D7000 Focus issues

[Dooku77]

I'm afraid to upgrade to the D7000 for exactly this reason...

Seems every source with reviews experiences the same 50% or better failure rate...

I was the same way. All those other sources I came to find out through much Internet research, was the same people going on every forum complaining about the same issue and then it sparked a whole scare. I'm not saying the issue doesn't exist, I'm saying that there are more great D7000 than bad ones. 2 things: 1) don't buy it from Costco if they still have them. From what I understand there was a large bunch of cameras that had the issue from their inventory. 2) buy your camera somewhere that will exchange it or refund your money should you get a bad model. There are many of us here who have these cameras and we are all very happy with them. Buy with confidence and enjoy life through the lens

Willie C

 

[pistnbroke]

Well you would expect that bird to be in focus its at F11....
Only focus problems we have had have been solved by using the single centre spot and putting an edge in it ( AF-S)...if you focus on a monotone area it wont focus......

 

[eurotrash]

wth is "pattern" metering mode?

 

[Dave_W]

wth is "pattern" metering mode?

In pattern mode the camera samples multiple areas of the potential image in order to determine the proper exposure. Opposite of this is spot metering in which only the focus point is being used to determine the proper exposure.

 

[wysiwyg]

I have to add my 2 cents worth here ... In 25 years I have never left the house to do a paid job without a back up second camera ! I have never arrived to shoot a wedding without two back up bodies !

 

[eurotrash]

so, "pattern" IS "matrix" metering, then?

 

[Manna69247]

Hi All, I'm new here...
I've had my D7000 for year and half with no problems - with kit 18-105mm f3.5-5.6 lens. I've rent a Tamron 70-200 f2.8 last 2 weeks for a dog show, most I've learn with the 18-105 went out the door and I've got about 20% of the shots. I went back, read a lot and practice with the lens and the next weekend (again dog show and indoor gymnastics) the shots were great.

I told a friend that I always wished to have a 'professional' lens and when I had one I never thought it will be that sensitive.

I'm lucky I bought my D7000 not long after they released them and after thousands of photos with the 18-105, am still very happy with my purchase.

Now to get the better glass...

Sent from my BlackBerry 9900 using Tapatalk

 

[Jon]

I was one of those skeptics about this focus issue. I've never had problems with the almost 2 years I've had the d7000. I've been using only my 35mm the last 2 months but decided to use my 18-105mm kit lens last weekend. I went out to capture the different colors of fall in a provincial park. At first, I was blaming the weather because it was a bit cold making my hand to numb. I thought I was not pressing the shutter properly to focus it first. Most of my shots were not focused. I then looked at the menu, if I had the correct set-up i.e. to focus first before fring the shutter. But the setting was correct. I then removed the lens and put it back again. Thinking maybe this was not placed properly. It still didn't focus. That's when I remember this thread which I never really bothered to read. I just focus manually for the rest of the day. When I went home, it's working again. I don't know if this is something intermittent. Don't get me wrong I still adore this camera.

 

[stmv]

who knows, I am becoming a skeptic to all this focus talk. use a tripod, control experiment, then maybe, but I truly wonder how many are user error.

I prefer point focus, moving the point around to the spot. and taking the shot. zoom in in preview to double check, and so far any focus issues have always been my technique.

I will say, that quality technique including shutter pressing is critical with these high resolution cameras.

when I don't have my remote release, I have gotten into the habit of timer x 2 (2 shots per press with a 2 second delay for the first shot), by the second shutter the camera is definitely 100% settled down.

Of course, shooting at say 500th second or more, then technique can be relaxed a bit.

If you want sharpest photos, then one has to be willing to invest the time.

 

[Litrekid]

Well I just purchased my 7000 and decided to try the battery experiment with a tripod using single point focus and shutter timer. The pics displayed a bit of background focus. Somewhere between the last two batteries. Then I decided to try my kit lens from my d60. It's a 18-55 and it was spot on. Seemed perfectly focused on the middle battery. So what could be wrong with the 7000 kit lens?

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk 2

 

[pistnbroke]

you need to adjust the back focus or fine focus adjust ..this will be remembered by the camera and specific to the lens fitted ( will not affect kit lens) ...put an expanding tape ruler pulled out about 4 ft in front of the camera at 45 deg to the lens axis ( I prop mine up on a couple of glasses on the table) and focus on the 24 in measurement . single centre spot....widest aperture longest focal length 10x focal length or more away. Examine on computer and zoom in ...if say 23 in is bang on focus you need to adjust to get 24 in spot on....This is the easy foolproof way to do it

 

[ccoulson]

I was one of those skeptics about this focus issue. I've never had problems with the almost 2 years I've had the d7000. I've been using only my 35mm the last 2 months but decided to use my 18-105mm kit lens last weekend. I went out to capture the different colors of fall in a provincial park. At first, I was blaming the weather because it was a bit cold making my hand to numb. I thought I was not pressing the shutter properly to focus it first. Most of my shots were not focused. I then looked at the menu, if I had the correct set-up i.e. to focus first before fring the shutter. But the setting was correct. I then removed the lens and put it back again. Thinking maybe this was not placed properly. It still didn't focus. That's when I remember this thread which I never really bothered to read. I just focus manually for the rest of the day. When I went home, it's working again. I don't know if this is something intermittent. Don't get me wrong I still adore this camera.

Ahhhh this is exactly what happened to mine...
Seriously. Im So glad you posted this.

Mine started doing this more and more. Sent back to nikon... they did nothing for it.

What helped mine was removing the battery, and putting it back it, It seemed to focus again after that.

It only gets worse..... or it did on mine.
Hope the battery thing helps you

Courtnie

 

[pistnbroke]

Its not a problem its just that Nikon have given you an adjustment to take out tolerances in the body and lens so that the two can be prefectly matched...not so noticable with a wide lens but with say a 200mm it is ...So its not a fault its an adjustment you have not carried out

 

[Dave_W]

Well I just purchased my 7000 and decided to try the battery experiment with a tripod using single point focus and shutter timer. The pics displayed a bit of background focus. Somewhere between the last two batteries. Then I decided to try my kit lens from my d60. It's a 18-55 and it was spot on. Seemed perfectly focused on the middle battery. So what could be wrong with the 7000 kit lens?

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk 2

Kit lenses are less likely to be perfectly in-tune with your camera body. It can easily be addressed by using the Auto-Focus fine tuning.

 

[Jon]

I dropped my d7000 once. It didn't work for couple of "scary" minutes. I then removed the lens and battery. Somehow it got it to reset. If I do encounter this focus problem again, I'll try to remove the battery as well. Thanks for the tip, Courtnie.

 

[Jon]

Sorry to describe this as a "problem" but I am just saying I had experienced this first hand. Again, I am still a die-hard D7000 owner. If it works 99% of the time, I'm happy with that. I am not all bashing this camera at all. It's something I will keep for a long time maybe until a time my wife has a prophetic dream and surprises me with a D800 for Christmas (Santa are you real?). Curiously, how do you do adjustment or auto-focus fine tuning? Would you be doing this everytime you changed lenses?

 

[pistnbroke]

Its in the menu so check in the manual....as I said the camera recognizes the lens you fit and adjust automatically to your fine tune settings..

what you are doing is adjusting the focus point of the lens so that it matches the auto focus system of the camera....

I told you how to do it a couple of post up......

 

[Dave_W]

Sorry to describe this as a "problem" but I am just saying I had experienced this first hand. Again, I am still a die-hard D7000 owner. If it works 99% of the time, I'm happy with that. I am not all bashing this camera at all. It's something I will keep for a long time maybe until a time my wife has a prophetic dream and surprises me with a D800 for Christmas (Santa are you real?). Curiously, how do you do adjustment or auto-focus fine tuning? Would you be doing this everytime you changed lenses?

You should test each and every one of your lenses for their auto-focus fine tuning. You would be surprised how much some of them can be out. It's a fairly easy thing to do. Here's a great tutorial and printout that I like because it also contains a way to insure you're at a 45 degree angle.

http://focustestchart.com/focus10.pdf

Fortunately, your camera can "remember" the settings on up to 12 different lenses so that each time you put that particular lens on, the camera will automatically adjust its setting. You can find the auto-focus tuning under the "Set up" menu.

 

[Bossman]

I have a D7000 which came with a back focus issue, it's a simple matter of using the AF fine tune in the set up menu. I now have all ten of my lenses logged into the camera. Once done, the camera performs better than the D90, which I also own, because each lens is matched with the camera.

 

[RSNovi]

I just checked my d7000 the other day using 5 batteries placed at a 45 degree angle from the camera. All my lenses seemed to focus right on the center battery I selected.