I dropped my lens and it does not fit to the camera body?

My Nikon 18-200 DX lens fell from my camera bag to the concrete ground. The rear cap is broken, actually a fraction/piece came out of it. Other than that, looking at the pictures of the lens itself on the Internet, the lens seems to be intact in every respect. All switches (MA/M, VR on/off, active/normal VR switch, and zoom lock switches) work perfectly as well.

When I try to mount the lens to the camera body (Nikon D7000) from the white points, the lens sits on the mount, but when I turn it to lock it, the white point does not turn to the center and thus it does not fit perfectly. As a matter of fact, I do not know at this point whether the AF is effected from the drop.

Please assist me on fitting the lens snugly to the body. I do not want to apply to much pressure when turning the lens so as to not harm the mount or the body. There must be something I'm missing because the lens seems perfect as I said.

Its quite possible that the lens mount was damaged when you dropped the lens. It may look fine to the unaided eye but the slightest misalignment will prevent the lens from seating to the camera body. There may be additional internal damage which will only be found when the lens is examined by a trained repair tech.

The only suggestion I have is to send the lens to an Authorized Nikon Service Center for an estimate. There should be a listing in the back of the Owner's Manual for the lens or camera. Any needed repairs will be paid for by you since the manufacturer's warranty doesn't cover damage caused by abuse such as dropping the lens.

I hope you have another lens to use while this one is out for repairs.

The 18-200mm is a fine lens, it's unfortunate you dropped it.

The lens has a gasket on the rear mount that aids in keeping dust out of the camera. For this reason, the lens normally feels a bit stiff when mounting it on the camera - at least my 18-200mm does on my D90.

Check the rear mount on the lens and see if the gasket has been deformed at all from the drop. It might have become deformed and the result could be the lens is now hard to cinch up on the body.

But the lens is valuable enough that you should at least have it checked out by a Nikon repair facility. If you are in the US, you should have a 5yr warranty, but I don't know if it will cover dropping it or not.

Best of luck.