Update: 70-200 vr FINALLY back from melville

Mine fell victim to the sticky zoom ring syndrome. It just got way to sticky to be usable. My understanding is that many have had the problem, I just hope they don't try to play the "spill" game with me - I have NEVER drank anything but water with any lens/cam combo around my neck.

We'll see!

 

Well, it's been a long nearly two month, very impatient wait, but my lens finally came back from melville today. All seems just fine, but it was a frustrating 2 months.

I have an issue or two to sort out still, but on the advice of a friend I let a camera store for whom he knows the owner well send the lens in on his advice. I didn't do my homework, because I had to get the lens ready on short notice, so I packed it with the box, lens bag and hood, none of which came back, but I have to figure out if the camera store held it and forgot, or if Nikon kept it all.

I learned a lot of lessons, some of which are unclear to the outcome, but things will be different in the future.

I'm just glad my baby's back!

 

Thanks Dave.

My experience was that I lost all control over the process by using a second party. For starters, there was a 13 business day lag between the time the lens left my hands, and the when Nikon logged it into thier system. I have no idea where the lag was, because I had no tracking info, nor did I know when it actually got sent. Then as things went from slow at nikon to stand-still, the intermediate "turned over" the nikon tracking info, and I was able to track it AND call to see why it was on parts hold... interestingly enough, less than 24 hours after I made that call, it was being repaired... was Nikon playing a squeeky wheel shell game? Probably, but a small chance not. I got a call two days after the initial call saying the repair was done and it was going into quality control. Two days later it was on the way to the middle man, and I STILL had to pay for shipping from him to me. Small price, and I did get the lens the very next day (today).

It's more than just the hood - I did find an obsucre vendor today that seemed to have them in stock and ordered another one - even if I do eventually get the original back, I need one asap, because all of us that have the lens know it's proned to flare. But I'm still missing the original box, the nylon case and did not get back my warranty slip (Nikon may keep that?) and do not have a copy of Nikon's work order, which I definately want. The biggest issue of all is done though... I can now mount it on my bodies again...yay!

I'm hoping the middle man did take the box apart and send just the lens, that is still to be seen and may take a while, because the owner is here in miami dealing with a very serious family health issue.

The lens: it's better than new! The zoom ring is so soft now, I can move it with a single finger, which is what I want in any zoom anyhow. So nice to make a subtle adjustment with the small tweak of one finger.

It will likely be at least 3 weeks before you see any images with this baby, I'm way behind in my PP work. I'm SO happy now, this is quite easily one of the very best lenses in Nikon's arsenal, and I'm so proud to own it.... SHARP baby! SHARP!

 

I hear ya dave! I'll get on it monday first thing. I don't want to be TOO overbearing with the intermediate though, because of the owner's situation. But I agree, they must be found.