Focusing issue

C

Crispix396

New member
Long story as short as possible. Went out last weekend with a friends birthday party taking photos. Nikon 7100 / 25mm 1.4 - made it to 4 different bars, no problem and someone asked if they could look at the photos and went through a few photos. When they gave me the camera back, the auto focus illumination bulb would not light up and when you looked through the view finder, it looked like it was only trying to focus on one spot (set to 51) at around far 3:30 (clock example of where the the spot was).

I went through all the settings, turned the focus lock dial to L and off of L. could not get it to stop. Switched to the fully auto mode, and it worked just fine, switched back to P mode, and same issue. Took lens off, took battery out, put all back together, same thing. Went into menu, focus light was set to ON. Focus area was set to 51 AF-A (Tried AF-S, i dont think i tried AF-C) all with the same results. Finally just hit the two green buttons to reset it, didnt immediately work, but then suddenly it was working again.. Lasted about 6 shots, and then it was broke again. Reset the camera, worked again for the rest of the night. I have not been back in the dark since to see if the issue happens again, but it has me concerned.

Is there anything someone could have hit on the back of the camera which would do this?
I wish there was a way to choose exactly which point the focus system would choose, but that did not seem to be the case. Seemed like it just chose a random point and thats all it was trying to focus on.

Any help is appreciated. Thanks.
 
Horoscope Fish

Horoscope Fish

Senior Member
Crispix396 said:
Long story as short as possible. Went out last weekend with a friends birthday party taking photos. Nikon 7100 / 25mm 1.4 - made it to 4 different bars, no problem and someone asked if they could look at the photos and went through a few photos. When they gave me the camera back, the auto focus illumination bulb would not light up and when you looked through the view finder, it looked like it was only trying to focus on one spot (set to 51) at around far 3:30 (clock example of where the the spot was).

I went through all the settings, turned the focus lock dial to L and off of L. could not get it to stop. Switched to the fully auto mode, and it worked just fine, switched back to P mode, and same issue. Took lens off, took battery out, put all back together, same thing. Went into menu, focus light was set to ON. Focus area was set to 51 AF-A (Tried AF-S, i dont think i tried AF-C) all with the same results. Finally just hit the two green buttons to reset it, didnt immediately work, but then suddenly it was working again.. Lasted about 6 shots, and then it was broke again. Reset the camera, worked again for the rest of the night. I have not been back in the dark since to see if the issue happens again, but it has me concerned.

Is there anything someone could have hit on the back of the camera which would do this?
I wish there was a way to choose exactly which point the focus system would choose, but that did not seem to be the case. Seemed like it just chose a random point and thats all it was trying to focus on.

Any help is appreciated. Thanks.
Click to expand...
Two things to look at/try...

1. Does the lens have a AF/MF switch? Some lenses do, some don't. If it does, you want it set to "AF".
2. The camera body has an AF/MF switch located at about seven, or eight o'clock as you look at the back of the camera. The button itself, though, is on the front of the camera body. This switch also needs to be set to "AF".
 
P

Pretzel

Senior Member
Horoscope Fish said:
Two things to look at/try...

1. Does the lens have a AF/MF switch? Some lenses do, some don't. If it does, you want it set to "AF".
2. The camera body has an AF/MF switch located at about seven, or eight o'clock as you look at the back of the camera. The button itself, though, is on the front of the camera body. This switch also needs to be set to "AF".
Click to expand...

Probably exactly that. That and in trying to scroll through pictures, they adjusted the focal spot with the multi-directional on the back. A little reading in the manual should help ya get it back to center, or multi-point auto once you make sure the switches are correct.
 
N

nickt

Senior Member
Maybe I am mis-reading your question, but it sounds like you are just not understanding your focus modes. You know you can just jog that focus point around with the multi selector, right? (provided the lock is not on.) In the the 9, 21, 51 point modes, you are picking a starting point and focus may jump to other points. If you are in single point mode, you are picking a single focus point. Something like auto-area will let the camera pick pretty much any of the focus points depending on the scene. You also mention af-a and af-s. These are modes for the focus servo and do not affect how the focus point is selected. So you need to read up on this. There is a lot to it, but its worth mastering.
 
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