AFD lenses compared to AFS lenses as to repair ability and longevity?

[Gerhard2006]

So far I have two AFS lenses where the motors in them died and so the lens became manual focus only. I was thinking of buying a 300 F4 AFS lens, and I noticed in the process there are a lot of them on eBay parts only because the motors have gone. So I opted to get a 300 F4 AFD lens because being a screwdriver type system the motor is in the camera so they last forever. Are many of you finding that your old AFS lenses are dying depending upon use of course? In order to use these lenses I have kept both my D700/300 which both have below 25000 shutter actuations.

[Gone]

I buy up parts/broken/non functional lenses and repair them - often just swapping parts from a bad AF-S lense with working motor to a good lense with dud motor. Sometimes it is a problem with broken cables rather than the motor and sometimes it is just that the motor has seized - a simple fix removing the e clip on the motor head and cleaning the rotor.

The AF-D lenses are simpler but still suffer from electrics/electronics issues.

Finding individual parts for the older lenses can be a problem - on average I buy three lenses of a particular model to end up with 2 good ones.

[Gerhard2006]

Well, thanks so much for chiming in with your experience. This is good to know, especially when some of the older lenses are no longer made and parts are scarce.Regards Gerry

[Gone]

I should just add that the professional lenses tend to use a ring SWM motor rather than the more common small motor found in the cheaper lenses - the ring motors are buried deeper in the lense and are best left to professional repair shops with the necessary equipment to set up and align the lens after major disassembly.

[Gerhard2006]

Thank you this is useful information. In my case I only have the AFD 300 F4 lens and my AFS lens is a 70 to 300 4.5-5.6 lens which would probably be easier to replace than fix. I’m sure there’s others here that would benefit by this information because they own the professional lenses. Regards Gerry

[Chip Chipowski]

One thing to also consider is that the A-M ring on certain AFD lenses can be a failure point.  I think there should be posts on the details somewhere on this site

[Jakov Minić]

Dear Gerry,

I have repaired both types of lenses, but they were both prone to these malfunctions.
The A-M ring on the AF-D 85/1.4, and the AF motor on the AF-S 17-35/2.8.
All other AF-D and AF-S lenses that I own never suffered.

I hope this helps.

Regards, Jakov

[Birna Rørslett]

The A/M ring of several AF/AFD lenses is an infamously well known point of failure. I have had this behaviour on the AFD 85/1.4, 105/2 DC, 70-180 Micro, and AF 200/4 Micro-Nikkor.

[Erik Lund]

Generally speaking there is a little more electronics in the AF-S lenses compare to the AF / AF-D lenses.
Pro AFS lenses f/1.4 has almost all of them the small SWM motor and a gearbox, sort of OK quality.


The f/2.8 tele and pro zooms with ringmotors has quite a long lifespan but it is sort of a weakness to have the AF motor in the lens.


With the AF / AF-D lenses you can continue shooting with AF on another camera body,,,

[Gerhard2006]

I’m sorry I haven’t been able to answer your replies. I keep getting a database error message which prevents me from posting.