New D750 -- will not shoot with 14-24mm in auto focus mode through viewfinder; Help?

Hi guys,

I recently got a new D750 (3 months ago). On my last trip I was shooting with my 14-24 and all of a sudden the camera would not shoot if the lens was set to autofocus mode but ONLY through the viewfinder, not in liveview mode.

So, if it's set to autofocus on liveview --- shoots perfectly. If it's set to autofocus using viewfinder, will not shoot UNLESS I press the AE-L AF-L button simultaneously.

I came across a stranger at the airport with tons of Nikon gear and explained my problem....he used the lens on his 810 and it worked flawlessly so this leads me to believe it's not a lens problem.

Could it be a camera issue or is it just some sort of setting that I have on there that is not allowing it to shoot correctly.

Any help would be appreciated.

Also...stranger at the airport mentioned my viewfinder is darker than the norm...is there a fix to this?

Thanks much,
Liz

First, Welcome to the forum.

Does it work correctly with any other lens? Do you have both switches set to AF (the one on the body and the one on the lens)

If that does not change anything then the first thing I would try is to do a 2 button reset to rule out any odd setting that you might have.

Could it be that the camera is set to use the back button focus instead of the shutter release?

Something likely got changed in your settings. I suspect you've somehow set the camera to backbutton focus (Custom Menu f4 set to AF-ON). Given your explanation that Live View is focusing normally this will only be the case if your Live View focus mode is set to an AF-F setting, which focuses constantly regardless of whether a button is pressed (I keep Live View at AF-S) - but I suspect this is your problem.

What I can't tell from your description is whether or not the camera is not focusing at all shooting through the viewfinder or focusing and not firing. If it's the latter then you may have changed your Focus Priorit for the mode you're in (Custom Menu a1 & a2 set to Focuswhile the focus point is not over something in focus if you're focusing and recomposing without keeping focus locked in AF-S mode).

Those are the two things I can think of, and neither should be limited to just the one lens. There's no reason for only that lens to respond as you're describing.

Sorry it's taken me so long to respond. I JUST did a full reset and tried the camera again with two different lenses. The camera will focus and fire with the shutter button with both of the other lenses.the camera will still not fire with just the shutter button using my 14-24. I'm assuming now it's a lens problem. Any other ideas you guys could give me would be welcome.Thanks for your suggestions thus far.Liz

I've done a reset, still not working

Then it seems the lens is not making contact properly. But even that is off considering that the lens worked on a different Nikon. I would double check that if you have a local camera store that carries Nikon cameras. The only other thing that I would try if it were my camera is to clean the contacts on the lens where it contacts on the camera. Use denatured alcohol and a lint free cloth.

Is there a switch on the lens to turn the auto-focus on and off? Maybe turn it on and off a few times in case it's just dirty and not making contact.

i don't think you mentioned what lens this is happening with.. is it a Tokina by any chance? my Tokina wide-angle doesn't quite work right with AF and it has been 'fixed' twice now. in my case it either doesn't focus at all (no beep) or not all focus points blink when it does beep (d9, d21, d51, etc)

Since the OP was March of last year, I would assume the OP has either fixed the issue or has moved on.

yeah, i saw May and assumed this year.. oh well.