Hi Nikon Shooters,

I posted this last week at the NIKON VS CANON area but didn't get much response.
So I'm posting it here AS I NEED your thoughts in case you've come across this...

I had my D200 sent to my dealer last week cause in 2 occassions, when I shoot, the battery indicator in the camera would blink and it would shut off...They said they had it fixed as they "CHARGED THE CAPACITOR" [whatever that means] and they even asked me if I left at anytime my camera on and had the battery drained...don't know what in the world that has to do with the camera's turning off...

Anyway, I had it last Friday and was in a shoot today and man, it happened again, the battery indicator would show a one bar status and blink and the camera would turn off.

I placed it in a tripod and when I had it ON, I decided not to shut it off and started shooting till I finished the job....I'm gonna send it back to my dealer tom.

WOULD APPRECIATE ANYONE WHO MAY HAVE COME ACROSS THIS EXPERIENCE AND LET ME KNOW WHAT YOU THINK...I tried to reset the camera but to no avail.

Again, any input would be appreciated.

Thanks in advance,
Dennis

anyone? not even one out there?

I am sorry Dennis! That really sucks. I have not experienced anything like this with my D200. Have you tried replacing your batteries? Maybe something is wrong with your contact points, do you use a vertical grip?

Keep nagging Nikon.

I have seen the low battery indicator flash with one bar (when it was really full), but my camera has never shut off. It has happened only a couple of times and it was with the Battery Grip installed. I suspect that it got loosened. I find myself making sure it is tightened. Hope you figure this out.

Yeah, if you are using the battery grip make sure is nice and tight, otherwise ugly things can happen.

Also, it may be a bad battery shorting out the camera system.

To whom you send the camera for repair? a local repair shop? If so, I would try directly with Nikon instead. I am no camera expert but those answer surely sound strange.

David, Joy & David,

Finally, I got some voices out of the woods...

I don't use a grip, which makes things worse. I failed to say that I noticed this started when I charged a battery and the charger stopped blinking or charging in less than an hour.

And I started shooting and when I used that battery, that's where it all started. We don't have a Nikon Phils here, just Nikon authorized dealers. I read in nikonians.org and dpreview.com about this and the experience of some nikon shooters.

I hope I'd hear from other Nikon shooters here as well....I hope I'm not the only one in this community who had this experience so I could learn from them...

Thanks for your time in reading this.

Blessings,
Dennis

I've got the battery grip on both of my D200s and they're lifesavers. If I drain the batteries completely (probably happens at 1/3 of the weddings I shoot) I've always got the part that lets me power it with AA batteries. ALWAYS keep'em loaded and ready to go!

(And yes, I've been experiencing rather strange things with losing battery power, but I think it might just be that my rechargeables are getting old and don't hold a charge as well.)

Does the poblem consistently happens? Can you reproduce the problem?

Based on what you say, I would suspect the battery and/or the charger.

The battery may not be holding the charge. If it happenes with all your batteries, then I may suspect the charge telling you the battery is charged when is not.

I hate to say buy another charger to then find out that I am wrong, but that is the course of action I would take. Maybe find someone in the area that has the same charger and try it.

Also, are you using the D200 charger? The D70s and D70 chargers (I suspect the D80 too) look the same but may not be. I have a D70 and D200 and although I used the D70 to charge the D200 battery once without any major problems, I am not sure if they are 100% compatibe.

That is all that I can think of right now, hope it helps you.

Wish you best...

Thanks, David...I will go now to a fellow photographer who has a D200 charger and will charge my battery there. My question David here is this: if my battery charger doesn't fully charge the battery, then why would the camera indicate in its menu that it is 100%? If I get you right [correct me if I'm wrong], you're saying that the battery would indicate fully charge when actually it's not?

Okay, then, will bring the charger and batteries as well for check up. Yes, I use the D200 charger that came with the camera inside the box.

Thanks again for your patience. Will keep you guys posted.

Dennis

Not sure... But, maybe that is what the shop meant by doing something with the "capacitor". All I remember of my days as tech is that Capacitors hold charge.

With electronics nothing surprises me anymore. Give you a short story...

I bought a MACPRO and added 4 gig of memories. It has sort of a card that you pull out and add the memory. Whenever I added the last set of memories the computer would crash. I took the suspected memories back and exchanged. To my suprise it did the xame aghain, so I thought it was the computer (it was a day old) so I took it back. At COMPUSA the added the same memory and it worked flawlessly. The tech told me that for my peace of mind they would give a brand new MACPRO and new memory. (bear in mind in this story that I use to be a computer tech) I took it home and once again installed the memory... and guess what... the same problem! Now I knew for sure that it had to be something I was doing wrong... so I opened the manual again and the only thing that the manual said that I wasn't doing was to lay the computer in its side when installing the memory (I was keeping the computer standing). So I decided to follow the instructions to the letter... guess what? It worked! It needed to be in its side when installing the memory... Why? I cannot think of a reason, but that was the problem.

So, nothing surprieses me anymore, even if it seems weird.

Good luck.

David,

Thanks for that story...now I'm beginning to think of sending my charger, my batteries and even my lenses to the tech for them to check everything.

My friend yesterday didn't want to try my battery on his d200 as it might "create" something weird as well with his camera. Short of saying, I wasn't able to test it in another body. But will do so in the dealer's place on Tuesday. Will bring my charger and battery too.

I was supposed to get my D200 yday but the dealer said he didn't want to rush it and I've to wait till Tue next week. It's alright with me as long as they find out what's really causing it and fix it.

Will keep in touch.

Dennis