D500 Low-Battery Autofocus Issue

Whiskeyman

Senior Member
I got out with both my D500 and D750 this evening and it was miserable, weather wise. 90+ degrees Fahrenheit and about 80-90 per-cent humidity. Out of the bag, both camera-lens combinations were fogged over, and I waited about 15 minutes to use the cameras. The D750 worked with no problem, but the D500 wouldn't automatically focus. So, I checked everything I could think of, and even tried all of the back-button focus possibilities, but the only way to focus was manually.

After returning home, I got the camera out and cleaned the contacts between the camera and lens, and even reset the back-button focus settings on the camera, but nothing worked. Then I happened to look at the battery level at the menu level, not just the top LCD. While the top LCD showed a charge, the menu battery check showed 5%. So, a new battery went in, and viola!, the auto-focus worked.

Lesson learned, again; always check battery power levels before you go out with your camera!

WM
 

Roy1961

Senior Member
Contributor
i have only had mine die once while out shooting (i was walking around the neighborhood) it auto focused ok on my last shot?

on a side note, i just contacted Nikon support and i am ready to ship my 2 spare batteries back for the new replacements.
 

lokatz

Senior Member
Coincidentally, my D500 just went dead with an empty battery. I charged the battery for about a minute, put it back in and checked the menu: 1%. In spite of that, the camera auto-focused just fine. Seems your issue was something else.
 

Fred Kingston

Senior Member
I'd be curious why the top LCD showed a charged battery, and the menu showed 5%... That should have shown a battery bar in the LCD with barely 1 bar
 

Blacktop

Senior Member
Coincidentally, my D500 just went dead with an empty battery. I charged the battery for about a minute, put it back in and checked the menu: 1%. In spite of that, the camera auto-focused just fine. Seems your issue was something else.

Maybe it needs more juice when focusing a screw drive lens then an AF-S lens.
 

Whiskeyman

Senior Member
I'd be curious why the top LCD showed a charged battery, and the menu showed 5%... That should have shown a battery bar in the LCD with barely 1 bar
It was showing one bar, which should have lead me to change batteries. However, I was in a such a hurry with an unexpected task before I left, I only took a few minutes to put my bag together, and didn't check everything like I should have. I'd like to say that this will never happen again, but I don't want to lie about it. (I know that it will eventually happen to me again...)

WM
 

Whiskeyman

Senior Member
i have only had mine die once while out shooting (i was walking around the neighborhood) it auto focused ok on my last shot?

on a side note, i just contacted Nikon support and i am ready to ship my 2 spare batteries back for the new replacements.

Coincidentally, my D500 just went dead with an empty battery. I charged the battery for about a minute, put it back in and checked the menu: 1%. In spite of that, the camera auto-focused just fine. Seems your issue was something else.

This is good to know, although not what I wanted to hear. I have never experienced this issue with any other camera that I own, so it very well may be another issue. The humidity last night was terribly high, which may have been a factor. I haven't charged the low battery yet, so now that the camera and lens have been in a moderate and dry environment for about 14 hours, I'll put the low battery back into the camera and see if it can be replicated. I'll also try the battery in my D750 to see if the issue is replicated with another camera. Depending upon what I see, I may be in contact with Nikon USA for service.

WM
 

lokatz

Senior Member
Maybe it needs more juice when focusing a screw drive lens then an AF-S lens.

Sorry, doesn't make sense to me. Whiskeyman had 5%, I had 1%. Ok, those are approximations anyway, so let's assume I had 1% and he had 2%. The 7100 is spec'd at 950 shots per battery load. Even if we discard that number somewhat and say you only get 500-600, as some users do, that still means he should have had 10+ average shots left when he experienced the issue. And we're just looking at the focusing system here, not everything else, while shutter, image storage, and (most relevant) image display together eat up much more juice than the AF system does. Just doesn't add up.

Not sure where exactly to point, but my guess would be internal moisture, either in the lens or the camera. The D7100 is not particularly well-sealed. Anyway, glad the issue fixed itself. Personally, I would not lose sleep over it unless it becomes repetitive.

[This is professional advice. I'm an MSEE. ;)]
 

Blacktop

Senior Member
Sorry, doesn't make sense to me. Whiskeyman had 5%, I had 1%. Ok, those are approximations anyway, so let's assume I had 1% and he had 2%. The 7100 is spec'd at 950 shots per battery load. Even if we discard that number somewhat and say you only get 500-600, as some users do, that still means he should have had 10+ average shots left when he experienced the issue. And we're just looking at the focusing system here, not everything else, while shutter, image storage, and (most relevant) image display together eat up much more juice than the AF system does. Just doesn't add up.

Not sure where exactly to point, but my guess would be internal moisture, either in the lens or the camera. The D7100 is not particularly well-sealed. Anyway, glad the issue fixed itself. Personally, I would not lose sleep over it unless it becomes repetitive.

[This is professional advice. I'm an MSEE. ;)]

Or..Perhaps his cam is not displaying the battery level correctly. I will not rest until this mystery is solved.;) To the Mystery machine!!

man-in-a-scooby-doo-childrens-peddle-mystery-machine-miniature-van-F17101.jpg
 

Bikerbrent

Senior Member
Might be a continuation of the D500 battery compatibility issue. If you will recall the D500 has some issues in this area as it is not even compatible with some Nikon batteries, let alone third party battieris.
 

RocketCowboy

Senior Member
Might be a continuation of the D500 battery compatibility issue. If you will recall the D500 has some issues in this area as it is not even compatible with some Nikon batteries, let alone third party battieris.

What Nikon battery is it not compatible with? Mine has worked with every battery I've fed it, even the recalled ones. The recalled batteries don't provide the same number of shots per charge as the new models, but otherwise work fine.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

Fred Kingston

Senior Member
I think, under the circumstances you're fine... but, since everyone here seems to contend that a low battery doesn't effect the auto-focus... I'd be tempted to run a battery down as much as possible and test to see if in fact, the low battery was the problem or not...
 

wev

Senior Member
Contributor
I was going to past a query here and on the Tam 150-600 thread about exactly this tonight. After repeated lockups and errors while shooting burst shots, I called both Nikon and Tamron support. Nikon was useless, as it was a third party lens and I could not reproduce it with my 50 or 55-200. Tamron was much more helpful and between us we came up with a bunch of testing to isolate the issue (reset body, reset lens, new cards, etc). In the end it came down to the battery. With any of my three Nikon cells, if I get to less than 10% charge, the camera will randomly shoot two or three frames in burst, then lock up entirely, requiring me to pull the battery to restart. Then the top display will still show ERR and I have to switch to single shot for one exposure, producing no image, but one very loud metallic CLICK, then all is back to normal. As soon as I replace the battery, the issue disappears entirely. A further call to Nikon got a "never heard of such a thing" reply and, as all my batteries are the latest build, they do not qualify for replacement. The only bright side is that I am getting 1525+ shots on a charge, so I am pretty good to go with the three I have.
 
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