80-400 with no focus

Was out with snowy owls and tried the new Nikon 80-400. The lens is sharp when it is focused on a sitting bird. There were a few times when I changed the subject and the lens would not autofocus. The focus system seemed to be stuck. Turned the camera off and refocused closer to myself, then re-aimed at the owl and everything was great. Camera was a D3s city vr off, aperture priority, f stop between 5.6 and 9.5. Am I missing something or does the lens need to go back to Nikon?


Thanks in advance

I too have issues with the auto focus on that lens with my D800. It is my dad's lens and it works just fine with his D600 but for me it was going through the auto focus motions but it never stopped on the subject where my focus point was. I called Nikon technical service and I am sending in my camera for another reason and they told me to explain the issues I am having with the focus on that lens on the work ticket and they would check it out. This was a couple of months ago, so it maybe that they have had more people call with the same issue. Before I do send it in I will be calling them again to see if they have found out something different.

Hopefully someone here on the forum can shed light on it for both of us..

I'm using this lens with Nikon D600, it works perfect. No problem at all.