d7000 and my blurry photos

So I was forced to junk out my D90 by best buy. I had to purchased the D7000 or downgrade to a beginner DSLR camera. I had the D40 for 3 years and the D90 for 2 years prior. I am having issues with the D7000 and the lens that came with it, DX AF-S nikkor 18-105mm1:3.5-5.6G ED. My issue is my pictures are blurry, always. I have to adjust the focus ring every time I zoom in or out. I never had to touch the ring on my D90 or D40. I would rather not ever mess with it. I am certain it is due to my error, such as a setting or something that I am just not aware of. This is all while in auto mode, nothing fancy. Should my lens be set to A or M? Should the camera be on AF or M? If the lens is on A and the camera is on AF I am not able to take a picture. This camera is too much for me, but I am stuck with it and would LOVE to be able to use it and not have blurry pictures. Yes I realize I don't know enough about this camera but I still want to be able to use it. Any help will be greatly appreciated.

The D7000 allows you to fine tune the focus for each specific lens. It sounds to me that you have a lens or two that is out of tune. Follow these directions and check the focus of each of your lenses. See HERE. And because the D7000 is so cool, it will remember the setting for each of your lenses so that when you change them it will automatically use the setting you put for that specific lens.

the lens should be in A for auto focus and leave the camera in AF as this will enable worm drive lenses to be used.. Adjusting the focus system should not be neccessary to get it to work and focus 99% good .. The focus system adjust is just for that last critical adjustment and not even present on other cameras ...Try at 18mm in reasonable light ...auto iso 400-6400 sharpness at +9 ( this may be your problem as they come out the factory set soft ) contrast -1 use P mode on the dial

The lens setting is A/M I believe. The camera in AF. A silly question but is your eyepiece adjusted to your eyes by turning the adjuster next to it? If not and you manually ficus you will blur the end result.

come on mate I know its christmas but if the A/F is wrong it wont even try to focus and the eyepiece has no effect on the recorded image as seen on the rear screen or when downloaded ...have you got the image in Large I ask ???

pistnbroke said:

come on mate I know its christmas but if the A/F is wrong it wont even try to focus and the eyepiece has no effect on the recorded image as seen on the rear screen or when downloaded ...have you got the image in Large I ask ???

Click to expand...

I'm sorry if my suggestion is so worthless in your opinion, however it would have that effect, I've just tried it to confirm. If you use the AF to focus and don't like what you see in the eyepiece such that you override it manually that's what you'd get. He didn't state that it wasn't activating AF at all. At the end of the day it was a suggestion that would take 2 seconds to verify. Is the "have you got the image in Large" comment directed at me or the originator?

By the way I'm perfectly sober and Christmas has a capital 'C'

Wasn't there an owner's manual in the box in which came your D7000? Sometimes nothing can replace the reading of such booklet.

I sincerely hope you find the correct setup of your camera as I'm perfectly happy with mine once properly setup.
Enjoy your Nikon and WELCOME to the Forum.

It should bleep when the focus is right (autofocus) but if its not in large then it will look soft when put up on a monitor....I still check the manual on occasions after owning two for 14 months and about 40,000 commercial shots.

If I read the question right it has less to do with front/back focus and more to do with continuity of focus as you zoom. In other words, zooming in to 105mm, focusing, and then zooming out again only to find the object is no longer in focus. To which my answer would be, "That's the way the lens is designed, and it would never have worked like that on the D90, D40 or any other camera". The optics are such that they move as you zoom, making it necessary to readjust the focus at the new focal length. There are some zoom lenses that can maintain focus across the entire zoom range, but the 18-105 is definitely not one of them. If you experience it with the D90 or D40 then it has to be because the camera refocused for you before taking the photo.

As was suggested, check your auto-focus settings.

great point back door ..those of us who do it automatically dont event think of re focus we always half press before each photo ...best to use AF-S and have one spot so you can pick the centre of focus

Did you check your shutter speed?

mgraybill,

I had/have the same issues with my D7000 and asked a similar question. Most folks try to blame it on user error (most cases true) or a back-focus issue (IMO this excuse is over used). I found the best help via the internet which let me to the section in the manual "Image Enhancement" pages 131-138. Once I made these adjustments I saw at least a 50% improvement. My photos are still slightly soft or fuzzy...but much better than when I started.
Good Luck...

Agreed, I shoot in single spot AF and rarely ever have shots out of focus.

Cheers