After AF testing the D7000 with several lenses I am perplexed about the AF fine tune settings. All of the lenses needed some correction, ranging from +5 to -17 or so. Is that normal? I am rather concerned about the 80-200/2.8 AF-D since -17 is almost at the edge of adjustment and I don't know why. If there were something wrong with the camera I'd think that the values for all lenses would all be in the same direction.
Interesting. I have a Nikon ED AF 80-200, 2.8. When I first got my D7K I went through the auto fine tune for all of my lenses. I just checked and my AF fine tune setting for my 80-200/2.8 is also -17.
yeah ALL my lenses need something, I'm disappointed with my D7000 in this respect, but otherwise once you have them dialed in the camera is pretty nice.
yeah all my lenses need fine tuning of some sort, with the exception on my nikon 10.5.....and they're all pretty drastic....like -16, -18, etc....do i care....eh....i'm learning to accept it....i get sharp results currently, so i'm not too worried...
the same lenses on my d300 don't require any fine tuning though...
Sally, That is interesting. On your camera, do all of the lenses need similar adjustment? If that is the case, then it would be easy to say it is in the body. In my case, some of my lenses need "+" adjustment and some need "-". Unless I am missing something, it seems like that would mean it is more of a lens issue and not a body issue. But it is all new to me. And besides, many people will tell you that it is impossible to fine tune zoom lenses, anyway. Presumably they could need a different adjustment at the wide end than they would need at the tele end. FWIW, my lenses are a mix of older lenses from my N90 film days and some newer "G" lenses. From what I remember, the G lenses seem to need less fine tune adjustment overall.
This was my experience going from a 1ds mkII to a d700/d7000. Lots of MA needed in both directions. My MA was similar between cameras and lenses that needed significant MA did not work well on a D5000.
SloPhoto -- That was my experience too. And don't get me started on the imprecise center AF point or the screwy programming in the Matrix Metering. I find the 5D, 1D2, 1Ds2, T2i and 60D much more reliable and predictable than the D7000. Ironically, my old D1X is also extremely accurate and predictable in all these areas and needs no MA. If I ever have a problem with any of these bodies, they go back to the maker for adjustment, rather than adjust a ton of lenses. The D7000 has been back to Nikon, which fixed the back focus issue, but I have to live with the other issues.
All mine front focus so I am in the minus numbers, not much, -3 to -7 with my 35mm 1.8 being the worst. I don't feel my 70-200mm vrii is sharp at all on this camera & I haven't tried to MA it. My previous 70-200 vrii was crazy sharp...but I sold it...doh...
EB-1 wrote:
After AF testing the D7000 with several lenses I am perplexed about the AF fine tune settings. All of the lenses needed some correction, ranging from +5 to -17 or so. Is that normal? I am rather concerned about the 80-200/2.8 AF-D since -17 is almost at the edge of adjustment and I don't know why. If there were something wrong with the camera I'd think that the values for all lenses would all be in the same direction.
EBH
There have been quite a few reports of this on dpreview, including some very advanced users who definitely knew what they were doing. I think Marianne Oelund had to use the max adjust on some lenses and even that wasn't enough for some others. She sent her body in to Nikon and I think she noted an improvement but still lots of adjustment necessary and I don't think she was ever completely satisified. Somehow I lucked out because my D7000 doesn't need MA on any of my lenses and that spans quite the gamut from wide-angle to telephoto.
I battled my D7000 for a while til I finally got fed up and sent it back to Nikon. I can't tell from the repair sheet just what they did to it, but they listed it as B2, which was pretty significant repair in their jargon. When it came back I needed no fine tune on my lenses. I bought an 18-70 for it now, but it seems to need -6 (haven't totally decided that's the best setting yet).
@AxisSally-The way I read the manual, you are moving in the wrong direction. If your lenses are front focusing(focusing ahead of the intended focus point) you would want to "move focal point away from camera" which would call for a + adjustment. That's how I read the manual on p.246. Correct me if I'm wrong though.
really? That would be funny...I'll have to check that out. But I guess maybe it is back focusing? If something in front of the target is sharp then that would be front focusing right?
glad i found this thread... I had a problem with a recently purchased d7k as well...
my 24mm 1.4g is absolutely terrible on the d7k in terms of AF accuracy. Ive tried MA but sometimes its still off.
I think its something to do with the AF sensor not getting enough light sometimes or misreading where I want it to focus (or im misaiming) either way, the 24g is perfect on my d3s.
Sadly, the d7k also has a very serious problem where it will often tell me that there's no card in the slot so i have to remove then reinsert the sd card. Im exchanging it for that reason, hopefully the next one i get solves both problems.
The AF fine tuning is dependent upon the lens and has little to do with the camera. If you are having problems with a specific camera it should be consistent in terms of the malfunction and easy to spot. Then it is best to send it in for servicing.
With Canon gear one has to send cameras and lenses to Canon periodically for "recalibration" and it was happening so often that Canon finally offered the fine tuning adjustment as a panacea. Jeff Ascough made it a practice to send everything back to Canon at the end of the season so all his cameras and lenses were "right" for the start of the next season's wedding photography.
Most of my pro level Nikon lenses need zero adjustment. Important to appreciate that these adjustments move the DOF as well so a person's nose may be sharper post adjustment but their eyes may be less sharp (assuming that the nose is the point of focus).
it could well be random QC problems as I have only tested my 17-55 and 85 f1.8 and needed one "click" + for one and one - for the other. My D7k's biggest prob are my shaky hands
EBH. I would send it in to Nikon and have them sort the problem.
Tim
elkhornsun wrote:
The AF fine tuning is dependent upon the lens and has little to do with the camera. If you are having problems with a specific camera it should be consistent in terms of the malfunction and easy to spot. Then it is best to send it in for servicing.
With Canon gear one has to send cameras and lenses to Canon periodically for "recalibration" and it was happening so often that Canon finally offered the fine tuning adjustment as a panacea. Jeff Ascough made it a practice to send everything back to Canon at the end of the season so all his cameras and lenses were "right" for the start of the next season's wedding photography.
Most of my pro level Nikon lenses need zero adjustment. Important to appreciate that these adjustments move the DOF as well so a person's nose may be sharper post adjustment but their eyes may be less sharp (assuming that the nose is the point of focus).
It is also very easy for a certain camera to have an AF sensor or algorithm that is more or less sensitive to MA and or prone to error in one direction. Software aint perfect.
I like to use a small bottle with fine print to test focus. (A Peychaud's Bitters is perfect.) Move the bottle left to right across the center point, and the place where focus is the closest to the camera is the center of the center point - this makes it clear whether the AF point aligns properly with the viewfinder. Then the curvature of the bottle makes it easy to tell exactly where focus lies - if it's out of focus and gets worse further back it's front focused. If the plane is back on the curvature of the bottle it's back focused. A Peychaud's Bitters represents a range of about 10 AF tune clicks on the D7000. Positive adjustments moves focus out from the camera (use for front focus), negative towards it (for back focus).
With some lenses with 'rough' front-field bokeh it can be hard to tell; the camera may be focused behind the bottle but the bokeh produces faux sharpness somewhere on the print.
Between each test, defocus the lens and make the camera refocus completely. Repeat a few times to rule out the odd misfocus (my D7000 does that somewhere around 10-20% of the time).
Jan Brittenson wrote:
I like to use a small bottle with fine print to test focus. (A Peychaud's Bitters is perfect.) Move the bottle left to right across the center point, and the place where focus is the closest to the camera is the center of the center point - this makes it clear whether the AF point aligns properly with the viewfinder. Then the curvature of the bottle makes it easy to tell exactly where focus lies - if it's out of focus and gets worse further back it's front focused. If the plane is back on the curvature of the bottle it's back focused. A Peychaud's Bitters represents a range of about 10 AF tune clicks on the D7000. Positive adjustments moves focus out from the camera (use for front focus), negative towards it (for back focus).
With some lenses with 'rough' front-field bokeh it can be hard to tell; the camera may be focused behind the bottle but the bokeh produces faux sharpness somewhere on the print.
Between each test, defocus the lens and make the camera refocus completely. Repeat a few times to rule out the odd misfocus (my D7000 does that somewhere around 10-20% of the time). ...Show more →
I use the original Lensalign Pro and I do each test 5 times.
