Why does my Nikon 18-200mm create a red glow in long exposures?

Question

On a Nikon D7000, long exposures of 30 seconds or more at high ISO are showing a consistent red/noisy glow pattern — even with the lens cap on and the viewfinder covered. I traced it to my Nikon 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 VR: the pattern appears with that lens, but not with another lens using the same settings. Is this lens damaged, or is there a known cause and workaround?

nikon vr long-exposure noise lens-issues

Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0

Photography Stack Exchange contributor

7y ago

user11924 · Accepted Answer

This is a known issue with the Nikon 18-200 ƒ/3.5–5.6 VR lens. Some people have reported a simple workaround, some others report the workaround doesn't work.

The Problem

Apparently the VR mechanism inside the lens emits some infrared radiation, enough that it can be picked up in some cases, especially in long-exposure photography. Although, 30 seconds at ISO 1600 doesn't seem particularly long shutter or high ISO to me for what appears to be twilight shots in your example.

The (Apparent) Solution

When taking long-exposure images with this lens, make sure to set both the VR to "off", and to set the lens's switch to "M", not just M/A. Setting the camera body's autofocus switch to "M" doesn't seem to help or make a difference at all.

Some people report that Long Exposure Noise Reduction helps or eliminates the problem (at the expense of taking twice as long to take the image). YMMV.

See also these (long) discussions at dpreview.com. Be prepared to sift through lots of side-diversions and speculations about amp glow, and admonitions to make sure the viewfinder is covered, which is clearly not the problem.

Design flaw in all nikkor 18-200vr's- All models are defective — I think this is the thread that started it all. Sample image:

^{Demonstration of problem by dpreview.com user MaxKPhoto. D300, 18mm, 28.5min @ ƒ/3.5, WB incandescent, ISO 200, auto noise reduction.}
Lens VR unit IR leakage affects long exposures - cont'd.
red saturation on a nikon 18-200 right side during long exposure. Sample images demonstrating the issue:

^{Demonstration of problem by dpreview.com poster 86reddawg. 18-200mm ƒ/ 3.5–5.6 on D5000, 4+ minutes.}