problems with my D90 and the 100-400mm tamron

So.

I bought the tamron 100-400 mm Lense yesterday (second hand) for my D90, and today i noticed while testing it  i can't autofocus at 400mm, the camera simply doesn't focus at that range most of the times, some of the times it reaches focus and others it almost reaches but overall, it has a very erratic behaviour when it can achieve focus.

At 100mm, no problem, the camera+ lense works fine and snappy, at 200 mm same thing, +- at 300 mm the problems starts, the focus became slower and more erratic, until it reaches 400mm and literally nothing happens most of the times.

Yesterday i didn't brought my D90 with me when i went to the store, so they lend me a D70 to test the lenses (they were three lenses ) And all seemed fine, either at 400mm and at 100mm, the focus was snappy at long range (outside the store) and while abusing the minimum focus distance. (inside the store)

I put the 18-140mm back again in my D90 and all works fine.

Now I'm wondering what's happening.

Never ever again in my life will I ever use a third party lens on a Nikon DSLR.

I owned many Sigmas and Tamrons, and all of them had some AF issue with my Nikon bodies.

Nikon DSLRs seem to work best with Nikkors.

In what focus mode (phase or contrast or both), what kind of light conditions & what kind of target?

Kazmarov wrote:

In what focus mode (phase or contrast or both), what kind of light conditions & what kind of target?

Well, i don't know how to see that (phase or contrast) both i guess.

Yesterday, around 18:30 PM/ 19:00 PM (with the d70)

Today, around 15:00 PM . with harsh light

Targets:

the wall clock , buildings at many type of distances, doors nobs and that type of things

The Tamron uses electronic aperture control.  Like E Nikkors, it’s listed as incompatible with the D90.

My suggestion is that you borrow or rent a compatible body as see if the problem persists.  If it fails, then return the lens if possible or have it repaired if not.  If it works on the other camera, then either sell the lens or switch to a more modern camera body.

Michael Benveniste wrote:

The Tamron uses electronic aperture control. Like E Nikkors, it’s listed as incompatible with the D90.

My suggestion is that you borrow or rent a compatible body as see if the problem persists. If it fails, then return the lens if possible or have it repaired if not. If it works on the other camera, then either sell the lens or switch to a more modern camera body.

I saw the compatibility chart before and i think it was compatible, i say think because i saw so many lenses i can't say for sure now.

But it worked in a D70 just fine.

OK - that sounds reasonable enough. That leaves, in my mind the following options:

- incompatibility with the D90 (Tamron do not list the D90 as compatible - as Michael says)

- at the long end the Tamron & Sigma gets to f/6.3 very quickly & the focus system cannot operate reliably

- firmware not up-to-date (on the Tamron) but I doubt if that would be the issue because of (1)

Generally phase detect is the focus system used when in OVF, contrast in LV in the old currency - newer cameras have various hybrid deployments.

I went to the store; the guy mounted the Lense on a D600 and it worked, next, he mounted the Lense on my D90 and it worked at all the ranges.

I need to run more test. Could be simple user error.

I only use OVF now, i don't use live view, the days of "live few" are long passed like my point and shooters

That's hopeful - would suggest that you clean the contacts on the d90 & the lens with Pec tissues or similar non-lint material - if you have deoxit or other electrical contact cleaner just one drop on the tissue should be fine for the cleaning.

I haven't taken my setup out to the field yet, i'm still testing it and so far it works and it's been consistent.

Despite being old my D90 mount doesn't have any particular slack in the mount, it's still tight but to play for safe i did exactly that i asked them to clean the contacts.

at first i wonder if was not because of the micro tunning in the Lense hub. a recipe for disaster if you ask me.

then i saw similar problems in forums where the advice was mounting the Lense several times helped to settle down.

I do remember seeing a chart with tamron lenses where D90 was compatible with no restrictions but i saw so many lenses in a +- two-month period that i can't remember which one it was.

AF isn't crazy fast but that, so far, i thinks, it's because a old DSLR, being indoors and dirty windows.

But i'm happy, thank you all. I don't want to jump myself before the time but i think the problem has been solved

lomoapontaechuta wrote:

I haven't taken my setup out to the field yet, i'm still testing it and so far it works and it's been consistent...

AF isn't crazy fast but that, so far, i thinks, it's because a old DSLR, being indoors and dirty windows.

I remember that whenI went from D90 to D7100, I was surprised how well AF worked on D7100 in dim places.

Consumer zooms get dark when zoomed to the longest FL, so D90 may struggle in poorly lit environments, without very contrasty target to focus on.

For D90, unless you really need 400mm, the older Nikon 70-300mm AF-S would focus quicker and more reliably than any aftermarket zoom.

m1964 wrote:

lomoapontaechuta wrote:

I haven't taken my setup out to the field yet, i'm still testing it and so far it works and it's been consistent...

AF isn't crazy fast but that, so far, i thinks, it's because a old DSLR, being indoors and dirty windows.

I remember that whenI went from D90 to D7100, I was surprised how well AF worked on D7100 in dim places.

Consumer zooms get dark when zoomed to the longest FL, so D90 may struggle in poorly lit environments, without very contrasty target to focus on.

For D90, unless you really need 400mm, the older Nikon 70-300mm AF-S would focus quicker and more reliably than any aftermarket zoom.

I always shoot long, i started with a superzoom 24-720 mm, now i do have a 150mm to 600 mm with an APC-s sensor instead of a 1/2"3 sensor.

I'm well familiarized with the restrictions of such setup. This particular lense is meant for hiking/outdoors between the golden hours.

Initially i planned to buy before my vacations but i did good waiting for it.

18-140mm it's a great lense but...but what i missed the most was longer ranges and a wide Lense ( i wasn't expecting that). Often i traded with my father, Pentax with a 70-300 mm and still... it wasn't quite there.

i returned from my vacations with almost a full card ... the plane hasn't land yet and all i could think about was all those shots that i missed (near misses and misses).

Two things i'm sure of.

1 - i will return to that place

2 - next time i will go much better prepared

the buying was easy. The vacations gave me certainty, i bought what i needed it not what i wanted

I like very much the 18-140mm lense, but for me it works best in a place where i already shot several times, which was not the case.

Regarding the D90....

I simply don't know.

the logic dictates that i would upgrade to a D7xxx but this camera simply slapped my mirrorless preconceptions out of me. At first i dismissed it but now i love it.

Let's see.

I am thinking buying a second body to avoid changing lenses in the field and to improve my changes of catching something quicker.

I have the D90/Tamron 100-400 combination and it works fine.