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has anyone ever had this problem on a nikon camera?!?!?!?!?!?


nate_mertz

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I personaly have not had this problem but have heard a little bit

about it. On Nikon cameras i know they use a mechanical lever that

stops down the lens instead of the electronic contacts. I was

wondering if this lever gets jammed. I have heard some people say

that it does and I would just like to hear of any real life situation

where this has happened. If so is there any way to fix it on location?

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Yes, it can happen. It has happened to me on an FE when the shutter was tripped while the DOF lever was depressed. In that case, releasing the DOF lever didn't get the camera unjammed, but cycling the shutter to M90 (the mechanical reset speed) cleared it.

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I have heard of this happening with tele-extenders and tubes, particularly third party units or any unit that is mechanicaly unsound (bent arms, abused linkages, etc.). Fortunately, the lens mount 'rotates into' the aperture linkage in such a way that the lens can simply be removed even if the aperture link is jammed. Usually removal of the lens removes the problem. In some instances the camera has to be reset (how to do this varies by camera).

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There are instances where a camera and lens are each out of tolerance enough that they won't work well together. If you're miles from anywhere and need to fix this yourself, you can compare the camera and the lens to 'known good' samples and try to gently bend one lever or the other to the correct position.

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All of the above is specifically about the aperture lever. There are other 'jam modes' for Nikon mounts that are different; one involves over-rotating the lens mount so that the lens' 'locking indentation' gets hung up on the bodies' post that engages the lens type signal notch. This can happen with lenses that don't have the proper 'stop screw' on the mount to prevent over-rotation; sometimes they fall out, sometimes they're poorly designed to begin with. This kind of a jam can sometimes be fixed by working a sewing needle between the mounts to depress the pin, but not always.

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The newer Nikons use an electrical contact system but with the mechanical

levered caeras and lenses I've never seen or heard of it happening. If it did I

image the solution would be to turn the camera off and rsimply removethe

lens, see if there is any damage, and if not just remount the lenses and start

again.<P>I've seen a couple of Nikons where the lever in the camera was just

worn down from extremely heavy use. The cameras belonged to a

commercial photographer who routinely would shoot anywhere from 100 to

500 36 exposure rolls per week to month long assignment . My roommate

assisted for the photographer and said it wasn't unusual for them to shoot 50

to 100 rolls in a day (using multiple cameras with different lenses) on a set

up.<P>And you think you have editing problems!

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About other kinds of jams: My F3 had the tab around the lens mount, that connects the aperture ring rotation to the meter, to jam in the minimum aperture position. Since this was the umpteenth problem of this particular body, I took the lens mount off to see if I could do anything about it. Seems the aperture tab is connected to the meter by a nylon string, so if it pulls out, but the internal spring no longer functions, there is no way to make the string go back into the body. (Ever try to push a rope?)

 

Several other F3 owners have posted here about having the same problem.

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I had this problem with electrical DOF buttons such as the F100. I have sent my F100 into Nikon (Torrance CA facility) twice for a problem where something in the camera gets stuck after hitting the DOF button, and also results in the message "Err" being display on the LCD display. The ONLY to get the camera "unstuck" is to hit the shutter release button once. This happens with most of my lenses but is most pronounced with the 85mm 1.4D. Being the problem is intermittent, I don't Nikon really knows what is causing this. Each time the camera comes back, the repair invoice says "loose solder fixed". Since this is still happening, I know that the fix is bullshit and I am about fed up with this problem. I just recently wrote to Nikon Customer Service to complain so I will see if they will do anything about this. I have heard of others report similar problems with other Nikon bodies so I am wondering if this problem is more common than Nikon is leading me to believe.
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I had similar problems with an F5, but turned out that the batteries were low. Once, after pressing the DOF button the apertre blades would not open up but would stay jammed to the value set by the camera. Removing the lens would solve the problem but then I got suspicious on the accus I was using at the time. Replacing them with normal batteries solved the problem.
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Gary, I too have had this problem on my F100. It doesn't seem to be isolated to any one lense. I doesn't happen all the time and I haven't been able to justify sending the camera back to Nikon because I can never seem to find a period of time when I think I could do without for a few weeks. If you get a reasonable answer and fix from Nikon I would love to hear about it.
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Hi Steve,

I just got a response from Nikon regarding my F100. Nikon is shipping me packing material and a shipping label to have the camera shipped to one of their "research centers". Nikon said that they will consider the replacement of my camera with a new one depending on what they find out. I expressed my aggravation and I think they are finally acknowledging it. On my F100, it too is very intermittent but if if this happens on a critical shot, it will be one too many. Besides, I would expect the camera to be free from any kind of defect, given it's price. Maybe I'm expecting too much but that is what I am demanding of Nikon. My email address is "gloo@pacbell.net" so feel free to email me seperately if you want to discuss this further or what I did to get Nikon to respond.

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