This is an unusual "explanation". I have never heard of such a thing as this. Makes me wonder if he's 100% familiar with the need to manually set non-G lenses to minimum aperture? There is an option also to set Controls>Aperture>Aperture ring, as opposed to Controls>Aperture>Sub-Command Dial. If he has this ONE setting messed up, he will get an error that depends on how he has the lens aperture set AND the shutter speed in S-mode. If you set this to Aperture Ring, and shoot in Shutter or Program mode, the camera will FEE out whenever the aperture value selected on the lens aperture ring is NOT within the correct exposure range...but if you turn the ring to MINIMUM aperture, then the FEE error will be automatically rectified...and with the lens set to the a small f/stop that is NOT the minimum aperture value on the lens f/stop and the camera set to APERTURE RING control, an AF-D lens that's say, for a real example, set to f/11 in lowish light like my living room, will FEE out at speeds faster than say f/11 at 1/6 second at 400 ISO...so... it **is possible** to make the camera FEE out by having just this ONE, single control function set like, well, like a guy who grew up in the "sub-command dial" era AKA the NEW-fangled Nikon era...AND who shoots a lot in Program or Shutter Priority Auto, which creates an "intermittent FEE error" but ONLY with AF- or AF-D lenses set abocve minimum aperture, like say f/11 or f/5.6, but the shutter set too high for the light level... If the guy has not RTFM, or has no concept of how the older lenses with Aperture rings work on a PRO Nikon body, meaning one that has USER-controllable Aperture via EITHER the lens, OR the sub-command dial, he might actually be causing this "intermittent FEE" by his own unfamiliarity with a control choice that ONLY THE FLAGSHIP MODELS HAVE...this is NOT possible on anything except the D1,D2, and D3,D4 series bodies...so it might seem to a noob that this error is "intermittent", even though it's not intermittent, but just comes from using an exposure OUTSIDE of the light level and the settings...and with the camera set to SHutter priority, and the lens set to say, f/11, I need to be at 1/6 second,or slower, aimed at the bright wall or I get an FEE--because the lens is at f/11 and there's not enough light unless the speed is 1/6 second,or slower, at ISO 400. To a guy that uses a speed of say 1/250 or 1/500 second with the command set to APERTURE RING, and the aperture is small, the camera WILL FEE OUT until the aperture is opened, or the ISO jacked up, or the meter is otherwise within the right "range". If the user came to the D3s from Canon, which has NO ring on the lens, or from a lower-tier Nikon model, or from AF-S G-series lenses, and this ONE, simple control is set for an "old man like me", he could be causing this intermittent FEE by his own unfamiliarity with the way pre-AFSs lenses actually work ONLY on the flagship-level cameras. This custom control setting option is NOT AVAILABLE IN ANY FORM on the lower-tier Nikon bodies. If he's not intimately familiar with using AF or AF-D lenses ON THIS level of camera, and is used to the Gelded lenses covering his butt, his "intermittent error" could actually be him being confounded by a pretty simple Custom Setting being set up in a way that only an old-time Nikon shooter like me might want to use... I just check this out myself like 3 minutes ago. A younger person, somebody who really has no Nikon PRE-G, or "old-school control" experience, or who shoots a lot of Programmed or Shutter priority auto, or who has not re-set the camera to its Default state of Aperture being assigned to the sub-command dial, could easily,easily mistake his own ignorance and the system's design for an "intermittent malfunction". As KmH and sparky480 each surmised--this FEE error could be a user with bad equipment, but I think he might also be making a VERY common mistake that lower-level Nikon, or Canon, shooters could easily mistake for equipment error. Yes..AF- and AF-D lenses have basically no weather sealing, no gaskets, but they communicate with the 10-pin system, but the camera can be set up so that in P and S modes, the USER needs to have RTFM, or it will FEE because he's trying to shoot at a ridiculous f/stop at a ridiculous speed value for the light level. His comment that the FEE error is common with any Nikon seems to me to indicate might NOT be 100% familiar with how the Nikon system works in a flagship-level camera.
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