Strange focusing behavior on Nikon D50. Same on your D50 or D70?

I've come across a strange focusing behavior on my D50. I wonder whether you've

experienced the same thing on yours? Or is it suppose to work that way?

 

First, set your camera AF-L/AE-L button to AF mode, meaning use the button for auto focus

only. Next, auto focus on an object by pressing AND releasing the AF-L button, now move

away from the focus point and point to another object that is out of focused, then take a

snap shot without refocusing. On my D50, the shutter won't release because the object is out

of focus. Do you have the same behavior on your D50 or D70? Also if I press on the AF-L/AE-

L button without releasing it, I can release the shutter with no problem even though things

are out of focus.

That's the way it is supposed to work. It prevents you from takeing an out of focus image if your subject moves. When you keep pressing the AF/AE button you are overriding this function so the camera will fire regardles.

The D200 and D2 series have a custom function that will turn this behavior off. I believe the D50 and the D70 do not.

 

-- Mark

Yep D70 is the same and what a pain. I used to own and EOS 1 and always used the AE lock to AF that way I could focus once and shoot many without having to worry about the camera trying to refocus. I was pleased when I got the D70 because I thought I could do the same thing. One work round I did find was to set the AF to continuous then the shutter will release but it feels wierd to me because because then I don't get the focus beep which I like because the D70 view finder is quite small.

Thanks for all your answers. The way the D50 works now is really useless to me. My Contax 645 doesn't behave like this either. When I first tried to use the D50 AF-L button for focusing, I thought the darn camera was broken. Why should the focusing behavior be different between the two buttons (shutter relase and AF-L). At this point, I mind as well use the shutter release button to auto focus.

If you keep the shutter depressed the camera will fire as your subject comes into focus. This is very handy if you need to keep your subject a specific size in your frame and still move around. If you want the camera to track your subject as it, or you, moves then use continous focus mode.