I'm pretty disappointed that after only 7 months my D5 just abruptly stopped focusing when tracking inflight birds. I completely reviewed the AF menu and it didn't make any difference, it just would not focus on a moving bird nor track them.
Just wondering if anyone else has had this issue or heard of it?
Thanks
Louie
Please clarify, it seems that you are saying that you only have a focusing problem when your subject is moving, and for stationary subjects does the camera works properly?
RoyC wrote:
Please clarify, it seems that you are saying that you only have a focusing problem when your subject is moving, and for stationary subjects does the camera works properly?
Am I reading this correctly?
When focusing on stationary subject it works fine but as soon as you point it at a moving subject it will slowly focus and not track at all, it goes out of focus and won't come back into focus unless I point it at a stationary subject once again.
Please explain a bit more Louie. I would assume that this is obviously not normal. Does it AF on a static subject quickly and accurately going near to far distances?
You could try to blow of the AF sensor which is deep down in the base of the camera. Sometimes there can be something on it that would affect the AF.
Otherwise its off to Nikon for the inevitable quote of "impact damage"
louie champan wrote:
When focusing on stationary subject it works fine but as soon as you point it at a moving subject it will slowly focus and not track at all, it goes out of focus and won't come back into focus unless I point it at a stationary subject once again.
I think the first step is to confirm that the camera is actually behaving as if it's in AF-C mode as you have it configured to do so. To troubleshoot, rather than trying to track a moving subject, what happens if you hold AF-ON/shutter-half-press down on a distant static subject and then point the camera to a closer static subject while still holding AF down. Does the camera refocus properly?
My D500 did the exact same thing. It would more or less focus on easy static subject, but it was slow and unable to track anything. Turned out I had some dust on the AF sensors. I blew them off and everything worked again. See 2.24 in the video below to give it a try.
louie champan wrote:
I'm pretty disappointed that after only 7 months my D5 just abruptly stopped focusing when tracking inflight birds. I completely reviewed the AF menu and it didn't make any difference, it just would not focus on a moving bird nor track them.
Just wondering if anyone else has had this issue or heard of it?
Thanks
Louie
Hi Louie,
first thing I would do is blow out the af sensors. That should help. If not, back to Nikon.
Edit:
I should have looked to see Steve's post. He shows where the AF sensors are.
After doing yoeman service one of my D5 bodies just stopped focusing. It was under Warrantee so I walked it into Nikon Wilshire Blvd service in Los Angeles. The counter man immediately agreed to fix it under Warrantee. It took about 5-7 working days.
I would really like to thank everyone for the time to address the issue I'm having. I've gained lots of good suggestions and the one that I didn't do or think of was blowing off the AF sensor.
Concerned as I was I was probably a bit to quick to pull the trigger on sending the D5 back to Nikon, but it's done now so I'll just have to wait and see what they say. When I learn something back from them, I'll update this thread with their findings.
Well I got my D5 back from Nikon Repair yesterday and thought I'd share all of you what they did, since I got such a good response about the issues I was having with it prior to sending it into Nikon.
Here’s what they said they did:
Adjusted Auto Focus Operation
Ckd bayonet mount
Ckd image test
Cks auto focus operation
Ckd exposure
Cleaned image sensor
Cleaned AF unit
General check and clean
Made a couple of quick shots outside, even though it's raining and not much flying around my yard except for a few crows, and it appears to be fine now. By looking at what was done to it, maybe all that was wrong was the AF sensor needed cleaning like was suggested by you all.
Thanks
Louie
Louie, glad to hear that you are back in business with your D5! Its a good camera to have during our extended rainy/cloudy season around here.
Keith W.
My first D5, after working just fine, stopped focusing. I took it into Nikon LA (Wiltshire). They seemed to know what the problem was and immediately approved it for Warrantee repair. Got it back and now no problems.
Glad to read that it is fixed. Yes blowing off the sensor may have been all it needed but maybe not. When I sent in my 7D2 to Canon for AF issues they said the camera was in spec and sent it back. However on return it came back working better and my guess is that they did clean the AF sensor while they had it and that is why things were better for awhile...
I think I will try to clean off my AF sensors more often. Just with the blower, don't think one can get a swab down there. First I need to find out where it is in my Canon cameras...thanks to Steve I can find it in my D500.
I had a similar issue on a new D4S. After a couple of days the auto focus would stop working when trying to capture birds in flight, airplanes in flight, just about anything in the sky. I talked to store and was goint to return it, they suggested a full reset, clean contacts etc.. Finally it went off to Nikon. They basically did the same thing as Louie's D5. It has been fine since. I'm thinking something is getting out of alignment during shipping.
I'm happy that my feedback from Nikon on what they did to my D5 might be of help to others. I know I have learned something during this ordeal, clean my AF sensor more often. As Geoff mentioned above, first I have to find out where it is.
