Does anybody have a 70-200 VR1 that rattles?

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theater_dad
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p.1 #1 · Does anybody have a 70-200 VR1 that rattles?

I'm just a hobbyist looking for some help. I have a 70-200 VR1 that I purchased on FM about 18-24 mos ago. It has one purpose in life and that is to shoot my daughters' musicals (and the occasional choir concert). After reviewing my most recent outing, I've come across a noise that I don't think was there before...but I can't be sure so I wanted to post here and see if anyone else recognizes the description.

The noise is a sort of muffled one. I can produce the noise with just the lens (i.e. no camera attached). If I hold the lens level and then rotate vertically 90 degrees (doesn't seem to matter whether it ends up pointing at the ceiling or the ground....just needs to be rotated) ..a little like a rattle or maybe something a little loose in the lens. Nothing violent, just a smooth rotation from horizontal to vertical. As the rotation gets close to vertical, I can hear a small rattle or shake from inside the lens. It's about as loud as the VR motors when they power up if the lens is attached to a camera. Then when I rotate it back to horizontal, the noise happens again.

What triggered this was that the most recent outing was with my brand spanking new D600. And I noticed that the focus seemed just a little off. So I cleaned the contacts and did some rudimentary focus testing last week (my first time so maybe I did it right, and maybe I didn't). Seemed to be ok. Shot a flyer laying on a table that was covered in text at f2.8 and the text both behind and in front of the intended focus point were nicely blurred. But I did notice the noise when I was switching between lenses.

Anyone else with a VR1,..can you hear anything when you rotate the lens up and down? It's not much, but definitely there and repeatable.

Thanks in advance.

-Richard

Jan 14, 2013 at 11:33 PM

Hardcore
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p.1 #2 · Does anybody have a 70-200 VR1 that rattles?

Did you disconnect the lens before the vr was disengaged? I have something happen on my VRII when I get too eager to disconnect my lens. Try mounting the lens. Turn on vr. Let it stop. Shut off camera and check again.

Jan 14, 2013 at 11:48 PM

Two23
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p.1 #3 · Does anybody have a 70-200 VR1 that rattles?

Mine does not rattle.

Kent in SD

Jan 15, 2013 at 04:14 AM

rodizzle33
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p.1 #4 · Does anybody have a 70-200 VR1 that rattles?

Mine was rattling when I had impact damage on it. After they fixed it the lens stop rattling. How is the focus consistency?

Jan 15, 2013 at 10:31 AM

Red G8R
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p.1 #5 · Does anybody have a 70-200 VR1 that rattles?

No rattling on mine.

Jan 15, 2013 at 03:05 PM

theater_dad
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p.1 #6 · Does anybody have a 70-200 VR1 that rattles?

Hardcore wrote:
Did you disconnect the lens before the vr was disengaged? I have something happen on my VRII when I get too eager to disconnect my lens. Try mounting the lens. Turn on vr. Let it stop. Shut off camera and check again.

I will try this tonight. Do you think it resets something in the VR system?

Two23 wrote:
Mine does not rattle.

Red G8R wrote:
No rattling on mine.

Thank you both for checking. Probably not a good indicator for me.

rodizzle33 wrote:
Mine was rattling when I had impact damage on it. After they fixed it the lens stop rattling. How is the focus consistency?

I'm not sure if I have focus consistency issues or not. Some of the pics I shot at the last musical were very strange. Like the kid in the focus spot being a little fuzzy, but the kid right next to them being tack sharp. It's what caused me to do the focus testing above....which led to the discovery of the lens noise. That plus there are lots of "reports" about the 39pt AF system being a little finicky in order to get tack sharp.....so yes, there seems to be some focus consistency but I'm not sure if it's the lens or maybe just my inability to correctly tune the AF system. I am curious if you had focus problems when yours was rattling (I take it that it rattled prior to the impact damage and subsequent repair?)

-Richard

Jan 15, 2013 at 04:23 PM

lxdesign
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p.1 #7 · Does anybody have a 70-200 VR1 that rattles?

mine doesn't rattle either ..... I had some focusing issues with mine in the first year... but I sent it into Nikon for service, and after that, it seemed to work well for me... I never had any rattling however.

Jan 15, 2013 at 04:29 PM

theater_dad
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p.1 #8 · Does anybody have a 70-200 VR1 that rattles?

Well, tried to reset the VR per the idea above. No luck. Still a slight noise when I rotate the lens. It's there even when I've got the camera powered on and VR engaged (harder to hear but still there). I think my VR motors (or whatever they are) are louder now too. Still seems to focus reasonably well though. Looks like it's probably a trip to the service center after this next show.

Anyone know how long Nikon Long Beach takes on turnaround (just average....I realize everyone's experience may be different depending on severity/complexity of service.)

-Richard

Jan 16, 2013 at 03:24 AM

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