Why won't the autofocus on my Nikon 200–500mm ƒ/5.6E work?

Question

I can't seem to get the autofocus on my brand new Nikon 200–500mm ƒ/5.6E lens to work. All the settings (on the lens and camera, including AF switches) are set to autofocus. Trying other lenses on the camera, the autofocus works.

Edit: answering clarification requests from comments:

• By "doesn't work", I mean the autofocus doesn't engage at all—no sounds, no movement.
• The lens is fully seated / locked in the lens mount.
• The camera does not display any error codes. I'm not using a teleconverter or extension tube between the camera and lens.
• The camera body is a Nikon D810.

Answer 1

I have no answer but perhaps you will find helpful information in the responses to a similar post on the forum at DP-Review. you can click here to read the post

The answers give several possibile causes for your issue, like:

• camera firmware version (upgrade it)
• lock on setting (try setting it to 1 or 2 or off)

The responses also give suggestions of things you can do to eliminate problem areas like looking up the serial number of the lens at the nikon web site.

Btw: In another post I read that there can be contact problems between lens and camera body; (check how the lens performs with a different body same camera settings).

I Hope you can solve it, good luck.

Michiel