Any chance someone can steer me towards a Nikon repair code "dictionary?" I know I've seen one, but can't seem to find it.
Just sent a 200-400 back to Melville. It was working "sporadically." Absolutely killer 75% of the time --- totally brain dead 25% of the time. (Wouldn't focus.) Sent it off to Nikon and -- judging from the repair slip -- they completely rebuilt this thing, but I'd like to know more about the assorted repair codes.
Contact brush is for zoom/focus. It tells the focus computer/camera where the focus/zoom is. FPC is : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flexible_electronics. But in most lenses nowadays its more like a PCB, but whatever.
Given your description of the problem, it sounds like something electronic was going intermittent. That is probably the worst type of problem to diagnose, total failure is much easier. Nikon may have figured it was better to replace the electronics in total than to do it pieces at a time and have you send it back repeatedly. It's also possible that whatever failed fried or shorted other things. The flexible printed circuit "board" (or any PCB for that matter) has many components that can fail. The usual course is to replace the entire board and if cost effective, have the board re-conditioned by a specialty shop. It's rare that these are cost effective to rebuild, most companies send the take outs for recycling.
In your case, bad contacts in the lens mount could push voltage into parts of the lens that shouldn't have voltage and thus the damage.
