12 hours after a new D7000, I am thinking at this early moment I should return it

What a large disappointment this camera is so far. Am I missing something? I have been into photography for going on 50 years, owned large and small format film cameras as well the first Kodak digital and have been an owner of a Nikon D50 and before that, many other digitals as well. I bought the D7000 camera kit today with the 18-200mm lens and was expecting a large upgrade over the D50 with this camera but with what I am discovering I just don't see it as a justified expense.

The auto-focus with live view enabled is quite the joke, with the lens motor going into a wild frenzy trying to find a focus point from a scene that seemed quite easy for it to locate just a few seconds before (while the display was in normal mode and the focus assistant lamp found it by strobing). My thoughts so far with the unusable "live mode" auto-focus (one primary reason for buying this camera) is that my Canon SD850 has no trouble finding the focus point with its native "live mode", nor does the Nikon with "live mode" switched off, so why does a Nikon D7000 in its switchable "live mode" cause the lens to shake shimmy and finally give up while attempting the same?

Also I expected more sharpness with a lens costing this much. Not satisfied so far, but maybe like I said, I am missing something.

Another question I have is, unless one has their nose removed, how are they supposed to get the eye piece close enough to practically use it (particularly since live mode can't seem to auto-focus)?

Additionally both my Sigma 8mm fisheye and Sigma 10-20mm, previously purchased for use on the Nikon D50 seem slightly off plane, and thus always just slightly out of focus across the entire spectrum on the D7000, well just enough to give me a severe spine shiver.

With regards to the out-of-focus issue, refer to page 246 of your owner's manual for the "AF Fine Tune" settings.

Welcome to Nikonites!

I've found that the live view mode isn't very effective. It's similar with the D90 and D5000. I don't think live view should be relied on for composing most of your shots. I've never had a problem looking through a viewfinder.

Unfortunately, there have been several others that have reported focus issues:
http://nikonites.com/d7000/3389-my-d7000-will-not-focus-properly.html
http://nikonites.com/d7000/2068-d7000-focus-issues.html

Fotonut if all of your lenses are out of focus then I suggest sending your camera to Nikon to have it calibrated.

Have you tried setting your viewfinder focus? It's that little wheel next to the viewfinder. Maybe that's what's out of focus. Or are the pictures themselves actually out of focus? I'm just guessing here....I've run out of ideas of what it could be.

There is definitely some learning curve that a new user needs to pay attention. Reading the owners manual helps to get you feet wet and familiarize yourself with the features and controls to tailor it based on your preference. The Nikon 18-200mm f3.5-5.6 VRII needs to be stopped down to 7.1 in order to get really sharp images and it's best used outdoors in good light. If you are really not comfortable with it's functions and use, Nikon should be announcing more expensive FX bodies on the 24th of August.

In defense of the D7000, I've read pros who have sold their D3 since they seemed to get more keepers using the 3D AF tracking of the D7000. I also sent my camera to Nikon to have the body verified for calibration and was returned back to me free of charge. Tough call.

I am returning mine for an exchange ... I am hoping it is not just the whole line of D7000's. If it is I will move on to something else. Very disappointed.

What does your serial number start with? I wonder if it's a bad batch.

Mine is 3151

BTW here is more people having issues.

http://www.hiwhy.com/2010/11/13/nikon-d7000-autofocus-problem/

My serial number starts with 5019. Does that mean mine is newer than yours even though I bought it in May?

It may mean it was biult somewhere ealse or that it is newer. I have decided to return the D7000 and get either the D90 or the D300s. After reading the above link I figure it may contiue to be a problem.

Had my D7000 for about a half a year,not one problem with it.
Love it,sorry to hear you guys are not enjoying the same.

Sent from my HTC Sensation 4G using Tapatalk

My guess is that there is some user error here. a step up from a D50 is a large step and some learning curve is to be expected. read your manual and fine tune everything. also you mention that POS 18-200 lens. not the fastest or sharpest in the lot...
As for the move to a D90, I love mine. once I figured out the controls and software life became easy. I only use live mode when I am shooting low POV and need to make sure my composition is how I like it. after that I turn off the live view, double check the settings and make sure my focus point is where I wanted it (single point)

have you upgraded to the latest bios ? believe they are up to 1.02 now ?

I do not know which person you guys are talking to but the OP has not posted again and I returned the D7000 and have a D90 on the way.

Wow, I know a lot people who bought the D7000 and love it some are very seasoned pros!

For some reason I am not getting email notifications of responses and just stopped here by chance today. Thanks for the replies.

Observation: OK, I have been studying and experimenting with this camera. From what I can understand, here is my rendition of how this camera operates based on autofocus experience solely from a Nikon D50, many Canon SD-xxx series and previous SLRs. With the D7000 the focus mechanism is new and as it is configured and shipped, it functions by default via a 36 point "window sweep" (my term) that occurs when I depress the shutter release button. At this point the scene is swept with these square flashing dots and the camera attempts to guess what I am focusing on. If the dancing squares don't find the subject point of focus, then the shutter will not release, no matter how many times or how hard it is depressed. Then it's only until the light is changed, subject moves or something causes the program to recalculate (other than repeatedly pressing the shutter release) and then we take the second chance we will have a successful location. The unresponsive shutter, not respoiding until focus can be obtained can be overridden in the configuration menu, but the question would be what would be the point of forcing the shutter release if the image was not in focus.

Editorial: I am confused as to what benefit this feature is. In a test scenario with outside daylight still shining on my subject through a window in a restaurant (light to camera's back), the performance of this feature was sporadic with a relatively high (and embarrassing) failure rate. The camera would take approximately 8-10 photos and then when I pressed the shutter, only one small square dot would appear in the viewfinder; the sweeping dots would just seem to go to sleep.

Observation: After reading and studying more, I found procedures on how to hold in the small but not obvious button in the center of the typical AF-Manual lever on the front of the camera, lower left of the lens. With this held in, the front wheel can be rotated to reduce the 36 dots down to 1, the back wheel can be rotated to change the AF value to AF-S, and the toggle switch on the back can be flipped to focus selector lock. At this point, the camera appears to work dependably, much like the older SLRs & D-SLRs have historically, where one can center the focus point over the subject, press the shutter release half way down, hold the focus, frame the shot and complete the depression fully to release the shutter. So far, this setup produces shots with the correct focus point and I have had none that "hesitate" like occurs when using the 36 dot matrix method as is configured when the camera is shipped.

Editorial: Spending almost no time researching or reading about equipment except every 5 years or so (computers or cameras) and not participating in photo social circles, I have to now ask if this is a correct assessment of the operation of the D7000 as well as the purchase perhaps an incorrect assessment of my needs, looking for a super affordable and super improvement over the D50? If I am on track so far with describing the focus mechanism that is not 100% dependable, would I do better with a D90 or less, or does the D90 also present this to deal with?

Humor: If my tests are accurate and my D7000 is working as it should, it seems the only fail safe method for a manufacturer to add a "guess where to focus feature" would be once they have the technology to do proximity brain scans. Otherwise today, I think I just bough a lot of features that don't really work and I don't really need.

fotonut said:

For some reason I am not getting email notifications of responses...

Click to expand...

Things don't always work the way we want them to work. Sometimes, it takes a little effort.

At the top of the page, click "Settings."

Under "My Settings," click "General Settings."

Under "Messaging & Notification," use the drop down menu for "Default Thread Subscription Mode:" to select the notification type you want.

All that's for a default choice. For an individual thread, use the "Thread Tools" link in the gray bar to subscribe.

Philosophically speaking, I think it would have been better to say that "things don't always work the way we want them to unless we pay enough for them to work that way".

Also you gotta know that the best Buffet line is "I'd rather die while I'm living than to live while I'm dead" ;-)

fotonut said:

...you gotta know that the best Buffet line is "I'd rather die while I'm living than to live while I'm dead"

Click to expand...

If I had a serious bone in my body, I might agree with you.