Dead Battery Issue with D200

[Jeff Lee]

Anyone following this report over on the D200 forum at dpr?

Funny thing is that today when I was stacking TC's, using an AFS lens (still set for af/M), I was able to replicate the problem. But the rest of the day of shooting and as soon as I changed to manual on the camera and lens ,no problem. (thats camera reports battery drained and you get several black frames).

If I had been using a system that I knew was "on the edge" this would have concerned me. But It also makes me think that this problem is related to lens and currents in the connection.

But I've got a year if it appears again, however do you know about the Dead Battery and blank frames issues on the D200?

 

[hkgharry]

do you know about the Dead Battery and blank frames issues on the D200?

I don't know if this is exactly the issue you are seeing, but there are quite a few posts on various forums about the Dead Battery issue. Some examples from the nikonians D200 and D80 forums:

http://www.nikonians.org/dcforum/DCForumID202/25006.html
http://www.nikonians.org/dcforum/DCForumID236/1843.html

There seem to be a number theories of potential causes including:
- the grip, tightening it may help
- lens/camera contacts, sometimes cleaning the contacts helps
- in at least one case someone fixed the problem with D200 by reverting back to an earlier firmware version (I think that was in a thread on dpreview.com)
- one thought is that it can be related to a lens somehow shorting out the camera battery (not the main ones which remained charged, but the other battery in the camera). I think this theory is related to this mostly happening with lens with internal motors
- and so on

A few more links if you're interested.

http://www.nikonians.org/dcforum/DCForumID202/24383.html
http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1021&message=21657906
http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/readflat.asp?forum=1021&thread=22362092&page=1

My D200 is a few weeks old; so far I haven't experienced this, but I'm trying to follow the issue so that if it does happen to me I'll have some ideas to try.

 

[Jeff Lee]

I'm pretty sure it must be something in the contacts. I mean I created an artificial weakness by combining a Nikon and Kenko with an AFS lens. And it was only at the point in time that I hadn't turned off AF because I didn't think it would matter at such a "low light" f stop.

Thanks for the listing. Since I Camera is one week old, I will also follow this.

 

[Anthony747]

My D200 is currently at Nikon Service in Mellvill, NY with this problem. This is the third time its been in and the last few months

My thread at DPR if interested: http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1021&message=23467842

Anthony

 

[Jeff Lee]

I identified my problem to be not turning off the AFS when I stacked my TC's. It was just as you describe, a few blank frames and the batteries showing drained very quickly. Happened with my second battery also. Today I turned off the lens and the camera (remember this is now an F8 lens and the AFS every now and then was trying to focus.

I could not repeat it today with everything turned off. Don't know if this issue is the same with every camera, but mine certianly was related to the AFS trying to focus and thus probably draining the internal battery.

I hope they find the issue with your camera. Keep us appraised on what you find out.

 

[GeoKost]

I identified my problem to be not turning off the AFS when I stacked my TC's. It was just as you describe, a few blank frames and the batteries showing drained very quickly. Happened with my second battery also. Today I turned off the lens and the camera (remember this is now an F8 lens and the AFS every now and then was trying to focus.

I could not repeat it today with everything turned off. Don't know if this issue is the same with every camera, but mine certianly was related to the AFS trying to focus and thus probably draining the internal battery.

I hope they find the issue with your camera. Keep us appraised on what you find out.

Jeff,

I don't quite follow you, a AFS lens does not have an on and off. The focus motor only works when you mash the AF/ON button or the half shutter release to focus with it. By what you are describing, if your lens was trying to focus without touching either one, there would be a connection problem.

I stand corrected.

 

[Jeff Lee]

I was half shutter releasing for quite long time (maybe 30 seconds) between shots.

 

[Anthony747]

I identified my problem to be not turning off the AFS when I stacked my TC's. It was just as you describe, a few blank frames and the batteries showing drained very quickly. Happened with my second battery also. Today I turned off the lens and the camera (remember this is now an F8 lens and the AFS every now and then was trying to focus.

I could not repeat it today with everything turned off. Don't know if this issue is the same with every camera, but mine certianly was related to the AFS trying to focus and thus probably draining the internal battery.

I hope they find the issue with your camera. Keep us appraised on what you find out.

I'll keep you posted as soon as I hear something.

Anthony