Nikon D7000 taking blurry/soft images

Schaubia

New member
[FONT=&quot]Hi All,[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Sorry if this is not the right place for this question, but Iam new to the forum. Since one year or so, my camera started taking photos that are not sharp enough.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]I tried several different lenses, but the problem remains with all. I also tried one of the lenses on my friend's Nikon D90 and it works fine. I adjusted the AF fine tune for the current lens. I am attaching a sample picture taken with AF-S Nikkor 16-85mm:[/FONT]
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1517e98ff1464ceb9107cdb5dc65d886
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[FONT=&quot]View: original size[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]The focus is on the haystack on the left. VR is on. Single point AF-A, WB was set for bright light.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]When zoomed to 100% on the picture manager the picture looks very blurry and I cannot find where the focus really is. It is the same for all pictures and it actually gets worse in lower light conditions like on the picture below, taken with the same lens on a tripod:[/FONT]
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8992af2643c542288a5e85dece1309a0
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[FONT=&quot]View: original size[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Here in Bulgaria it is very difficult to find a good camera service, so If anyone has any idea what the problem could be, your help will be much appreciated.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Thanks in advance![/FONT]
 

Bikerbrent

Senior Member
Welcome aboard. Enjoy the ride.
We look forward to seeing more posts and samples of your work.

In the first picture, you have VR ON at 1/500 sec shutter speed. Why? This could create some softness.

In the second picture. it appears the camera is focusing on the furniture behind the plant.
 

Schaubia

New member
Thank you for your prompt reply and the warm welcome!

I have read that VR-on is a mistake at this speed and on a tripod; however the pictures are still soft, when I shoot with VR off. Also they look better with the D90 and the same lens with VR switched on. I have not cleaned the sensor recently, could any dust on it cause this problem?

Thanks again
 

nickt

Senior Member
I suppose a general layer of junk on the sensor could cause softness problems but that is unlikely that it would be that filthy. Dust on the sensor will usually make small slightly dark spots most visible at high apertures. Take a picture of the sky at f22 to see sensor dust.
I don't care for AF-A mode. It sounds great in theory, but I would rather choose af-s or af-c myself. I would try some shots in af-s, single point. Be sure your menu A2 is set for focus priority. If the mode af-s or af-c is set for release priority, the camera could take an out of focus shot as the shutter will not wait for focus. Also try some shots focusing manually to see if you can do better than single point autofocus. Try auto focus in live view, that uses a different system for focus.
You have given us way more information than the usual new member, it sound like you know what you are doing.:)
You may have a real failure, but I don't know what it is other than the possibility of being too quick on the shutter button in release priority mode. You could tweak up sharpness in picture controls if you are shooting jpg. That second shot needs more help that sharpness. It does look like focus was wrong.
 

Schaubia

New member
Thank you, nickt.
I know that there is some dust as a few dark spots can be seen on clear sky, I hoped that this is the reason as this could be easily fixed :) I don't use the manual focus often as I am not good at focusing so I rely on the camera for landscape, however I haven't tried the live view and I will do so. I have also taken pics with AF-S but I can't see any difference. For the A2 ,menu, I checked it and it was set to focus priority, I suppose it is by default as I haven't changed the setting.
In the picture control, the sharpening is high - it is set on 8, contrast is 2.
Could this be something with the communication between camera and lens?
 

Camera Fun

Senior Member
When you compose the scene, do you move the focus point to where needed OR do you ever focus & re-compose the shot?

What system/process did you use to adjust the AF fine tune?
 

Schaubia

New member
Hi, Camera Fun, I do recompose sometimes but for this shot I didn't.
I saved values in the AF fine tune setting for the different lenses; however for the 16-85 mm it seems that I need more than -20.
 

Schaubia

New member
Hi and happy and successful new 2018!
I don't know many methods to fine tune - I put the camera on a tripod, set self-timer, choose F-stop somewhere in the middle, use AF-S with a point in the middle and different zooms, and I take some photos of my child's notebook with lines and letters. A tried to use auto and manual focus.
 

Camera Fun

Senior Member
You can find more than one method of fine tuning (angled charts/rulers, software, dot-tune) discussed on this site, the web, or YouTube. I've used both angled charts/rulers and the dot-tune method. My results were subject to human error; sometimes moving the camera slightly when doing the process so I would repeat things another time to compare results. I suggest trying the dot-tune method and follow the instructions for Nikon cameras to see what results you get. Also, you may find that some tweaking is needed afterwards based on real-world photos.
 

grandpaw

Senior Member
Have you tried taking a photo in the FULL AUTO or GREEN mode?

If that doesn't produce a clear picture try a factory reset by pressing and holding both green buttons on the camera for about 10 seconds and see what happens.
 

Schaubia

New member
Thanks! I´ll read/watch more about these methods for fine tune and try.
For the full auto - it tends to produce worse pictures actually. I have tought about factory reset but didn't have the courage to do it :)
 

grandpaw

Senior Member
If you want to know where your camera focused go into your camera menu and do the steps below and it will appear on all of your images automatically.

Play back menu, Playback Display Options, and put a check by Focus Point, then click OK and the focus point location will show up on every image you preview on the rear LCD screen.
 

Roy1961

Senior Member
Contributor
If you want to know where your camera focused go into your camera menu and do the steps below and it will appear on all of your images automatically.

Play back menu, Playback Display Options, and put a check by Focus Point, then click OK and the focus point location will show up on every image you preview on the rear LCD screen.

do you still have your D7000 tips Jeff? this helped me out a lot when i first got my D7000.
 

spb_stan

Senior Member
I suggest finding whether there is a camera defect, I really doubt it because these are close and most defects are more debilitating to focusing. The first step it put the camera on a tripod
Turn off VR
Find a high edge contrast target such as a bold line grid or one of the many downloadable AF focusing targets you can print. Tape it flat against the wall at about 50 times the focal length used, so a 50mm lens would be around 250Cm or around 100 inches between camera and target
Make sure the target is well illuminated.
Open the aperture fully....if a f/1.8 lens set it there, if a variable aperture lens like slower zooms, set it to the widest aperture available at the Focal length being tested.
Set the shutter speed faster than 1/120 second(there were reports of mirror slap vibration on the D7000 in the 1/120-1/180 range but never noticed any)
Use a low ISO, 100-200
Exposure control to Manual
If there is not enough light use the popup flash
If it is a zoom, zoom out to the longest focal length( do this before every AF test shot)
Set the camera into Live View mode and set the focus point in the center which is a cross polarized focus point and make sure the focus point box on the rear screen is bisecting a hard edge of the pattern on the target.
AF using either back button or 1/2press the shutter release depending on how you have those butttons assigned.
Take the shot and write down the number of that shot.
Take 4 or 5 shots the same way, zooming out before each one.
Look at the photos at normal viewing distance, and at 100% (note that 100% is more magnification on a 16mpx sensor than on the D90 12mpx ) and if they all look about the same in sharpness, and close to the sharpness of the D90 images, the camera sensor and electronics are fine.
Then it comes down to lenses and AF-S mode settings. You can't get perfect AF fine tuning with aperture settings that allow more depth of field so you have to use the widest aperture for this to not cause more harm than good)
Do the same set up but switch off Live view and set AF-S. Take 2-3 shots and compare to the shots you numbered in live view. If there is a visible difference in focus, set the focus fine tuning to "0" and take a shot, write down the frame number and make an adjustment to +5 or -5. Better or worse? if worse move the setting to the opposite direction and make "5" step increments until at "20" until you see the focus getting worse. Move back 2-3 until no improvement is seen. Then fine tune in "1" digit steps.

Zooms should be tested at the most important often used FL because a change is not usually going to benefit all focal lengths equally
Conditions that throw off AF accuracy:
Color cast to light
Contrast level and polarization
Light level
Focus box is smaller than the AF sensor focus points so it is possible to have a better focusing target in front of or back from the desired focal plane that is detected slightly outside the VF FP box
Strong colors dominating the focus point impact AF performance, just as lenses transmit red light slightly different in time compared to the blue end of the spectrum, and lenses are designed to help compensate for that difference in the diffraction based on light frequency. Focusing on a deep red or blue focus target will often have other objects in the same focal place less in focus. Lenses with poor chromatic dispersion characteristics will show this more. Stopping down more can help. Chromatic aberration, "purple fringing" plays havoc with edge detection AF for these same cause, light path timing differences over the spectrum.

If the first test with Live View resulted in poor focus, and the sensor is clean, it should be checked by a Nikon authorized repair station. It is pretty rare. If on the other hand Live view is fine, and all lenses are out of adjustment range, time to send the body in for AF alignment. If only one lens is out of adjustment range, send in that one lens. It is usually better to set no AF fine tuning on slow zoom lenses because once adjusted for one end of the zoom range, it will usually be further off than it was before adjustments.
Another thing to consider is post-processing or Picture Controls in the camera. If you are shooting JPG you can set the Picture Controls to have more sharpening than the presets. If you are using Portrait mode, everything is unsharpened so reduce skin texture detail in faces. The D7000 usually could use a bit of increase in the sharpening setting in Picture Control for any mode other than portrait.
Good luck and please report back.
 

Schaubia

New member
Thanks for all the tips. I haven´t has time to read and try them all yet, but for now it looks like the AF fine tune works well for the shortest focal lengths of the zoom lenses. It appears that for all lenses (min zoom) the value is negative and between -5 and -9. I also notice that I've constantly made some mistakes while shooting, which obviously contribute to the image quality.
Unfortunately if AF alignment is needed, I don't know anyone who offers this survice here..
 

mikew_RIP

Senior Member
I have a PDF copy of my tips that someone made for me but it is to big to post here. If someone knows how to post it get in touch with me and I will post it or send it to you if you think you can post it. It is a lot better than going through the thread. Jeff Impey

Would it go on dropbox, its free to use and will take very large raw files, so actual size may not be a problem.
 
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