Problem with a d200 focus

[Vitinho]

Hi folks

I own a D200 with a happy service until 4 weeks a go. The symptom is after a 20 minutes session under the sun (temperature around 32 celsius) the focus turn the focus ring to the minimum distance and stays the and not focusing. I switch off the camera for a couple of minutes and it started to work.

At first I thought it was My Sigma 100-300 F4, but today I decide to take both the Sigma and my 70-300 Vr, just in case. During the session today the problem reapered and I say to a friend of mine that my lens is gone and have to go to be serviced. When I changed the lens to the VR, the same thing happen and at the moment I'm pretty sure the D200 is the problem.

The camera is 5 years old, almost 180k shutter releases, the firmware was updated last year and it works fine when cooled. Does anyone had a similar problem and if yes, what was the resolution?

Many thanks

 

[Formatted]

Might be a battery issue, how charged was the battery?

 

[Vitinho]

Fully charged and this issue happened with the single battery and also with the power grip with 2 fully charged batteries. But you actually raised a good point. While I was shooting boats, I noticed once that the battery icon was blinking at least once. Could it be the battery pins on the camera that are having a electrical contact problem?

 

[Formatted]

Possibly, if in doubt. Send it to Nikon

 

[joealcantar]

What position do you have the focusing mode switch on (AF area mode selector Page 54 of the manual) ? Make sure it is on single focus area, if you have it on any of the other two modes it is looking for movement or you to focus on something else.
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Shoot well, Joe

 

[orb9220]

For me when I first started using the D200 and AF stopped working was accidentally knocking the C/S/M switch on front of camera. Which seems a common occurrence with many.

But the symptoms you are relaying indicates battery connection? Or a Thermal Expansion connection problem. Where as camera heats up a connection gap between connections is increasing to the point of no contact. First suspect is Battery connections and look at battery contacts for wear,indentations,flattening,etc... Then visually inspect contacts in camera battery compartment which is difficult.
Also inspect lens mount contacts and lens contacts.
.