D7100: trouble with autofocus (1 Viewer)

I have a D7100 which I use with an almost 10-year-old AF-S Nikkor ED 300mm f.4D IF and a new (bought late last year with the camera) TC14EII. Up to couple of months ago, the combo worked flawlessly but lately the autofocus periodically locks up and the only way I'm able to get it functional again is to rock the focus back and forth manually a few times. This happens frequently enough so that it's a real nuisance, and has cost me a number of photographic opportunities. The naked lens continues to autofocus without a problem on the D7100.

Anyone else have this problem? I wonder if the age of the lens might be a factor? I'd sure hate to have to send the camera and/or lens back to Nikon for repair.

I had a similar problem with a D300 (just out of warranty, of course!) on multiple lenses with and without a 1.4 TC. It was a real pain when using the non-AF-S 80-400.

I dropped it into Nikon UK (luckily a fairly short drive from me). They had it for a coule of days and said they couldn't find any faults but they cleaned the camera contacts. No charge and it did the trick.

Bill

I had the exact same problem. After replacing the camera twice plus changing the 1:4tc I ended up getting the focus motor changed in the 300 lens. It still wouldn't work properly so I sent it off to Nikon for testing and they said there was nothing wrong with the lens. However it still wouldn't work intermittently.

I ended up trading in the 300 f4 and buying a brand new 300. It has worked fine since buying but I do hope it stays that way as only yesterday I tried focussing on a flying gull and it wouldnt change focus. However I think this might have been down to the settings I was using(well I hope so anyway). Time will tell.

I did ask Nikon if there was a known problem with the d7100/300f4/1:4tc combo and they said there wasn't.

So in short it was an expensive fix.

Regards Gerard.

Watts said:

I had a similar problem with a D300 (just out of warranty, of course!) on multiple lenses with and without a 1.4 TC. It was a real pain when using the non-AF-S 80-400.

I dropped it into Nikon UK (luckily a fairly short drive from me). They had it for a coule of days and said they couldn't find any faults but they cleaned the camera contacts. No charge and it did the trick.

Click to expand...

Thanks for that. In my case, it sounds like the TC14 contacts might be the source of the trouble. I'll plan to do a little googling and see if I can't find out how they're best cleaned.

squidge said:

I had the exact same problem. After replacing the camera twice plus changing the 1:4tc I ended up getting the focus motor changed in the 300 lens. It still wouldn't work properly so I sent it off to Nikon for testing and they said there was nothing wrong with the lens. However it still wouldn't work intermittently.

I ended up trading in the 300 f4 and buying a brand new 300. It has worked fine since buying but I do hope it stays that way as only yesterday I tried focussing on a flying gull and it wouldnt change focus. However I think this might have been down to the settings I was using(well I hope so anyway). Time will tell.

I did ask Nikon if there was a known problem with the d7100/300f4/1:4tc combo and they said there wasn't.

So in short it was an expensive fix.

Click to expand...

Wow, that's pretty grim. I'm surprised at your patience with Nikon; I'd be screaming mad if those had been my experiences with the company. Of course it's early days yet and maybe that's how things will eventually go down with my gear also. What a depressing thought!

fugl said:

Thanks for that. In my case, it sounds like the TC14 contacts might be the source of the trouble. I'll plan to do a little googling and see if I can't find out how they're best cleaned.

Click to expand...

yes, I think you have a contact problem,
they wear out with time, TC:s are a known point of failure,

perhaps a good time time to upgrade to the brand new TC14E III?

Vespobuteo said:

yes, I think you have a contact problem,
they wear out with time, TC:s are a known point of failure,

perhaps a good time time to upgrade to the brand new TC14E III?

Click to expand...

Thanks for the info. Very interesting. Unfortunately the III isn't compatible with my main wildlife lens (300mm f.4) so upgrading isn't an option. Mechanical wear shouldn't be the problem anyway. As I've said, I bought the II new a little over a year ago, and since then it can't have been on & off the camera more than a dozen times. And before the present troubles it had never even been detached from the lens which is the only one I've ever used it with.

Next step I guess is to contact the Nikon repair facility and see what it has to say.

hmmmm here we go again ,last year i sold my ageing d300s and a 2 year old d7000 to buy a all singing all dancing d7100 ,i had used my 300mm f4 plus either 1.4 t.c or 1.7tc on both cameras with super results for a couple of years so i thought the new body would help to progress me .
the first d7100 body lasted for around 3000 shutter counts or 4 weeks ,despite having lots of a/f issues it seemed to have settled till the whole menu system went tits up refusing to display shots and or menu or just bits of either ,took it back to retailer who checked it out agreed it was faulty and swopped it for another new body .

body number 2 lasted for 5 weeks and 4000 clicks when it displayed the same symptoms ,but on the last weekend of use i had a mega raptor shoot with 4 types of birds giving close shots. of 1,100+ shots taken i actually had 7 that achieved focus with either the bare lens or with either t.c ,the following day the menu system failed again to ,i returned it and got a full refund .sold the rest of my nikon gear in a spate and changed back to canon.no problems in the last 9 months .

i used to love my combo and still miss its versatility pre d7100 but my experience killed all confidence in things nikon .i must add three of us all bought the d7100 at the same time we all had the same lenses and t.c 's ,mines gone totally ,another one is completely happy with his and turns out cracking shots ,the other one is on his second body and that was returned to nikon with his lens for a re-tune as his retailer would not refund the money . he claims to be happy with it now but rarely takes a photo these days ??

fugl said:

Thanks for the info. Very interesting. Unfortunately the III isn't compatible with my main wildlife lens (300mm f.4) so upgrading isn't an option. Mechanical wear shouldn't be the problem anyway. As I've said, I bought the II new a little over a year ago, and since then it can't have been on & off the camera more than a dozen times. And before the present troubles it had never even been detached from the lens which is the only one I've ever used it with.

Next step I guess is to contact the Nikon repair facility and see what it has to say.

Click to expand...

OK, sounds strange,

What settings do you normally use?

AF-A, AF-S or AF-C?

a1. AF-C priority: release/focus
a2. AF-S priority: release/focus
a3. focus tracking with lock: long, normal, short

AF-Area Mode?

Are you happy with the results on D7100 when using TC14 + 300/4 AF-S?

Vespobuteo said:

OK, sounds strange,

What settings do you normally use?

AF-A, AF-S or AF-C?

a1. AF-C priority: release/focus
a2. AF-S priority: release/focus
a3. focus tracking with lock: long, normal, short

AF-Area Mode?

Are you happy with the results on D7100 when using TC14 + 300/4 AF-S?

Click to expand...

Thanks for your continued interest, much appreciated.

I invariably use AF-A, single-point AF.

Always a lot of discards in the sort of strolling about, handheld, wide-aperture, catch-as-catch-can wildlife photography I practice, but in general I've been very satisfied with the sharpness of the "keepers" and have never had any reason to suspect focusing error of any kind.

fugl said:

Thanks for your continued interest, much appreciated.

I invariably use AF-A, single-point AF.

Always a lot of discards in the sort of strolling about, handheld, wide-aperture, catch-as-catch-can wildlife photography I practice, but in general I've been very satisfied with the sharpness of the "keepers" and have never had any reason to suspect focusing error of any kind.

Click to expand...

I can recall similar behavior (very rare), when using full AF range on the lens, depending on the AF-settings.

(I had the 300/4 AF-S + TC14EII combo for many years, and used it with D50, D200, D700, D300s and D800)

AF will always be a tad slower/uncertain when TC is mounted, especially in low light.

Did you try NOT using AF-A mode?

I would manually set AF-C /AF-S for a while and see if the problem persists.

AF-A is quite a new feature, and I wouldn't trust it (it is not a feature in any of nikons pro cams).

Vespobuteo said:

Did you try NOT using AF-A mode?

I would manually set AF-C /AF-S for a while and see if the problem persists.

AF-A is quite a new feature, and I wouldn't trust it (it is not a feature in any of nikons pro cams).

Click to expand...

Thanks for the suggestion. If the problem recurs I'll give it a try.

But as it happens things appear to be working normally again. After using the D7100 with the bare 300 for several weeks (with no problems), I reattached the TC14EII yesterday and put the combo through its paces. Autofocus worked without a hitch as it did today when I took combo out again. So. . .. ??

Perhaps your TC14EII was overheated and needed to cool down a bit…




Contact or software problem, perhaps..
keep your contacts clean and softwares updated,

:t:

Contacts or Motor

Vespobuteo said:

yes, I think you have a contact problem,
they wear out with time, TC:s are a known point of failure,

perhaps a good time time to upgrade to the brand new TC14E III?

Click to expand...

I had the exact same problem, tried to clean contacts and eventually it stopped focussing entirely. Sent to Nikon and they charged me $550 to replace the contact rings on all 3 pieces. They never tested all 3 together. Problem occurred again, sent back to Nikon, they said all 3 were working within factory tolerances. They were told to test all 3 together, they did not.

Since sold the D7100 and purchased a d800 because I also do landscapes. Now the problem is very intermittent and seems to be fixed by spinning autofocus. Motor seems to be dying.

A friend of mine recently purchased a new 300 and uses a different 1.4 with his d5100. It is working very well. My guess, with the cost of the lens, the motor is probably not a high quality piece.

Looking at purchasing a used 200-400 or older 500 f4.