Last night I shot two volleyball matches with my D700 + 80-200 f/2.8. I was shooting manual exposure at 1/500, f/3.5, and ISO 8,000 at 5 FPS and using the shutter release button for focusing. These settings are typical of what I normally use. For whatever reason the shutter would frequently not release. I guesstimate that this happened about 1/3 of the time when I tried to release the shutter. Ouch! I have never experienced this problem before. I changed the AF-C priority selection from "Release + focus" to "Release" but it didn't help. For focusing I also tried switching the AF activation setting from "Shutter/AF-ON" to "AF-ON only" in order to pre-focus on the net area. That didn't help either. Since buying the 80-200 f/2.8 in November 2010 I have used this body/lens combination to shoot many volleyball games in several different local gyms without ever encountering this issue. At least two of the other gyms have much worse lighting systems than the one in which I was operating last night. The D700 is a little over three years old. The shutter actuation count was 84,000+ when I last checked it two months ago.

I'm scratching my head trying to figure out what might be the cause of this problem. I'm curious to know if anybody else has encountered this issue and if so what the solution was.

Bob

Bob -

I had a similar problem with my 70-200 and D700. It turned out to be the electrical connection between the lens and the body. Try cleaning the contacts with rubbing alcohol. In my case that didn't help, buy since it only happened with my 70-200 I ended up sending the lens in and Nikon refurbished it and all is well again.

Dean

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Dean,

Thanks for the prompt feedback. With discussions about the D800 monopolizing this forum I didn't know whether I'd ever get a response!

I'll look into the electrical contact issue in hopes that I can solve this problem without having to take it to my nearest authorized Nikon repair facility which is 90 miles away.

Bob

I had a similar problem nearly a year ago. Turned out to be the S,C.M switch at the side of the lens had been caught and was between positions. Clicking it back on to C (which is where I normally leave it) and no more problems.

I hope it is that simple on your D700.

Keith, a UK Railway Photographer

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Keith,

Thanks for your reply.

Before I received your message I happened on to a similar setting on my D700 which may explain why I was having shutter release problems. I was setting up my D700 to shoot a rugby game today and noticed that the focus-mode selector on the front of the camera was set to the S position. I don't recall changing this switch after the volleyball games, so it appears likely that I shot the volleyball action with this switch set to S rather than to C where it should have been set to provide continuous focusing for moving subjects. Ugh! I always have the AF-S priority selection set to "Focus" rather than to "Release." This serves to explain why the shutter would sometimes not release when I was photographing the volleyball action. After shooting numerous sports events for the last four years I can't explain how I could overlook setting the focus-mode selector to C. Some things defy explanation! Now I know one of the things to definitely check if I ever encounter shutter release problems in the future!

In shooting the rugby game today I didn't have any shutter release issues with the focus-mode selector set to C. Problem solved--I hope!

Bob

Bob -- When I have had an occasional problem with either of my D700 cameras, I have called Nikon USA (see their web site for phone numbers) and they have always helped me work the issue out. They are there a lot of every day and night, and there are not a lot of things they have not see, especially on our 3-year-old cameras.

Alan
Waterloo, IL, USA
www.proimagingmidamerica.com

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Good to see that the problem has been resolved Bob.

My heart sank when it happened to me but it was sheer fluke that I spotted the switch in mid position. Hence I was up and running again in 30 minutes.

Cheers
Keith

Keith, a UK Railway Photographer

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