Very strange occurance with my D90...

[anm90]

So I was taking some photos down by the beach this evening, attempting to do some long exposures with my tripod. The camera was working fine for a while and then suddenly it decided to go haywire on me. The aperture would not go below f/36 on the info screens in camera and it would go all the way up to f/90 when I moved the dial around. The shutter speed appeared to be working normally, but I could not get a solid meter reading even when the camera was not moving at all and the scene was not changing either. I took this picture while it was freaking out and the "settings" were recorded in the metadata. I am very confused and somewhat concerned about what happened. Shortly after this happened and after restarting the camera several times, everything returned to normal and I continued to get a few more shots. After getting home, I looked at the camera and lens and could not see any visible condensation or anything of that sort. Could that have caused these kinds of issues?

Here is the photo, and the metadata that was recorded for it...

I was using the kit lens, 18-105mm, at around 18-35mm focal length (don't remember where I had it exactly but it wasn't very far away from the wide end).

Camera Maker: NIKON CORPORATION
Camera Model: NIKON D90
Image Date: 2010:03:06 21:17:56
Focal Length: 195.0mm (35mm equivalent: 292mm)
Aperture: f/36.0
Exposure Time: 3.000 s
ISO equiv: 200
Exposure Bias: none
Metering Mode: Matrix
Exposure: Manual
Exposure Mode: Manual
White Balance: Manual
Flash Fired: No
Color Space: sRGB

 

[Santa Gertrudis]

Was the lens loose maybe? Like not locked all the way in to the mount?

 

[anm90]

It could have been... I'm not entirely sure why though because I don't remember moving it. Maybe I bumped the release button on accident and the lens moved a tiny bit?

 

[Santa Gertrudis]

I was just thinking if the contacts weren't quite lined up properly, it might do some weird stuff. Just a thought.

 

[AnthonyS]

Very odd, I have had some odd things when my battery was very low. Nothing like that, hope it stop acting up

 

[KmH]

Just a thought.

Was the camera mounted on a tripod?

If so, did you have the VR turned off?

If not, the VR was moving inside the lens and your metering point was jumping all over the place.

VR has to be turned off when it's mounted on a tripod.

 

[BuS_RiDeR]

I agree with KmH...

Just a thought. Was the camera mounted on a tripod? If so, did you have the VR turned off?

If not, the VR was moving inside the lens and your metering point was jumping all over the place.

VR has to be turned off when it's mounted on a tripod.

But... perhaps you got sand in the camera? As far as I know the D90 is not completely weatherproof.

Isn't troubleshooting fun?

 

[anm90]

It was on a tripod, and VR was turned off. I did make sure of that.

As for the sand, I'm not sure how that would have happened... it was absolutely dead calm air and I didn't put the camera on the ground or anything.

Come to think of it, I've had another strange occurrence once before as well. This was during my photo walk the other day, actually. After taking the picture of the flower that I posted, I was reviewing images and walking and the camera made a sound like the mirror / shutter opened up and the aperture values went to F-- and wouldn't change. I could see through the viewfinder so the mirror wasn't locked up, and the other dials worked fine. I had to remove the lens and put it back on for it to work again. Was very odd.

 

[KmH]

Did you look in the back of your camera users manual to see what the error code F-- means?

 

[JimmyO]

Bad connectiong between lens and camea, either not completly attached, or something on the contacts

 

[TJ K]

Ya sounds like the contact problems maybe your lens or both.

 

[BuS_RiDeR]

I just suggested the sand as an option... Cause you said you were "near" a beach. But if you can eliminate that its good.

From what I see in the forum... sounds like the problem is between the camera and leans.

Good luck with the solution. Post it here when you figure it out. It would be interesting yo know... even though I am a Canon user.

 

[anm90]

Yep. It was a loose lens. I just reproduced the issue briefly. I must have bumped the lens release button without noticing it and the lens must have rotated on the mount just a tiny bit. The F-- error message indicates that a lens is not attached so that would make sense that when I reattached the lens it began to work properly again.

 

[KmH]

Bad connectiong between lens and camea, either not completly attached, or something on the contacts

Yes, I knew that when I made my post. :thumbup:

The point was to help Alex become familiar with where in the users manual such info is found, since there are other error codes.

 

[Sw1tchFX]

Did you re seat the lens?

I bet that was it. Sometimes i've gotten problems with aperture on my 80-200 since i dropped it.