Thursday, July 17. 2008
FEE error on Nikon DSLR - fixed
Recently my Nikon D70s, when using a new Sigma lens, displayed the following error in the aperture display: fEE. As it took me some time to find out the cause and fix it, I'll explain it here perhaps for the benefit of others.
What does it mean? Some lenses require that the aperture is set to smallest when they are connected to the body (the largest f-number; this is usually coloured orange). fEE is indicated when the lens is connected wrongly and the camera refuses to operate until the lens is reconnected.
If like me you still get the fEE even though you've connected the lens correctly, then obviously something is broken. The camera "knows" whether the aperture ring is set to the right value due to a notch on the lens (rightmost picture) and a switch on the body ("EE Servo Coupling Post", left picture). In my case the switch on the body had broken off.
You can of course send your camera in for repair, but for me it was easily repaired by sticking a hairpin in the switch. A little piece of plastic and some superglue could work as well.
Trackbacks
Trackback specific URI for this entry
No Trackbacks
Comments
Display comments as
(Linear | Threaded)
Similar problem occurred when I tried to connect a new Nikon AF NIKKOR 50mm f/1.8D. The lens is new so it probably isn't the lens. And the body is working with the original 18-55mm lens, so the body should be alright.
Do you have any other suggestions? (I have locked the aperture and have detach/attach the lens several times)
Please let me know.
Best,
Kai
Not all lenses require this aperture locking so it can very well be that one lens works and the other one doesn't. You say the items are new, but have you actually checked whether the lens and the camera indeed have the tab and switch as indicated in the pictures? Otherwise I can't diagnose it anymore from here and you'll need to go to a service point I'm afraid.
Be careful with superglue, the fumes might damage the sensor if they can reach it.
ARGGH, it broke off today. No warranty, so i need to use your trick. If you lock the tab, will it affect other lenses that don't use that tab?
No, it's purely used to display the warning FEE when a lens requires it, it doesn't do anything on other lenses.
I just wanted to say thank you!!
If you hadnt posted this more money would have been spent to try to solve the problem.
The error was easily fixed by removing, then realigning the lens when we put it back on!
Awesome!
Cheers!
Thank you so much for posting this. As its 6:30 Christmas morning, and my camera starts to act up. Happy Holidays :)
Your post save my photo vacation in Trinidad. I was very dismayed to find out that my 70 - 200 lens started with the FEE thing. When I had it on my d70 setting the lens to the smallest aperture fixed the problem. This time, no go. I tried the lens every morning before I went out and it did not work. Then, I read your post and realized that a "nub" had broken off on my lens that engaged the "post" at the 7 o'clock position just outside the aluminum mounting ring on the camera body. I did not want modify my new d90 with a superglue fix so I bent a paper clip in a way that engages this lever and attached the paper clip to my lens with a heavy duty rubber band.
I have seen a lot of "answers" to the F EE problem. Most of them pointing to the aperture ring not being set properly or references to the contacts being bad. Your post was the first to mention the aperture engagement nub.
Thanks - I just got back from shooting a bunch of birds in the rainforest. Thanks to your fix, I am a happy vacationer!!
thank you so much . my lense was out out order for a year i decided to look up to see was there anything i could do and you solved it . i cant believe how much i missed it . thanks again good sir
Thank you!!!!
I was about to rip the hair off my head, tear my eyes out, and all this after I had thrown my camera into a brick wall and watched it break.
Appreciate sharing your knowledge:D
Now I can continue taking pictures in peace..:)
OMG you have no idea how much relief you taken off of me. although now i know my camera is broken at least i can try to attempt to fix it :)
I got the bit about setting the lens to the smallest F stop. That stops the FEE error every time.
But what if I want to use the lens in total manual. I want to set the f stop myself, the shutter speed my self etc.
So if I set the f stop from f32 and want to set it at f8.. it shows the FEE error and I can't do that
I set the camera to manual first. It won't let me pick another fstop that I want to use. What am I missing?
I just wanted to give you an huge THANK YOU. my camera was broken since the beginning, and I didn't know. I fixed it as you said, and now it works :) I can use new lenses and I'm SO HAPPY!!
a lot of thanks from italy :)
silvie
Puchis , you are saving my life !
But how it is possible that this swith on the camera moved from a few milimeter from the orginal place !!!
Everything is working fine now with just a 1.5 mm little piece of plastic glue on the camera switch !
The lens aperture ring is intended for older cameras. With a D90 you control the aperture with the front command dial. To be able to do this you have to set the lens to the minimum aperture (maximum f/No.). You can lock it to prevent changing it by mistake.
Try this and let us know if you can't use the front command dial.
All this should be explained in the manual
i just encountered the same issue.. thanks for the post.. saved my day...
i am using Nikon D90 and mounted the nikkor 50mm f1/8.. was shooting in manual focus suddenly i saw fEE donno what it is.. so quickly googled it and landed here..
Thanks guys for posting u reviews and experience.. :)
great post! Thanks so much. Turns out I didn't have any broken 'nubs' just a shifted f-stop ring. Returned it to an f-stop position and 70-200 lens works on my D50 now.
Thanks for this info. It was my problem exactly. Now I am up and running again. Brilliant
Wow thanks so much I thought my Nikon was broken for good. All I had to do was take off my sigma lens, reattach it and its back to normal.
:)
THANK YOU! I am so happy to have found you in my google search on this problem. I was soooo frustrated. Thanks again!
wow man... i was thought my lens was broken until i found this thread. thanks a lot! cheers!
I totally forgot what fEE was. I feel silly, thanks for the clear problem solving!
Another one here in ireland that you have sorted out. Keep up the good work
Just got fEE w/my 70-300 and thanks to this I figured out that my lens "notch" broke off. Now I know why not to buy plastic body ...
Haven't figured out how to fix yet but at least I know what the problem is !! Thanks for the super-useful post!
Thanks so much for your help with my fee error, it really worked! :D
Thank you some much for this post. I am an aspiring photographer and this post helped with the Nikkor 85mm f/1.8 af-d lens i just purchased. I am learning how to use a prime lenses instead of always using zooms. I want to expand my creativity and not feel handicapped by always using a zoom. Thanks
Another thanks from me:) Thought there must be something wrong with the lense as my other lenses worked fine. Just needed to set it back to f/22 and lock it in place so it doesn't baffle me again! Thanks again:)
Crazy awesome!
Like many others here I thought there was something wrong with my camera and now I'm very relieved to find out there isn't.
Thank you for the informative post.
Hi. Just bought a Nikkor 300mm 2.8 and was getting the F EE error, subsequently fixed by your post. However, when I set the aperature ring to 22, the image in the viewfinder is extremely dark. The picture will come out fine, but it's hard to see what I'm taking. If I change the aperature ring to a lower F-stop the viewfinder is as it should be. Am I missing something?
Thank you so much for advice! had just acquired new f2.8 zoom lens and it would not work on either D80 or D300.
Thank you so much!"!!
P
I join many others in giving thanks for this page. Having just purchased a used 70-300 ED D lens I found the fEE fault appearing. Looking at the camera body I saw the little lever and then comparing the lens I had bought with another D lens found the skimpy little plastic tab had broken off the lens mount. Not sure how I will fix that but I can use the lens by pulling the lever down using a little bit of bread wrap wire. Thanks for that! BTW the 70-300 ED D lens is really very good and the AF is not all that slow.
Thanks for the info. Solved my problem and now I can once again use my lens. Thanks for keeping the info up for so long. You are a lifesaver.
Thank you so much. I just had my D70 fixed (broke flash) & I was going to return it to the repair shop because "the old lense wouldn't work". After reading your post I adjusted the aperature & Bingo-worked like a charm! Thanks!
Quicksearch
Blogroll
Syndicate This Blog
Licence
