Nikon D200 Focus Trouble

[john_rymer]

I have somewhat of a interesting problem...in that I don't know if it's

a "problem," or if it's more my inexperience.

 

I typically shoot outdoor action sports (mostly football). I always used a D70

until I upgraded to a D200 a few weeks ago, and I'm getting more into the

portrait side of things.

 

Compared to the D70, the D200 seems much more difficult to get ultra-sharp

images, even shooting RAW. At a recent football game for example, my shots

kept coming out a little soft while shooting in Shutter Priority. I finally

switched over the Manual, and cranked up the Aperture with much better

results. Although this forces me to use a slower shutter, and makes early

evening shooting more than a little frustrating (when the sun is setting and

you start getting shadows on the field).

 

Anyway, earlier today I'm taking an outdoor family shot of friends of mine and

their one-year old daughter. In an hour-long session, I don't know that I took

a single group shot where they were all three in sharp focus (regardless of

aperture). There were a few shots where they might have turned out nicely,

except I bumped up the ISO to compensate and they have too much noise.

 

So my question is...am I using the wrong AF settings on the camera? Am I using

the wrong lens?

 

I use too wide angle lenses...a Nikon 85mm F1.8 and a new Sigma 18-125 F3.5-

5.6. Not super high level glass, but close to $400 each. Interestingly

enough, I used the Nikon 85mm wide open on my D70 to do my nephew's senior

pictures and they turned out great.

 

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

[hugh_davis]

Your lens choices seem very reasonable. Was your focus point locked?We had a similar issue come up where I was working a few weeks ago. A photographer who shot using her left eye had not locked the focus point on the back of her D-200 and was moving it around unbeknownst via the multi-selector button--with her nose when she raised the camera to her eye.

[photo5]

Were you using a tripod? What aperture were you using? I wouldn't shoot a group at

anything less than f/8. I also wouldn't shoot at a shutter speed less than 1/60th even with a

tripod. I did run into focus errors with the D200 with a Tamron 20-40mm lens, but not with

any other lenses.

 

Dave

[paulus]

The D70 has a default ISO setting of 200 and the D200 of 100. Maybe you should try setting the D200 at 200 iso and check if your photos improve.

[elliot1]

You don't mention the settings you are using. You also don't really say if your pictures are out of focus or not sharpened enough.

 

As you mentioned goods

 

How you have the camera's settings also affects sharpness. The d70, like the d50 and d80, tend to 'sharpen' pictures more than the d200 on their standard settings. You can handle sharpening two ways, in the camera or in post processing. You might want to turn the sharpening up in the camera if you don't have a softare program that does this function. I like to do it on the computer.

 

It is amazing how much improvement a picture will have when sharpening is applied to it, but if the picture is out of focus, it is out of focus, so I also recommend setting your aperture to f8 on your Sigma (I have no experience with Sigma lenses) and the at least f5.6 on your 85mm (try f8 as well) and compare your results to taking your pictures wide open.

[john_rymer]

Well, since I'm trying to get used to the camera, I used a number of different settings, checking the files a couple different times.

 

Some were on a tripod, some were not. I did try some shots wide open on the 85mm, but for the most part I was using 8 to 11. Shutter speed was at either 60 or 80.

 

I did realize last night that the D200 has a sharpening feature in the Custom Settings menu, but I haven't played with it much. I'm a designer by profession, so I have the Adobe CS2 Suite, Capture, NeatImage, etc.. but I don't like doing a lot of post work other than color correction and levels adjustment.

 

Thanks everyone for your suggesions!

[bruce_rubenstein___nyc]

At the default settings, D200 images are a little soft. I set the sharpening to +1 in the custom settings. You may also have focus issues. The AF sensor areas are larger than the indicators in the view finder. So the camera may be focusing on something different than what you think it is. I also had a back focus problem when I first got my D200 (last Dec - early model). Take a look here: http://www.focustestchart.com/chart.html

[mark pav]

<i>"I did try some shots wide open on the 85mm, but for the most part I was using 8 to 11.

Shutter speed was at either 60 or 80."</i> <br><Br>

 

Sounds like a recipe for camera shake to me. The D200 is not very forgiving when it comes

to this and a shutter speed of at least 1/(focal length x 1.5) is a must for truly sharp pics.

[hique]

Probably the max aperture and low speed are making the images blurry.

 

"I used the Nikon 85mm wide open on my D70 to do my nephew's senior pictures and they turned out great."

 

The D70 is much less demanding with image quality. With a 10mp camera you need to have better lens and technique.

 

Another thing to remember is that images on D200 MAY not look supersharp because of it's conservative default sharpness setting. Try setting it a little higher.

 

But first of all, try improving your technique.

[shineofleo]

I have the same feeling with my D200 from D50.

 

Maybe my technique needs to be improved, but the picture taken by D200 tends to be a bit soft than D50, by the same 'me'.

 

I don't think I am keeping focus correctly on D50 all the time but incorrect on D200 all the time.

 

What I am GUESSing is the difference on processing inside the camera. D50/D70 may process the RAW into a bit sharper version, but D200 will not, or even soft it. I have checked a lot on internet and Thom's guide. I think the post-process on your computer will certainly improve the sharpness if you want.

 

But still,　my focus confidence was ruined by D200....

[leicaglow]

You may definitely be seeing fuzzier images if you shoot JPEG. Mine are horribly fuzzy and off-color in the D200, and I can correct some of it in the camera, but prefer to do it in PhotoShop. However, I always shoot, and ultimately use, the RAW/NEF images, which are tack sharp. Here's a shot I just took with the Nikon 85mm f/1.8, processed from RAW/NEF.<div></div>

[rafikrkamel]

John, i have the d70s, and use it with the cheap 70-300G, i dont have much to add, but to get sharp shots from my camera i never ever shoot in Shutter priority as it uses the lens wide open.

So just try stepping down the lens and try a couple of shots on a tripod just to see if it is your technique in holding the camera or what exactly? Also try to keep the distance constant when comparing shots, as sharpness improves the closer you are.

 

The 85mmm f/1.8 is a very nice lens i hear.

Hope that helps,

Rafik

[john hooper]

I was having the same problems as you described. I am using my Nikon D200 to shoot portraits using a 35-70mm f2.8 D lens. I use flash with no available light. My shutter speed in these situations is 1/250s (camera shake is not the problem); my aperture can be anything between f2.8-f11. At f11 the image is fine and everything is in focus (again camera shake is ruled out). At f2.8 the image is always in focus but in the wrong area, I focus on the eyes but the ears are sharp!

 

After looking at comments made by people on this page I downloaded the focus chart recommended by Bruce Rubenstein - NYC on oct 15, 2006 (Thanks). I tested my camera and my D200 is out by 35mm, I also have a friend with the same problem.

[michael_gene_murphy]

<p>Just wanted to jump in on this post. I too have a hard time getting a nice clear picture with the D200. I am using a Nikon 50mm 1.4 lens. The focus always seems to be soft no matter what my settings are.</p>

[pam_province]

<p>I have been having trouble getting sharp focus on multiple subjects with the D200 and a 50mm 1.8 lens. Is there a way to set multiple focus points at once? How do you all deal with getting sharp focus on multiple subjects? It seems to happen, no matter the aperture setting.<br>

Thanks.</p>