Nikon 500mm PF, VR problem

[DonM]

I have had no problems with my 500 mm PF in the almost 5 years that I have had it until last week. It had a squeaking sound for a few minutes and then I noticed that when using single point focus the focus dot would jump when taking a picture. I turned off the VR and both symptoms stopped. In reviewing the pictures I noticed a significant degradation of the image quality whereas this lens has always been very sharp prior to this event.
I plan to send it to Nikon for repair but wondered if anybody else has had this problem and if so was it resolved?

 

[Cameron T]

The image jumping shows you were unstable and lens elements recentered. The squeaking could be a lot of things, but possibly vr related, or the focus motor itself.

 

[DRwyoming]

I have had no problems with my 500 mm PF in the almost 5 years that I have had it until last week. It had a squeaking sound for a few minutes and then I noticed that when using single point focus the focus dot would jump when taking a picture. I turned off the VR and both symptoms stopped. In reviewing the pictures I noticed a significant degradation of the image quality whereas this lens has always been very sharp prior to this event.
I plan to send it to Nikon for repair but wondered if anybody else has had this problem and if so was it resolved?

The image will frequently jump around a lot when shooting bursts if your VR is set to Normal mode and will jump much less or not at all if you switch to Sport VR mode. As posted above if you're rock steady the VR won't jump at all in either mode but VR is most helpful in situations where we're not rock steady.

Normal VR mode has a bit more vibration reduction effect but the jumping from frame to frame can be annoying in which case a switch to Sport VR mode can help a lot.