I picked up my D200 a couple of days ago to take a couple of macro shots with my Nikkor 105mm lens (which is great by the way) and the auto-focus wasn't working at all and the f/stop was reading 0 and wouldn't change. I then tried my other lens (a 300mm Nikkor) and the same happened only this time the aperture was stuck on f6. The aperture didn't change when put in manual or shutter priority mode either.
After contacting the company I bought it from they said send it back for repairs. Just before packaging i decided to give it one last go and everything worked fine with the 105mm lens but the performance on the 300mm lens was a little irregular. Sometimes it would find focus fine, other times the focusing ring would twitch and not find focus and occasionally the aperture would stop working entirely.
Obviously something is wrong but I don't want to send it back to have them tell me nothing is wrong and be charged. Does anyone have any ideas what could be wrong?

you checked your focus switch to make sure it is not in between settings ? and your aperture rings are locked properly ?

I've tested the camera with the focus switch in all settings so that has been ruled out and the aperture rings are never used and are still locked in place. Thanks for the suggestions though.

dirty contacts, i had a non working af issues but only with non af-s lenses. but it sorted its self out. that was a year ago but i sent it in anyway for grips and a service and a cracked top screen cover, but that was 8 months ago.

If using the power grip (if you are using one) comes loose it can give you trouble. Also, how good are the batteries you have?
Lee

I've cleaned the contacts and that has made no difference. I'm not using a power grip and the batteries are the standard nikon ones that come with the camera. It's not even a year old and hasn't been heavily used so I can't imagine that they're coming to the end of their life yet.
I've been having a fiddle today and the 300mm lens is more temperamental than the 105mm.
I've also noticed occasionally the shutter doesn't want to fire.
Keep the suggestions coming please...

Anymore ideas?

I don't realy have an answer for you but if it were me I'd send the camera back pronto. There are probs there that I haven't encountered with mine in 2 years. The closest is the 70-200 VR wouldn't work once & when I removed it & then reapplied it to the body all was good. Hope you get a good result, for mine I'd go hell for leather to the seller.

Thanks K.P.K. - sending it back really does look like the only option though i'm not sure how i'll manage without it once it has gone.

I've had to send it back in the end. Sadly the repair time is approximated at 28 days dependant upon the availability of parts and I go away on holiday in 14 days so it seems I will be going without a camera

if you haven't send it out yet after cleaning all contact try to reset the camera to factory default and re-try again....

Sorry to hear about your D200 Have you given any thoughts on purchasing a less expensive back up camera for your trip? Maybe something like a D40X or similar? I have a small travel camera I take with me either as a back up or as a knock-around camera; a Lumix FZ-50. It is a surprisingly tough little camera and it has a fantastic lens. The images look rather crappy at ISO 400 and above (especially when cropping), but for about $500.00 it was not a bad deal.

With my D200 I had a problem a few times with the drive "screw" for the AF motor wouldn't engage. With the lens off, the little screw mechanism would stay recessed inside the lens mount instead of protruding like it should. When it would get stuck this way, it wouldn't AF with ANY lenses, even AF-S. It would strictly work as MF with metering. To fix it, I would take off the lens and rapidly press and release the lens release button. The AF drive screw would pop out into its proper position. I would remount the lens and all would be well until a couple thousand shots later, it would hang again. I don't know if you are having the same problem, but you are having the same symptoms.

Jamie Rigg wrote:
I've had to send it back in the end. Sadly the repair time is approximated at 28 days dependant upon the availability of parts and I go away on holiday in 14 days so it seems I will be going without a camera

Get a used D50 or D70s from ebay! I know, more money to spend but in the end you have a camera for your holiday and a backup for such situations.

panos.v wrote:
Get a used D50 or D70s from ebay! I know, more money to spend but in the end you have a camera for your holiday and a backup for such situations.
I was actually looking at getting a used Nikon F5 but i'm not too familiar with the film generation of camera's. If anyone has any advice about this then that would be very much appreciated!

I do believe the F5 is considered "King Of The Hill" around here You won't be disappointed.

F5 is the best, but if you don't want to spend that much get the F100. And the F80 is not bad either. Other options are the F4 and F90X but you start having some compatibility problems with G and VR lenses.