Do I have a back focusing issue??

http://youtu.be/hDIHtZfb2og

As the title says I need help determining if this is indeed a back focus issue or is it in depth of field or depth of focus doing what it's supposed to. I never use one of these focus charts befor and I only have the two bodies to go by, white balance wise I do feel the D 90 is much better than the D 7000 in terms of white, gray and black


Thanks to all

The only way to determine back/front focus issues is to do the test. I like using this chart with excellent instructions - see HERE

The D7000 allows you to fine tune each lens, so while one may be spot on with no additional adjustment, others may require a bit of fine tuning to get them tack sharp. Why on the D7000 and not on the D90? Ask Nikon. I have them both and have seen the same things you're seeing. Once adjusted the D7000 has no issues. And for these tests, you don't want to vary the aperture. Follow the instructions in the link that Dave posted. What you're describing when you mention it going from 14mm in the back to 10mm in the front is depth of field. Front and back focus have to do with where the lens focuses at minimum depth of field - is it on the intended spot, in front, or behind.

As for the white balance mentioned in the vid, if both were set to "Auto" when you took the images then you're going to get what the camera thinks is right. You're obviously happier with the way the D90 is treating you in this particular context. It's possible to fine tune the auto white balance in the D7000 so it works better in that light. There are also 2 Auto settings, so make sure you don't have it set to "keep warm colors warm" as that may be impacting what you see.

Given that you have both bodies with the intention of returning one, as someone who has lived with both of them for 19 months I would say that the D7000, once you get to know it, is a far more powerful tool than the D90. They both take great photos, but the D7000 is a definitely cut above as an overall camera. But again, it takes some time to get to know it. The D90 seems to be a little easier out of the box - but that's the intention.

Thanks Jake, so I am not to move the aperture at all? I see the test says to have it wide open. how do you check what it does at F8 or 16 than?

You don't check anywhere but at minimum, which is where you have the smallest depth of field (the area that will be in focus). As you raise the aperture the depth of field grows. So if you start at F2.8 and move to F4.0, you should see no change to the areas that were already in focus, only added areas to both the front and rear of the previous shot. At F8 and F16, you have a wide depth of field, so it's impossible to determine whether the point the camera chose to focus on is dead center in the field, or to the front or rear of that point.

Whether the depth of field grows uniformly to the front and rear of the focal point as you change the aperture, I couldn't tell you - I love physics, but I know only enough about optics to sound like I might know something. Suffice it to say, that's what the depth of field preview button is for - once you've locked your focus on your primary subject, does your aperture setting set include/exclude the other items in the photo in the way you want?