My D70s is rejecting certain lenses

[Ryan Piggott]

I have a Nikon D70s. When i got it used with a 50mm lens, it would not auto focus. All it would do is search, and search....and search. So we took it to Ritz camera and no one there had any idea what the heck was wrong... the camera is just picky. So i thought maybe it was just the lens, ill move on.
So i bought a new 55-200mm lens and it worked perfectly. I sold it a few minutes ago because I need a 18-55 instead, and don't have money for both right now.
Well the guy that bought it, had a Sigma 18-50mm to trade. However my camera rejected it. It would not auto focus as well, it would do the same scan but would fail to lock on to a focus. Manual focus works great.

What is the issue here :scratch:

Thanks
-Ryan

 

[Patrice]

Did you check the mount? Meaning are all the contacts clean, is the lens seating properly, have you set the lens to minimum aperture,... I've only had that do once on my d70 with a 50mm af-d lens. The solution was cleaning both the lens and the camera mount, especially the contacts. Also, my d70 does not focus as quickly in dim situations as my d200's, this is especially apparent with a slow lens. All of my auto focus lenses, whether afd or afs work on the d70 but all are nikkor glass.

Pat

 

[Ryan Piggott]

Hmm, i wish i had a lens that wouldn't auto focus to try these tips.
I'll be looking at a 18-55 soon, if it doesn't work ill try those things.
thanks

 

[Ryan Piggott]

Ding Ding Ding you are a winner!
It was the contacts as i found out today

I sold my 55-200 and got a 18-55 today, and i put it on and it was dark and wouldn't auto focus. so i took it off and put it back on and it was perfect in every way. Took it back off, put it back on and it was dark/no focus again.
I tried cleaning the contacts but that's not doing it, there must be a problem with the camera connecting with the lens else where.
But right now its working great.

 

[Garbz]

Clean the contacts how? Wipe them with a cloth leaving even more residue on them?

Quick engineering tip: Graphite is a great conductor. Grab a pencil and scribble on the contacts on both the camera and lens. Blow away any excess graphite dust.

 

[Ryan Piggott]

Actually i may of spoken too soon.
Once the camera is shooting like it should, after a while it will switch over to stubborn mode (dark viewfinder/images, no auto-focus). At that point i have to take the lens off and put it back on, hoping it will fix it. Usually i have to remove/attach the lens about 15-30 times. Yeah, its rediculous

We just took it to Ritz and once again they had no idea.

I'd like to try the graphite trick but im way too afraid to take the lens off, because it will take a good 30 tries to get it working again (unless the graphite worked its magic).

 

[Ryan Piggott]

update...

I have found that when i use alot of downward (towards camera body) it seems to up the odds of it working greatly.
But just now, i noticed that when i look through the view finder and focus on something, the view shakes up and down, now it seems like something is really messed up.

Edit: It does the focus shake when i have VR on, but every time i turn it off it stops.

 

[Derrel]

It's not a lens problem--it is a BATTERY problem. When there's no juice coming from the battery on a D70 or D70s, the viewfinder image will go dark. Check the battery contacts,and cross-check with a known-good battery. I suspect your battery contacts, or the battery itself is the problem.

 

[Ryan Piggott]

you got me all excited, the battery i was using was on its last bar, so i just swapped in my fully charged spare (cleaned contacts too), and it didn't change anything.

 

[Derrel]

Oooohhhh, that's not good news Ryan...it sounds like you've got a serious problem,and it's probably not the lens contacts. Dang!

 

[Ryan Piggott]

yeah, im really bummed!
i just bought this 18-55 today (used, off craigslist, it could be a part of the problem... who knows) and only got a few shots off before everything seemed to turn into a disaster.

If i had a job right now, i would say good bye to the d70 and get the d90 ive been wanting forever!
I'm supposed to be shooting a race this weekend too, but it looks like my camera will be at Nikon instead.

 

[Ryan Piggott]

I just discovered a possible important piece to the puzzle.
I noticed that the (i forget the name!) aperature hole that lets light through, will never open. It remains at a very small pin hole size at all times, no matter how i set the camera.
I can dismount the lens and manuall open up the hole all the way by sliding the spring loaded lever on the back.
So i looked at my aperature lever thingy (located at 9 o'clock when staring into camera head on) and it doesn't have a obvious bend to it, but it appears to be slightly bent in. When i release the shutter while looking in, it does move the arm. I can also change aperature all over the place awhile staring in the lens and release the shutter and the pinhole never gets larger.
so... Doesn't this mean that when the lens is mounted, that the aperature lever on the camera is bent/missing the lenses' lever?

 

[Ryan Piggott]

I FIXED IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I said screw it, went to the garage and grabbed a pair of pliers. I grabbed a hold of the lever and bent it up. It was the scariest thing EVER. I was waiting for a "SNAP".

anyways...... it works perfect now.

i'm so happy right now :mrgreen:

 

[Ryan Piggott]

I'll continue this thread for right now instead of starting a new one.

The only problem i am now having, is that when i switch to VR mode on my 18-55, the view through the viewfinder shakes and i can hear wobbling inside the lens. Turn VR off and no problems, therefore it doesn't bug me too much, but i'd rather having my lens working 100%.

 

[Garbz]

Wait you mean it's making shakes when there is none? VR will naturally shake a little if you do things like put the camera on the tripod. Are you saying that if you have your camera up to your eye handheld and half depress the button the viewfinder gets worse and not better?

For god's sake take the camera back under warranty before you break it trying to fix it.