I've had 3 different 300mm lenses on my D100 and they all worked just fine. Two were the 300/4 and one was the 300/2.8 and as I said all work perfect.

Regards
Terry

I think it's a combination of camera and lens because, as I say, it's my second D100 new out of the box that the 300mm did not autofocus. All my other lenses are OK.

Windancer said:

Malcolm Needham said:

I feel certain that it is a problem with the D100.

Click to expand...

Malcolm

It must be that camera, I've had 3 different 300mm lenses on my
D100 and they all worked just fine. Two were the 300/4 and one was
the 300/2.8 and as I said all work perfect.

Regards
Terry

Click to expand...

I just had another thought - you don't suppose it's a problem that has been introduced with the version 2.0 firmware? Both these D100 had 2.0

Malcolm Needham said:

Windancer said:

Malcolm Needham said:

I feel certain that it is a problem with the D100.

Click to expand...

Malcolm

It must be that camera, I've had 3 different 300mm lenses on my
D100 and they all worked just fine. Two were the 300/4 and one was
the 300/2.8 and as I said all work perfect.

Regards
Terry

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

I had the same problem with a 300mm f4 AFs.

I spent time on phone with Nikon trying to decide if it was a body or lens problem. I had 3 AFS lenses that would work with the D100 and one (the 300 f4) that wouldn't. I had 3 bodies that would work with the 300mm f4 and one (the D100) that wouldn't.

The thing that made it seem like the lens was that if I put it on an F100 body and "exercised" the lens by focusing between infinity and close for 10-15 cycles, and then put it on the D100 it would work for a short period of time (maybe 15 minutes) then it would stop again.

My guess is that Nikon just lubed the focus group
to reduce the amperage required to initiate movement in the motor. All I
know is that it works for now, and my other AFS lenses never gave me a
problem on that D100 body.

Bill

Malcolm Needham said:

I returned my D100 to Wolf. They did not have another one for me to
try so I took all my lenses and went to Showcase, a pro shop in
midtown Atlanta. They had one D100. Same problem, the 300mm did not
autofocus. They tried it on a film body, not sure which one, and
it autofocused OK. It worked fine on the Fuji S2 also. They called
Nikon from the shop and, after a long long wait on hold, were told
that it should work and to send the camera and lens to them.

After two D100s out of the box that did not work I bought the Fuji
S2. $500 more but all lenses work.

I feel certain that it is a problem with the D100. I also think
that Nikon is in denial and I urge everyone having autofocus
problems to keep the pressure on them. It might be firmware. They
might eventually issue a fix.

Click to expand...

I had same problem with old firmwear see my other post with details. I think it is a lens that requires a little more Umph!, and a body that doesn't have the power to give it (can't get motor started).

Maybe that's why the D100 battreies last so long, they really limit the current draw to them.

Bill

Malcolm Needham said:

Malcolm Needham said:

Windancer said:

Malcolm Needham said:

I feel certain that it is a problem with the D100.

Click to expand...

Malcolm

It must be that camera, I've had 3 different 300mm lenses on my
D100 and they all worked just fine. Two were the 300/4 and one was
the 300/2.8 and as I said all work perfect.

Regards
Terry

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

Thanks for the feedback Bill. I don't want to be the Lone Ranger here.

Bills nature photo said:

I spent time on phone with Nikon trying to decide if it was a body
or lens problem. I had 3 AFS lenses that would work with the D100
and one (the 300 f4) that wouldn't. I had 3 bodies that would
work with the 300mm f4 and one (the D100) that wouldn't.

The thing that made it seem like the lens was that if I put it on
an F100 body and "exercised" the lens by focusing between infinity
and close for 10-15 cycles, and then put it on the D100 it would
work for a short period of time (maybe 15 minutes) then it would
stop again.

My guess is that Nikon just lubed the focus group
to reduce the amperage required to initiate movement in the motor.
All I
know is that it works for now, and my other AFS lenses never gave me a
problem on that D100 body.

Bill

Malcolm Needham said:

I returned my D100 to Wolf. They did not have another one for me to
try so I took all my lenses and went to Showcase, a pro shop in
midtown Atlanta. They had one D100. Same problem, the 300mm did not
autofocus. They tried it on a film body, not sure which one, and
it autofocused OK. It worked fine on the Fuji S2 also. They called
Nikon from the shop and, after a long long wait on hold, were told
that it should work and to send the camera and lens to them.

After two D100s out of the box that did not work I bought the Fuji
S2. $500 more but all lenses work.

I feel certain that it is a problem with the D100. I also think
that Nikon is in denial and I urge everyone having autofocus
problems to keep the pressure on them. It might be firmware. They
might eventually issue a fix.

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

Malcolm Needham said:

I returned my D100 to Wolf. They did not have another one for me to
try so I took all my lenses and went to Showcase, a pro shop in
midtown Atlanta. They had one D100. Same problem, the 300mm did not
autofocus. They tried it on a film body, not sure which one, and
it autofocused OK. It worked fine on the Fuji S2 also. They called
Nikon from the shop and, after a long long wait on hold, were told
that it should work and to send the camera and lens to them.

After two D100s out of the box that did not work I bought the Fuji
S2. $500 more but all lenses work.

I feel certain that it is a problem with the D100. I also think
that Nikon is in denial and I urge everyone having autofocus
problems to keep the pressure on them. It might be firmware. They
might eventually issue a fix.

Click to expand...

that it's a similar problem to what we've been seeing with the Sigma 70-200 HSM that needs to be "rechipped" for the the D100. The D100 has something odd about its electrical system that requires a modified chip. The D1X and D1H don't seem to have the problem, but the D100 does.

Most likely not every 300mm f/4 has the exact same chip--that some were from a different production run or even made by a different manufacturer.

If you send the lens back to Nikon, they should be able to replace the chip easily enough, and test it on your camera to make certain that the electronics is compatible.
--
Karen

...but if you try sometimes, you just might find, you get what you need.

http://www.e-designarts.com
http://www.pbase.com/kecohen/

I had a similar problem with my 300 f4 AFS lens and the D100. You don't state your problem specifically here other than to say the lens won't autofocus. Here was/is my problem.

When activated, the lens will begin to autofocus. The lens behaves briefly as if it's hunting... racking back and forth. It will then rack all the way to either infinity or minimum focus and die. This behavior is not limited to low light, low contrast situations. I have seen it happen at noon, outdoors, on a sunny day. The problem occurs more frequently with the center AF spot than the others. The ONLY way to get the lens to work again is to turn the focus ring manually so the lens is no longer on min or infinity focus. You can then aim the lens at a subject and it will behave perfectly... for a while.

The lens works perfectly on my F100 body. All my other lenses work fine on my D100 body. Strange.

This happened with firmware 1.00. I recently sent my camera in for servicing (tune-up) and firmware upgrade. I noted the AF problem with the 300mm. The camera came back and the problem still exists with firmware 2.00, although it seems to happen much less frequently.

Malcolm Needham said:

I returned my D100 to Wolf. They did not have another one for me to
try so I took all my lenses and went to Showcase, a pro shop in
midtown Atlanta. They had one D100. Same problem, the 300mm did not
autofocus. They tried it on a film body, not sure which one, and
it autofocused OK. It worked fine on the Fuji S2 also. They called
Nikon from the shop and, after a long long wait on hold, were told
that it should work and to send the camera and lens to them.

After two D100s out of the box that did not work I bought the Fuji
S2. $500 more but all lenses work.

I feel certain that it is a problem with the D100. I also think
that Nikon is in denial and I urge everyone having autofocus
problems to keep the pressure on them. It might be firmware. They
might eventually issue a fix.

Click to expand...

Thanks Michael. Yes, I had accidentally started a new thread instead of continuing my old thread at:

http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1021&message=5448900

But my 300mm does not attempt to autofocus at all on the D100 It doesn't even move. My gut feeling is the same as Bill, above, who said "I think it is a lens that requires a little more Umph!, and a body that doesn't have the power to give it (can't get motor started)."

Anyway, apparently I have just been Fuji-ized. I don't feel like too much of a deserter since it is almost the same body as the D100. Tomorrow is my first day shooting it so I may have more feedback for the forum later.

I will miss the camcorder battery on the D100 but the folks at the camera shop were very pro Fuji. Of course they were making an extra 500 bucks

michaeladawson said:

When activated, the lens will begin to autofocus. The lens behaves
briefly as if it's hunting... racking back and forth. It will then
rack all the way to either infinity or minimum focus and die. This
behavior is not limited to low light, low contrast situations. I
have seen it happen at noon, outdoors, on a sunny day. The problem
occurs more frequently with the center AF spot than the others.
The ONLY way to get the lens to work again is to turn the focus
ring manually so the lens is no longer on min or infinity focus.
You can then aim the lens at a subject and it will behave
perfectly... for a while.

The lens works perfectly on my F100 body. All my other lenses work
fine on my D100 body. Strange.

This happened with firmware 1.00. I recently sent my camera in for
servicing (tune-up) and firmware upgrade. I noted the AF problem
with the 300mm. The camera came back and the problem still exists
with firmware 2.00, although it seems to happen much less
frequently.

Malcolm Needham said:

I returned my D100 to Wolf. They did not have another one for me to
try so I took all my lenses and went to Showcase, a pro shop in
midtown Atlanta. They had one D100. Same problem, the 300mm did not
autofocus. They tried it on a film body, not sure which one, and
it autofocused OK. It worked fine on the Fuji S2 also. They called
Nikon from the shop and, after a long long wait on hold, were told
that it should work and to send the camera and lens to them.

After two D100s out of the box that did not work I bought the Fuji
S2. $500 more but all lenses work.

I feel certain that it is a problem with the D100. I also think
that Nikon is in denial and I urge everyone having autofocus
problems to keep the pressure on them. It might be firmware. They
might eventually issue a fix.

Click to expand...

Click to expand...