saaketham wrote:
But, that's what AF-tuning is for.
You see that's my problem right there. How is it, my one body, the D700 can focus with all my primes 100%, in fact both D700 bodies I've owned, have been 100%, wide open at f1.8 for me. So NO, I wouldn't just tolerate it. I'd send it straight back and get a replacement. I've only ever dealt with Nikon ONCE for an AF inconsistency on my one lens (the body was fine), and stupidly I let them tinker with it's AF. Never again. That D700 may have been 'to spec' after they were finished with it, but not for me it wasn't. It got sold. No more Nikon tinkering with the AF for me.
It looks that Nikon is a bit sloppy when calibrating the AF of consumer bodies. When I got the D7000 last November, I went thru 3 bodies until I found one that focuses my lenses correctly. I got the camera with the kit lens, and in each cases that kit lens focused properly. Well at f/5.6 you wouldn't notice any small error anyway. But all my faster lenses were off until I got to the last body. I also have a D700 which works fine with all my lenses out of the box.
I recently had the "fix" for the spots on sensor issue. They replaced the mirror box and focus screen and realigned the entire system doing check for exposure and focusing. Since getting it back from Nikon with the 4 lenses I have (50mm f1.4D, 55-200vr, 70-300vr and 18-105vr kit lens) only the kit lens needs adjustment for best sharpness long and short. I adjusted -12 and now it's super sharp at both ends and all across it's range. I'm not unhappy with that.
Mine was spot on for the first 10 months, then started back focusing in a bad, bad way - unable to correct with micro-adjust.
I did have the sensor cleaned by an authorized service shop before it started back focusing. I'm not sure if it's possible that the shop that cleaned it screwed it up. I don't shoot enough to clearly identify that as the instigating factor, but I suspect that it was. I have no idea what's involved in a sensor cleaning or if it's possible to mess up the AF.
It was still under warranty, so I sent it in. Two weeks later, it's back in my hands (I missed it!!!), and it's absolutely spot on again, essentially perfect with all my fast primes (the 85 needs -2, or some tiny correction like that).
I don't remember a focusing problem with any of my AF slr film cameras. I don't even think they had the ability to adjust focus on the body. Why is this a new problem. Is it because focus is more critical on a digital sensor than film. Or is it because of the high pixel count on this camera?