d800 and Nikon 2137 AF Nikkor 50 mm F/1.8 D FX Full Frame Prime ,problems....

Hi,

 

A week ago I bought a Nikon 2137 AF nikkor 50 mm 1.8 d lens for a 2nd hand d800 I also bought recently, I`ve had some nice results with it, but also some problems.

I can only get it to focus properly when looking through the live view screen, ie a green focus light, If i look through the viewfinder it wont auto focus with a green focus point, ever. most of the time it blinks red, according to the manual this means its unable to focus, a small amount of the time it will try and focus but show neither red or green, it did this in the park yesterday .

 

Is anyone else using this lens without problems? I may try the G version, and hopefully that will work.

 

Hope someone can help, or advize,

 

regards,

 

Stuart, B`ham

The D800 is supposed to be totally compatible with the "screwdriver AF" 50mm/f1.8 AF-D, but in your case you may need AF fine tune.

 

Sounds like the D800 body is also second hand. Does it auto focus ok with your other lenses?

Hi Shun,

 

Thanks for the quick reply, the only other lens I have is from my d3300 a nikkor 18-55 , i checked it, and it has the same problem..... Any ideas please?

It's worth a try to do the menu reset/s to factory defaults. I recently had a weird Aperture setting problem on some lenses traced back to an odd menu setting ("aperture on/ring"). Otherwise sounds like the phase detection focus has gone kaput.

Hi Steve,

Yea I tried the reset by pressing the 2 green buttons on the top, and blowing air in the mirror, didnt help though.....maybe the d800 is faulty, it only had 6000 shots, seemed a good deal.

When I got it , it was in french language made me a bit sceptical....says can be returned within a month. only had it a week.

green button reset did not solve my problem

top item in two diffferent menus (reset) did the trick

 

but not much hope for this fix for your weird AF trouble

i cant see any reset options in menu`s, maybe my firmwares differant.

I bought an early D800E (essentially the same camera as the D800) in 2012. Its AF was great until it fell from a chair onto the floor. It was like a 2-foot drop, but at least I feel that the AF isn't perfect any more. The AF on your used camera may need calibration if you have the same issue with 2 lenses.

 

Again, I would try AF fine turn and maybe test with more lenses if you can borrow 1 or 2 more.

The early D800s reportedly had AF issues. If yours is from an early batch then it may have been affected.

 

D800 Autofocus Problem | DSLRBodies | Thom Hogan

 

You can test it, then try to get it repaired if there's an AF issue. But if it were me, I'd just return it.

The D800 has no green AF rectangles in the optical viewfinder. It's only the focus confirmation dot that lights green. The AF rectangles shown superimposed over the GG screen image never turn green, they only illuminate red.

Sounds to me like the PDAF system is busted, not just in need of adjustment. I'd return it while you still can.

Other than being soft wide open, I had no problems with my 50mm f/1.8 AF-D on a D800e. I'd definitely agree that the camera sounds faulty. Good luck with replacement!

from p 270 in the manual

❚❚ Restoring Default Settings To restore default settings, highlight a bank in the Shooting menu bank menu and press O (Q). A confirmation dialog will be displayed; highlight Yes and press J to restore default settings for the selected bank. See page 405 for a list of default settings.

I think you are looking at the wrong indicator (see Rodeo_Joe above).

 

First go here to download the D800 manual in English so we are all "reading from the same hymnal"

 

Nikon | Download center | D800

 

Next go to page 8 of the manual you just downloaded. The focus indicator in the viewfinder is item 5.

 

Next go to page 40 in the manual for an explanation of the in focus indicator. (By the way, on my d750 the focus indicator in the viewfinder is either not illuminated (out) or white, but never red or green).

 

Now does autofocus work?