wchen Posted October 13, 2022 Share Posted October 13, 2022 About three weeks ago I found that my 500 PF would pull the right side (close to the grip) of the mount of my D850 slightly forward, and the mount would make some grumpy noise. I left the heavy lens mounted when not in use and in transfer, so I thought I might have damaged the mount. Therefore, I was thinking about sending the camera to Nikon to see if anything got loose inside. Today I looked at the camera carefully, and there was a small hole above the mount: there should have a screw, but it was gone. The screw at the left was also very loose and ready to drop off. I tried to get a body screw from my now rarely used D7200, but they are different from that particular one used on D850. So, I finally removed one at the bottom of D850 to fill the hole above the mount as a temporary solution. Hopefully none of you have "screwed up" like this, and you might want to check those two screws if you mount a heavy lens often. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mike_halliwell Posted October 14, 2022 Share Posted October 14, 2022 (edited) You gotta wonder how they can ever loosen or fall out, given they're always 'clamped' between the back of the lens or a body cap and the body ring. I'd put the 'borrowed' one back in the hole you found it and contact Nikon. You shouldn't need to send it in. Maybe send a piccy so they know which one is gone. The issue, as such, is not the diameter and pitch of the screw, but the effective length. Some may be longer than others and swapping them may mean a longer one is driven into a 'short' hole and hitting something important inside when tightened. If you can find an 'exploded' diagram, it should differentiate between them. A while ago, I changed the body ring on my D3S and, from what I remember (!), they were all the same length, but to assume yours are would be risky. 😱 There will also be the issue of tightening up the old and new screws. They may look like Philips Head or Pozi Drive, but they are in-fact JIS (Japanese Industry Standard) fit. It's always been annoying that JIS is rare enough that decent small screwdrivers are expensive. JIS are less 'pointy' than Philips, so a fudgy mod is to grind the tip off a cheaper Philips driver so it doesn't bottom the JIS socket.... and only engages in the cross slots. Just checked mine, all nice and firm....🙂 PS. Have you checked in the bottom recesses of your camera bag for the 'lost' screw? Edited October 14, 2022 by mike_halliwell Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CvhKaar Posted October 14, 2022 Share Posted October 14, 2022 Sadly i cannot find a D*50 service manual right now, but here's a D810 version. CHances are that these type of screw's are used in various D8* camera's for the same function are equal among the D8* camera's. In this service manual you can find out if the exchanged screw's have the same type, so that you can judge if you can exchange them without causing other problems. i find it strang that the mount starts "moving" because of 1 screw, while it is fixed with 5 of them, but if i see some people carrying their camera with a heavy lens mounted, by the strap or the camera body itself, i do understand that some of them might come loose or worse.. Anyway here is the D810 service manual parts list.. : Product Details | Nikon D810 Parts List | Nikon | Service Manuals | Learn Camera Repair Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ilkka_nissila Posted October 14, 2022 Share Posted October 14, 2022 It's probably a good idea to have a service center take a look at it as they can check that the mount is correctly aligned and there may be some root cause for the screw failure. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mike_halliwell Posted October 14, 2022 Share Posted October 14, 2022 Looks like the 6 o'clock screw is different from the other 4. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mike_halliwell Posted October 14, 2022 Share Posted October 14, 2022 2 hours ago, c.p.m._van_het_kaar said: i find it strange that the mount starts "moving" because of 1 screw, while it is fixed with 5 of them One missing and one very loose! Humm...I guess a 600mm f4 hanging off that might make it sag a bit...😱 I came across an interesting issue with the D750 v D850. Apparently the D750 isn't metal around the body mount and flexes, which results in the screws loosening. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CvhKaar Posted October 14, 2022 Share Posted October 14, 2022 12 minutes ago, mike_halliwell said: One missing and one very loose! Humm...I guess a 600mm f4 hanging off that might make it sag a bit...😱 True, hence my remark that possibly a camera is not the iseal tool to carry big heavy lenses , but rather the other way around.. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mike_halliwell Posted October 14, 2022 Share Posted October 14, 2022 I was always surprised there are no strap loops on the 200-500mm, 500mm PF, 400mm 4.5 Z or 100-400mm Z... although I guess lens weight v focal length has moved on from the monsters of the past! Think of the long teles with the AF-I mount, well over 6KGs! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CvhKaar Posted October 14, 2022 Share Posted October 14, 2022 Indeed, but also there is a reason why larger lenses have their own support to mout them on mono- or tripods, and i guess Nikon and other camera makers think that peole who buy those expensive products are not stupid..🤪 .. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mike_halliwell Posted October 14, 2022 Share Posted October 14, 2022 These would be the same Nikon people that disabled the use of any long fast teles on the Nikon 1 Series mirrorless cameras? ..despite the FT1 having a 1/4 x 20 tripod socket as well as the long tele having a tripod foot? But they do allow the 300 and 500mm PF! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wchen Posted October 17, 2022 Author Share Posted October 17, 2022 Out of town for a few days and not able to response to the post. Thank everyone for helpful information and discussion. Sorry I didn't make it clear that the two screws that got lost and loosen were the ones ABOVE the mount; the screws on the mount are all tight and shiny. Please see the picture below (picture from BHphoto; trimmed and marked by me). I guess there is a space between the mount assembly and the front plate, and the two screws prevent the assembly from tilting forward with weight, hence the movement when they were gone. They could get loosen overtime with heavy lens mounted (tiny vibration etc). See also Fig 14 and Fig 15 on Page 16 on the manual c.p.m._van_het_kaar linked above. Apparently, there are many types of screws used. I made sure the one I removed from the bottom looked exactly the same as the one left above the mount. It is one about 6mm x 1-1.5mm (NOT exact measures) with fine pitch. I used a Wera ESD PH 0 driver and it fitted. I checked my bag for the screw after the reminding of mike_halliwell but not luck. The camera works without any issue so I will see how things go. I typically leave the lens on the camera during transportation (don't like to mount and unmount the lens in the field). I am a handholding guy, but in the field, I would carry the camera by reversing the setup, so the lens would rest on my arm, or grabbing the setup by the lens, thus not put too much weight on the mount. The bad: after about 6 years doing these with relatively heavy lens (first with a AFS 300mm f4 with TC-14II and then 500 PF), some of the tendons of my arms got damaged, and would hurt with certain hand activities. The good: I became careful, and the tendons are slowly recovering. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wchen Posted October 17, 2022 Author Share Posted October 17, 2022 The picture ... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mike_halliwell Posted October 17, 2022 Share Posted October 17, 2022 Oh, those! The length of those is pretty important as if they go too far there's plenty to damage! 🙂 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wchen Posted October 17, 2022 Author Share Posted October 17, 2022 @mike_halliwellRight. Fortunately, I had one left so I could compare. The two screws are the same as shown on Fig 15 on D810 repair manual. Now I need to find a new one for the one I borrowed. Tough task. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mike_halliwell Posted October 17, 2022 Share Posted October 17, 2022 I'm guessing they pull the plastic/polycarbonate body tight onto the metal chassis? If you measure the outer diameter of the good screw in mms, it should give you the metric size in M. So, if it's 1.6mm the bolt size is M1.6. You know the length. Something like these. https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/114590498679?hash=item1aae203f77:g:fKIAAOSw6DBf4wSn&amdata=enc%3AAQAHAAAA4EGoHG7BHrQ0zBGNlBvP5IzESqV1OEOvDRYxOihk054NHsbEDgaMlFcFo%2FwYuKXRU5lq%2Fz5yFU2mwaq6IelXDvI9jjl7e0HktbzItV3Vh9zfmZfWjmZ76rJJ3HcyJQ%2FDHewyeR7SHLf%2Bgpd0fvPtGL99M%2FYBhj%2Fd9mkXLOmmxSO59q8ENKAm2okxzigOC9MAkc2%2B%2BfPfFxK3izGEmXzGAn0ABGk%2B2aiIYDtAuPoqTrT0O92qusRCitK071RGBzW2IJysKnx1kCL01KxEZVCymW2At%2B9OkMEBvqdrebfJQD5P|tkp%3ABFBMnpvY8vxg Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wchen Posted October 17, 2022 Author Share Posted October 17, 2022 @mike_halliwellThank you very much! Will do. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mike_halliwell Posted November 14, 2022 Share Posted November 14, 2022 Any progress with the tiny screws? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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