Nikon D7200 Mirror Lockup Fault?

Looking for a bit of advice here, just getting around to trying to clean the sensor on my D7200. I know how things should and do work as I've cleaned my D800 sensor quite a few times but my D7200 seems to be faulty as it doesn't seem to work in anything like the way that it should!

 

 

First thing is the battery is fully charged, pressing the option to Lock the mirror up for cleaning and a loud click is audible but when you look inside the camera and yes the mirror has locked up but the sensor is hidden away behind the shutter and completely unreachable! I looked at this for a short time and then the mirror returned by itself giving a short glimpse of the elusive sensor. Has anyone else ever encountered anything like this before? Tried re-charging the battery to make sure it was absolutely charged to the brim and it only took a few minutes to confirm that the battery was as fully charged as any battery could be but it still wouldn't work properly. Second battery same issue, click to lockup the mirror, up it goes but shutter is still in front of the sensor. Also tried with standard mirror lockup setting and exactly the same situation. I've also reset the camera to factory settings pressing the ISO and Exposure compensation button until the top screen went blank, no difference.

 

 

I'm rather at a loss what to do here, no warranty left on the camera, it was bought grey market off of eBay and it did develop a different fault fairly soon after buying it in that the flash would only work in the auto mode and no other setting. Tried returning it at the time and it was allegedly returned to Hong Kong but came back months later with no increase whatsoever in the shutter count, so very unlikely that any servicing or checking was done on the camera. Seller not very helpful after that and didn't want to lose the camera for months again as I'd barely used it so didn't bother too much as I rarely use flash and tend to use the D800 more for any landscape type images and have been using the D7200 as a lighter weight walk around camera, for which purpose it has been very good until now that is. Beginning to think that this particular camera is a bit of a lemon! Might have to send it into Nikon UK for a once over but that is likely to be rather expensive and although there is a more local Nikon agent in Glasgow, my experience of them in the past was awful, so no way would I trust them with anything of mine again after they destroyed two lenses and washed their hands of the whole situation. Anybody know any other good UK based companies that work on Nikon cameras?

 

 

The dust spots are only visible with HDR type images, but there do seem to be rather a lot of them! They don't really seem to be visible on single exposures. I would obviously like to clean the sensor sooner rather than later to eliminate this issue but can't work out how to do that seemingly simple task if the camera won't let me actually see the sensor for longer than a split second!

Have you tried T mode (M mode,change advance mode to self timer and exposure time beyond 30 sec and a remote)? Either that or try to reinstall the latest firmware.

I don't tend to change firmware on any of my cameras but at this stage I'll give anything that I can do myself a chance and if that doesn't change anything I'll check out T mode too, thanks for the suggestions.

maybe it

doesnt work with batterie

but has to be connected to power via kind of loader or something

'Mirror lock-up' is a photographic mode to prevent vibration from the moving mirror, click 1-> mirror-up, wait till the vibrations are over, click 2-> shutter opens and close and mirror-down. On all my Nikons I had a sensor cleaning function (CCD cleaning) in the set-up menu, click 1-> mirror-up and shutter open, cleaning, click 2-> mirror down shutter close.

Only my D100 requires AC power to clean the mirror. All other Nikons I've had, and that is a lot, just needed a charged battery.

The camera is set to clean the sensor at start up and switch off, can't see how it would need to be plugged into the mains to get the mirror to lock up and the shutter retracted as it should be to do a proper cleaning though. Haven't had a chance to try to update the firmware as yet but will try that sometime this week and see if that unscrambles this rather confused camera!

On the D7200, there is the Mup setting from the bottom dial on the top left side of the camera, below the M A S P dial. That Mup setting is for locking up the mirror to prevent vibration from the mirror slap while taking a picture. That Mup setting does not open the shutter for sensor cleaning.

 

For sensor cleaning, in the SETUP MENU, there is the "Lock mirror up for cleaning" function. After you press on start, you need to press on the shutter release, and the mirror will move up as well as the shutter will open for cleaning.

 

Just want to clarify which mirror up function we are talking about here.

 

Incidentally, the D800 also has those two different types of mirror lock ups.

Edited January 14, 2018 by ShunCheung

Shun I've tried both methods and neither works on this camera, the mirror locks up but the shutter stays down blocking access to the sensor completely. As you say the D800 works in exactly the same way for cleaning the sensor via the Lock mirror up for cleaning function as does virtually every other Nikon DSLR that I can think of. I went to the menu first of all, had the cleaning swab and rocket blower waiting and ready only to see nothing at all but the shutter, half an hour of trying every possible combination of ways to get the mirror to lockup and I was still left looking at the shutter. It doesn't seem that anyone here has ever encountered this particular issue before, it isn't even as if the camera has had a lot of use it has a fairly low shutter count. The other strange thing is that the mirror won't stay locked up even set from the menu, it returns fairly soon, wonder if it could be some sort of shutter fault or software glitch?

PS I did take the camera settings off of mirror lockup on the M A S P dial too but it still made no difference in getting the shutter to keep out of the way when trying to use the Lock mirror up for cleaning function.

D7200 shutters can go wrong, as I discovered to my cost, but the camera delivers an error message in most cases.

 

I would have thought that detectors in the camera would have triggered an error message if the shutter didn't open for sensor cleaning, but that's just a guess. So it sounds like a software screw-up. In which case updating the firmware may help.... or not!

 

"...there is a more local Nikon agent in Glasgow, my experience of them in the past was awful.."

 

- Mine too! There's another Nikon authorised independent servicer in Staffordshire. Lehmann's. They have a good reputation.

Then there's the rather expensive Fixation in London.

 

Anyway, here's hoping that a firmware upgrade might sort the issue.

There must be a problem with your camera. I just tried mine and it works fine. If resetting doesn't help, it might be time for a service checkup.

Did you also try T mode (time exposure; first press opens the shutter, second press closes it)? Since the camera works when taking pictures, T mode should work. If you have a lockable wired remote, bulb is worth a try.

 

Does live view work? If so, that could be a last resort. I would start a video recording with a large memory card so I have enough time.

I'll work my way through all your suggestions this week when I get a chance and hopefully one of them will sort this out, if all else fails Lehmann's sound like a good option!

Well finally got some time to have another go at getting access to the sensor to clean it. Tried a firmware update, which made no difference whatsoever. As per heimbrandt above I then tried the last resort of using Live View and this time it worked, didn't need to set it to do a video recording just plain old Live View, which allowed me access to the sensor and thus to give it a proper clean. I had also called Lehmann's this morning too to enquire about sending it in to them for servicing and they hadn't heard of this kind of issue before either, which is pretty telling in itself that this is a very unusual fault. I might well send it into them at some future date for a proper check and service but will check the images out and see if they come out as clean as the sensor currently looks!

Once when I had the sensor on my DF cleaned at a good camera shop the owner knew about the protocol involved, but simply used T or B (can't recall which) as heimbrandt suggested. Worked a treat and quickly. Edited January 29, 2018 by Sandy Vongries

Once when I had the sensor on my DF cleaned at a good camera shop the owner knew about the protocol involved, but simply used T or B (can't recall which) as heimbrandt suggested. Worked a treat and quickly.

 

That would be T because if he used B he would have to either use a remote release or holding the shutter release the whole time he cleaned the sensor. Surprisingly to me that the D1x doesn't have the T function.