AF suddenly stopped working on my 80-200/2.8 AFS

<p>I was trying to use my 80-200/2.8 AFS on my D700 and found it won't autofocus. It worked a few minutes earlier but unexpectedly stopped and nothing seems to help by playing with it's switches or 3 AF lock buttons. My 300/4 AFS and other AF lenses seem fine on the body. Are the silent wave motors prone to sudden malfunction? It's been a while since I've used this lens but it's always been well cared for with no signs of hard use or abuse. Manual focus is still possible.</p>

<p>I also cleaned the lens and body contacts but no help.</p>

<p>My 80-200mm AF-S is a well used beast and has been known to lock-up on a friend's D700. One symptom was for nothing to happen when you pushed the shutter button...result, a missed pic. (NB. I was on shutter+focus). There was noticable wobble between the lens and camera throat, both longitudinal and rotational. The mount is very brassed and worn.<br />It seems the amount of pin 'displacement' was enough to confuse the system. I never found which pin it was but a clean and careful holding of the lens (The proper holding as it turned out!) worked for me. I was handholding oddly as the tripod mount was a bugger to remove and i kinda rotated the lens body to get comfy.<br />I've seen new lens mounts for sale for not so much...but I got a 70-200mm VRII in the meantime!</p>

<p>Late Addition.... Maybe try on someone elses body? Replacement of AF motor is horribly expensive.</p>

<p>Addition to what Mike says: careful holding of the lens. When you mount it, try holding it as secure to the camera as possible and see what happens. If holding it tightly against the mount cures the symptoms, then you likely have an electronic connection issue. If that doesn't work, the problem is elsewhere.</p>

<p>Do you have another body you couldtry it on? A friend's camera maybe? Or take it in to a local camera shop and see if they will let you try it on a demo body?</p>

<p>I spoke to Nikon Repair Service out of Chicago (APS). They said early versions of this lens (likely mine) don't work well with the D700 and prone to these issues. Later versions of the lens had some electronic modifications to fix the problem. They said I could send the lens for modification and adjustment for $350. Anyone able to confirm this from experience?</p>

I have the very first version of this lens, and when it got a bad case of sticky blades I sent it to APS.

They did charge me about as much as you were told, Alan, but the lens was back home in less than 10

days. They even bothered to cannibalize a nameplate for it (per my request, which was conditioned to

their finding the right piece). BTW, I use it almost exclusively on my D700, and before getting the sticky

blades there was never an issue with it.

 

In short, send your stuff to APS. They deliver!

<p>Just tried the lens on my F100 and the AF doesn't work on that too. Also, the serial # on the lens is well over halfway into the production range so I doubt the problem is as the APS tech mentioned. Hopefully the AF fix is reasonable and not over the $350 price mentioned. This is a bit of a letdown for me regarding Nikon quality on the longevity of their Silent Wave motors. </p>

<p>APS says I need a new motor, $450 to replace and put the lens in GWO. Bummer! I guess it's better to spend $450 than to live without AF on such a heavy beast or sell it for a big loss without AF function and buy a 70-200 VRII for over $2K. While I like the idea of VR, the added complexity with additional motors increases the chance of malfunction once the lens is out of warranty based on my experience with this lens.</p>