Focus problem in AF-S NIKKOR 28-70mm 1:2.8 D ED and other details 

picked up one of these in “broken” condition for $60 and it had the same problem as this one. using your video i was able to fix it and now it works good as new! thank you

Thank you very much for this great video! I had a non-working autofocus for many years. It would sometimes move a few mm's but was basically dead. Manual focus was no problem. I disassembled the lens, including the main FPC. Could not identify any faults, so I cleaned all sliding contacts and the magnetic stripe with isopropanol and replaced the double-sided tape for the circuit board. Put it all together again and ...autofocus was working! I owe you a case of beer!

Dude, I love your sticky note intros. Never change, that is like your signature intro.

I have the same lens with the same problem. Tried to send to Nikon for repair but they will no longer fix these lenses. This video so well documents the repair process that I'm going to try it on my own. Thank you so much for the encouragement.😀🔧📷

I have just used this to repair a lens that was reduce “due to focusing issues” I now have a fantastic lens. Thank you for the tutorial

Same lens, similar problem. All of a sudden stopped auto focus. Tried moving focus ring several times and found it was hanging up slightly and progressively getting worse. Followed the video, inspected and found the circuit mounting ring (hexagonal metal ring) was slightly distorted causing the brush contacts to hang up. I lightly squeezed the ring and rechecked-smooth action / no sticking. Cause was probably due to temperature changes over time resulting in some metal warpage. Also note: do not over tighten aperture ring screws (long ones) as binding will occur. Just snug with some threadlock and all is good. Thanks for the video!

I had the same problem but from different causes. So what happened was that M/A M switch window (take a look at 19:53 where the cables are passing through) has something like a tape holding the cables. That thing has been detached and falling on the focus mechanism causing a terrible sound, slower focus and sometimes stuck focus. The solution was to glue it to where it was at first. My comment is for anyone wants to try this first before disassembling the whole lens. Saying that, this was a nicely done video with complete instructions. Wish you make another one for my problem which remains unsolved, the hard to move focusing ring in manual mode after a fall.

Thank you sooo much. I inherited this lens, besides being exactly what I was looking for, it's got some sentimental value. I had this exact issue, and with Nikon's repair centers being closed I ended up doing this fix myself. That last step getting the aperture ring engaged was a real bugger.

That's a surgery!! I went through the whole process and I think I'll take it seriously to give a try repairing mine... Thanks so much

Thank you.Just finished fixing my lens.Works great again.

Awesome video as usual! I had the same problem and this fixed it, but I didn't remove the ribbon cable. Instead I just epoxied it down while it was still in place. Just another word of caution. Lining up the aperture lever attached to the mount on this lens SUCKS!! The fork that Mike describes is VERY difficult to get back in. One side of the fork is flimsy metal and mine got slightly bent which made it impossible to put the lever in. I had to use 2 paper clips to spread it apart again and then I was able to get it in...after 2 hours of dinking around with it. Anyway it all works now! Thanks again for the great tutorial!

Thank you for your video. This was my favorite lens until I started having the same focusing issues with it. I was so excited to try this and went and bought all of the equipment needed to take it apart. Long story short I ended up throwing the lens in the garbage after trying every trick in the book to remove an absolutely frozen screw. I got all of the screws out but one--completely frustrated that you can't send it to them to repair and they make it impossible to repair yourself.

Extraordinary, Mike ! I can do soldering (incl. SMD) since decades well, but i wouldn't do this with my 28-70/2.8 ED Nikkor. Congrats for a cool job. Your D3s seems to be really battle hardened, it potentionally had seen a lot of things...

Ok, I had the same issue and with your help (thank you) , I decided to do surgery on the lens, but once fully into the repair I altered the repair, that made it easier. Instead of completely removing the multi sided plate by unsoldering the wires and removing all the ribbon connectors, I just removed the 3 screws as in the video, and only removed the 2 ribbon cables to the left of where the 2 side by side screws, this allows you to gently pull the lefts side away from the center section to gain access. Once it’s moved to gain more room, I decided to just push in the circuit board essentially resticking it back onto the plate, then while it’s pulled out,ma strategically used a hot glue gun to place several low profile dabs of hot glue in several places, securing the printed circuit board. There is a hole in the center of the circuit board that can also take a dab of glue. Once glued the circuit board should remain firmly attached. This eliminates the removal of the wires, and removal of several ribbon cables, saving time and potential damage to the ribbon cables, with accidental misstep with hot soldering iron. This whole thing took about an hour, and was all made possible with mikeno 62 excellent video. Did have a small struggle with the aperture lever,band after I got it in correctly, I found I needed to reset the slotted tabs to gain full range of aperture, for both manual setting and the lever. Long story short, tried the lens and all appears to work excellent, though it has the auto focus squeal from time to time that some of these lenses exhibit. Other than that all is well, hope this helps anyone who reads this. Next up will be extensive disassembly of a D800 to replace the shattered top lcd/ bent top cover that I somehow broke (oh fun). Just waiting on parts to arrive for that. Thank you mikeno62, love your vids. They help those of us who have the patience to get in there and fix this stuff.

Great job with your video, covered everything in detail. I watched another "How to" video and it was enough to get me in trouble. I thought I was just going to try and see if Nikon would consider putting back together for me. You covered it all and I was able to put it back together and it works perfectly! And yes, autofocus and manual! Great Job!

You 're definitely a magician !!!! great job mate !

just bought this lens on ebay and it has the exact same issue. i’ve never repaired a lens before but im going to give this a try.

Thank you very much for the detailed instruction sir

Nice job! Dropped mine (the sinking feeling...) and now has a rough spot on the zoom around 37mm. I think I'll just live with it, even though I suspect the nylon raceway around the cam screw just has an indentation due to the impact.

Thanks, Mike, from Belgium.

Terrific ! I enjoyed it thoroughly , probably almost as much as you.

Brilliant video, hats off to your courage and skills. Nikon made a real dogs dinner of the AF side of this wonderful lens. Optically it's a real star, but the AF motor system is a pigs ear. How many of these have got wrong over the years? I reckon this is why Nikon don't have the parts available, all used up, due to repairs world wide. Anyway, Nikon should make these lens (especially at this high price point) to at least work perfectly as manual focus lens if AF fails. Often they cant even focus manually when problems crop up. I also have this lens, but the USM motors were always as squeaky as F, from day one, now it won't focus properly. I think it wont even find infinity in Manual, I need to test it 100% to be sure. It's a darn heavy lens to carry around, some of todays much lighter offerings from Nikon are almost as sharp, so I guess thats that.

This is clearly a common failing of this otherwise superb lens. I'm still using mine on manual focus since at my age I can't cope with tiny screws and fiddly dis-assemblies. Very annoying.

Fantastic video -very good teacher ! I hope many others videos for 2019. and Happy New Year !

Thanks. Manage to repair my lens after watching your video.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

The big chip on the other side probably gets hot and caused the glue to soften. Since so many people have this problem it looks to be a design problem.

Very good job. Well done. Would you please tell me that the name of the double sticky tape? Thanks.

HI Mikeno62. Instead of completely disassembling the lens, you can put a small piece of rubber in a clamp between the print and the chassis. I have done this on mine, then you are free to solder other than the switch manual automatic focus. With a piece of rubber, it never comes loose again. With tape, you do not know if the problem will come again after some time.

The dental instrument with the orange band is called a “Stellite” a.k.a. Plastic Instrument.

My lens has this exact same problem. I left in the circuitry and just pushed the loose circuitry back on the bracket. This was (not surprisingly) a short term fix. So in the future this will be a nice reference to perform this fix! Thanks for sharing! One added note; your camera can get a nasty error when the focus ring bumps into the circuitry.

I am one of your loyal followers. I envy your masterful work. Many times I tried to duplicate and follow your video on the very same lens cleaning, I ended up breaking the lens. Oh well, my question now is "Is there anyway one can reduce the noise when this lens is trying to focus." I have the very same lens and it worked very well. ONLY thing annoy is the noise it makes when it focuses..... Any solution?

great job

Great video!! I have the same lens that I bought used at a great price because it was not working. The aperture was stuck. This was the only video that I could find to get me close to the problem. I took all the front lenses out to get to the aperture ring. got it cleaned and I'm having a problem getting the zoom mechanism right. it seems to only be able to go one way. But it will not fully zoom. Any ideas?

36:59 It's look like defusing a bomb 😂 Like in Hollywood action movies 😀

Very nice video. A little long but good information.

I have the same lens and have exact the same problem. DFA in Denmark tould me that somthing is broken inside the lens and they couldn't get sparepart for the lens. The same problem with my Nikkor AF-S 70-200 1:2.8 G. So after this video I'll give it a try. Thx. for the video. It's seem to be a common problem for these lens's

I just bought this lens, very cheap on eBay knowing that it had focus issues, but I didn't mind as I was going to use it as a high end zoom in manual focus on my older SLR'S ie F3, FM2 FE2 ect. It seems to have the same issues as this one, so I might strip it down and see if it is the same issue and easily fixed with a bit of double-sided carpet tape. It's funny when you say it like that, it sounds like a bit of a hill billy fix, lol. Well, if it works, it will treble the value of the lens as well as being able to use the auto focus again.

Thanks for your wealth of information. I was having a hard time putting the lens back together, specifically the aperture in between the tabs, and reviewing your work helped me think it through. What I thought was success though, wasn’t - somehow I have turned my lens into a 40’ish to 70 and there is a hard obstruction allowing the lens to zoom wider. I’ll open it up tonight to see if I can see what I did wrong, you have any insight as to what to look for?

So detailed a repair on this lens. Could we use super glue or epoxy to glue the board securely instead of tape?

Thanks, Mike, from Brussels... L u c ;-)

Hola Mikeno62, GRACIAS POR LA INFORMACIÓN QUE NOS OFRECES EN TUS REPARACIONES. Hace unos días recibí un Nikon 28/70 f2.8 y me encuentro que el anillo del ZOOM va muy fuerte, DEMASIADO FUERTE Y TOSCO. Además la ventana de la distancia no corresponde con la real por lo que cada vez que mueves el anillo del zoom te obliga a enfocar nuevamente. ¿Sabrías indicarme algún motivo? ¡MUCHAS GRACIAS!

Hello can you send me a link to where I can get a lens repaired with you. Same problem as the one you showed but a 17-35mm nikkor 2.8 Thank you

I just got one off ebay...squeaky motor and inconsistent power issues on my F4

Ремонт и восстановление Nikon Nikkor 28-70/2.8D - это нечто эзотерическое, что я прошёл уже четырежды. Объектив оптически прекрасен, но за его ремонт и переборку берётся не каждый мастер. Запчастей нет, объективы 17-35/2.8D, 80-200/2.8D Mk4, 28-70/2.8D сняты с обслуживания и признаны устаревшими. Поэтому нужно найти мастера, который согласится поработать шаманом и погрузиться в крысиную нору колодцев этих объективов и искать, что именно там неправильно работает. У Nikon Nikkor 17-35/2.8D, 80-200/2.8D Mk4, 28-70/2.8D - один и тот же мотор и одни и те же проблемы. Один сплошной инженерный ад. Какую-то часть этих проблем унаследовал 17-55/2.8D. Объективы серии G вероятно надёжнее этих, которые были первыми опытами Никон с моторными объективами.

Question, just received a Nikkor AF-S 28-70mm f2.8. The AF works initially when mounted on camera, but eventually stops working properly, and I notice that the f-stop jumps up to f22 (doesn't happen with any other lens on my D750). The lens also makes a high pitched electronic noise as well, but stops once I unmount the lens. After remounting, works again for a time, but then the aforementioned issues start again. Focus ring is pretty smooth (very little squeaking compared), as is the zoom ring. No issues with the aperture either. Any ideas what the issue could be?

Fremragende video. Jeg har selv samme linse, og samme issue. Har fulgt din video og er næsten i mål. Auto focus virker igen. Men mine fummelfingret kan åbenbart ikke ramme rigtig med den pind der styrer gelænder. Så jeg misser halvdelen af området. Aner ikke hvad jeg gør forkert. Jeg har set videon et utal af gange. Og ser at du også er lidt udfordret med at ramme rigtigt. Jeg har parkeret den lidt i hjørnet for at forsøge igen senere. Jeg vil jo helst ikke ødelægge noget i arrigskab😂

Hi, I had the same problem so I followed the video all went well or so I thought, lens will only work in manual now..where could the issue be. I only removed the solder on the Blue, White and Black wires not the others as I was able to just remove the circut board with them. Hope you can help!

If I see this... I think I'll go with the 35-70 2.8. 😅

I really enjoy watching your channel. Just finished cleaning up my 50mm 1.4 ai, thanks to your tuts. I do have the same AF-S NIKKOR 28-70mm 1:2.8 D ED and it would not autofocus on the 70mm end. Since you know so well this lens, what could be the source of the problem?

Hello. Please, help - in my 28-70 lens zoom ring move is very hard. Also, the zoom does not rotate further than 50mm, it gets stuck. Thank you.

Great video, but is it possible to remove everything and make this lens manual only? because i broke something inside it :(

Do you know why this lens suffers from stiffness in the zoom ring? Been repaired before but has returned to the same problem.

I have a nikkor 75-300 AF push pull lens which has a problem focusing to infinity, despite the focus ring moving all the way to the infinity mark. I opened it to remove some fungus and since then I'm having this problem. Do you have an ideia what I could have done wrong while assembling my lens?

How long did the fix last before it gets out of wack again

Thanks for the video! Is it possible to declick the aputure like ai/ais lenses

Hi sir, I have the same lens same problem at the same place. can you send me a link to where I can get a lens repaired with you. Thank you!

I could need some Help! I have the exact same Lens with nonfunctional AF. in hope this would be the problem, I changed those tapes and reassembled everything without any damage. But sadly the AF still doesn´t work at all! The Lens was shipped to me and before shipping it worked. Is there any other common problem that could couse this problem? Thank you very very much for this wonderfull video! I wish this would have been the only defect on my copy....

Can you show how to remove the sw motor? Great video it has helped me do much.

hola buen día, tengo un óptico nikon af-s dx nikkor 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6g evr el cual tiene hongos justo en el lente que esta sujeto al diafragma y no se como sacarlo para limpiarlo pues no le encuentro pegante o tornillos desde el frente, y desde atrás hay demasiado circuitos electrónicos y se ve mas complicado. Alguna sugerencia?, sabes de algún link donde pueda bajar el plano de desarme de este lente?. por favor. gracias

Double sided tape is obviously not a reliable method of fastening. If the lens is stored in hot car then exposed to any vibration the tape can let go or change position. By the time I would have gotten to the problem my family would have interrupted me five times and the job would never be completed. I did not know a Nikkor lens could be both a D and an AFS at the same time.

Hey where did you buy the extremely sticky double sided tape?

Hej Kenneth, jeg har en 17-35 afs 2,8, den er meget lidt brugt, men har ligget stulle i syv år. nu er AF stået af,,,, er det noget du ville ha lyst til at se på?

What was the reason for replacing the connection ring with the diaphragm to connect with the smaller f? (f / 22) Thank you.

that af-s motor is shot

spent 2 days working on it. fixed it. was confident it would work . However didnt understand the last part at all how to reattach the aperture. After 3 hrs noticed the one of the blades had slipped out. Somehow managed to get it back in place but wouldnt open to full aperture anymore. Unless I took the whole thing apart lens became trash. Now in bin.

Could you tell me if you fix objectives on request?

My lens is put on camera, then camera said lens is not attched! I tried to clean, but still the same! Do you know where can I order for the part (the thing is connect with the camera, I do not know what is call!)

should fix the noise problem.

At this point I’d just throw the lens away and buy a new one this is way to much work 40:43

hai, i have the same problem, can i send to you my lens for you fix it, i will pay for you service

The audio is too low and too distorted.

great job