Suggestions needed with D850 that randomly freezes

[Me.Too]

But it worked ok, never had any problems with it, that's what I don't understand.
I thought they were implying that the AF-M lever was the cause.

[Erik Lund]

Many parts can have a contributing factor to an issue arising, especially when it happens unpredictably,,,

[MFloyd]

May be the release of the C 1.03 firmware provides a solution :

https://downloadcenter.nikonimglib.com/en/download/fw/311.html

[elsid]

I have just posted on another thread (D850 AF issue) the solution that Nikon applied to my camera. This is good news to all users encountering this problem.

[Me.Too]

Camera just returned from Nikon, will venture to the local MX track this weekend and give it a good workout and return with results.

[Luke Miller]

Will install tonight and give a powerfull check the next 7 days - if it turns out to be the problem solver - that is so great news - I will put my cash aside for another one. The freeze issue was making me add a D810 to my arsenal. ...
Will also comment on how it turns out. Regards from Germany! Sören

Sören

How is the new firmware working for you?  I have not experienced the freeze since I installed it, but have not yet taken a lot of images.

[Sören Hese]

This firmware update fixes the freeze issue for me with the D850 - did 3000 shots for a freestyle surfing event in Denmark and another sailing regatta racing event with another 1500 shots with exactly the same setup and 850-settings  - not a single freeze or hickup. They fixed it! Very cool!!!

So happy that this problem is history now. Unfortunately NPS always told me that they have no information about this problem and now Nikon Japan issues a firmware fix for an "unknown" problem. The national NPS offices do not seem to get much info about what Nikon is working on. This was very very badly managed - we all could have saved us a lot of work and testing if only Nikon would have informed every one ala "we are working on it!".
I updated some comments about this here:
http://soerenhese.de/?p=8409
and here:
http://soerenhese.de/?p=7167

Regards to all from Berlin and thxs for the help and comments!
Sören

[Me.Too]

Thanks for the update Sören.

My update.

Went out Saturday for a couple of hours to local MX park, no problems.

Monday, decided to go and see if we can get a shot the of the Short Eared Owl  that has been reported, set up my camera with 300mm f/2.8(VRII)  +TC 1.4, switch on, no focus, frozen!!, big sigh, remove TC, all works well, maybe it's my TC so swap for wife's TC, nope still no joy, put my TC back on push buttons and eventually it comes back to life, performs fine for rest of the day.
I will be off on holidays soon, so it will be given thorough testing, if it happens again I will return it as "unfit for purpose", hopefully it was just a one off.

With  regards your comment about Nikon support Sören, you are right, I had to do all the chasing when they had my Camera, also I made available to them the photo evidence that I put here in this thread,  my web logs show they never looked/checked it out,  the online form that you print out for repair has a Maximum 255 characters!! and no possibility to upload photographic evidence of your problem,  I am not impressed with Nikon support, hope I never have to use it again, 6 weeks without my D850.

Regards,

 Alan.

[Luke Miller]

Monday, decided to go and see if we can get a shot the of the Short Eared Owl  that has been reported, set up my camera with 300mm f/2.8(VRII)  +TC 1.4, switch on, no focus, frozen!!, big sigh, remove TC, all works well, maybe it's my TC so swap for wife's TC, nope still no joy, put my TC back on push buttons and eventually it comes back to life, performs fine for rest of the day.
I will be off on holidays soon, so it will be given thorough testing, if it happens again I will return it as "unfit for purpose", hopefully it was just a one off.

This kind of issue is occasionally reported when TCs are involved  (and sometimes when no TC is used).  When a TC is mounted between the body and lens - four sets of electrical contacts are involved.  And most likely there is some slight rotational play between the lens and TC and also between the TC and camera.  So weird stuff can happen independent of the body TC, or lens involved.  I suspect your D850 is OK.

[Erik Lund]

This kind of issue is occasionally reported when TCs are involved  (and sometimes when no TC is used).  When a TC is mounted between the body and lens - four sets of electrical contacts are involved.  And most likely there is some slight rotational play between the lens and TC and also between the TC and camera.  So weird stuff can happen independent of the body TC, or lens involved.  I suspect your D850 is OK.

IMHO there should be no issues re using TC's the contacts are extremely high quality and the rotational tolerances are so small that it has no influence at all.


When mounting a big tele lens you feel this tolerance more since the diameter is much larger.


I have never experienced this with Nikon brand of TC's and Nikkor lenses, sure third party lenses have most of them very poor quality contact pins, the Nikon ones are a Silver alloy, that's also why they cost a lot as spares.


Look for issues in other places like cleanliness,,,

[Luke Miller]

Look for issues in other places like cleanliness,,,

I agree.  This issue of failure to focus when using a TC comes up periodically.  I it should not happen, but apparently it does for whatever reason.  Since this was a thread concerning camera issues I was trying to suggest that it was most likely not a defective camera body.  Cleaning all contacts is always good advice in these situations.   The fact that the failure to focus occurred with two TCs suggests cleaning lens or body contacts would be a good place to start.

[Me.Too]

Contacts were all cleaned before I returned it to Nikon, unfortunately made no difference, and it reoccurred after the Nikon service/fix 

Both wife and I have D800 over 4 years now, wind, rain, sun and snow, not one problem with and without TC, I'm hoping that the D850 will now give that kind of service.