Please help! Almost in tears.

[kris_rogers]

I have a N65QD. It takes horrible pictures in AF mode. The pictures

are just not sharp anymore. I've compared old pictures and recent

ones and even my 9 year old can tell the difference. Please!! someone

advise on the problem. I don't know if I've moved any settings that

would affect AF mode but I've read everything I could about the

camera and I don't believe that changing the settings (aperture and

shutter speed in the other modes should affect my AF mode). If I'm

incorrect, please advise of what the settings should be, possibly the

default settings from the factory. I love the photos when I didn't

change things around.

I have taken such great care of my camera and I just can't figure out

what is wrong with it. I've even purchased a new lens (28-200) for it

because I thought it would solve my problem. Thanks you, Kris

[j_yee]

Difficult to give advice with so little information. Are the pictures uniformly blurry? Is what you point the focusing grid at in focus or is the focus skewed to the front or rear? Did you remember to switch the lens focusing switch to AF instead of manual?

 

My wife's N65 doesn't keep any settings after you switch it off. It all resets so I don't think you could have changed any settings.

 

I did notice that it isn't very accurate focusing in low light conditions or slow speeds. Many lenses are f4-5.6 and it makes focusing kinda tough. I almost always use ASA 400 film to keep the shutter speeds fast.

 

My wife uses it exclusively in AF, auto mode, ASA 400 film and has no problems.

[aravind raman]

I too have the same answer. We cannot make wild guesses :)

 

What i would suggest is that you do some testing at home with a news paper or someting, just to validate your findings. Focus using manually and also use Auto Focus.. Change the lab and see.. If nothing works out, send the camera to NIKON for a service

 

Hope this helps

 

Aravind

[Rich B NYC]

Kris,

 

Just a guess here.

 

I don't know the N65, but my old N80 had two focus modes. One was called something like "focus priority". It wouldn't let you take the shot unless it was in focus. The other mode (I don't recall the name) would let you take the shot regardless.

 

Check your owners manual and see if the N65 has those modes and if you have them, make sure that you have the mode set for focus priority.

 

Again, just a guess. Good luck.

 

Rich

[anupam]

If you don't know if you changed any settings, you might want to do a reset to factory settings. Your manual should have instructions on that. To figure out AF problems you might want to take the same shot with both manual focus and AF and compare them. Also, shoot a flat surface like a newspaper with your film plane parallel to the paper.

 

-A

[kris_rogers]

Thank you for answering my questions, however, I've made sure that I'm in AF mode and not manuel, I've tried new labs, can't find the default settings in camera manual, I just think that it's the shutter speed.. what does everyone else think? Can I have changed the shutter speed? The manual suggests that the camera can distinquish on its own what speed the film is, so I don't think, but it could be. I will try to upload some pictures to show my problem. Please remember that this is the picture from the disc the lab gave me but you can see that it is just not as clear and crisp. Please advise.<div></div>

[kaiyen]

Kris...

 

Perhaps you have changed the shutter speed. You should look at the LED readout at the bottom of the viewfinder to make sure you have a fast enough shutter speed to eliminate camera shake.

 

Does it look in focus when you take the picture, in the viewfinder? Does the little circle show up on the LED display that indicates the camera thinks it's in focus? If so, does it look in focus to you in the viewfinder (you may need to find subjects that will help you figure this out, as the viewfinder in the N65 isn't that big).

 

allan

[phule]

<< I've even purchased a new lens (28-200) >>

 

Was the sample photo taken with that lens? The corners are very soft and the softness increases as you get closer to the edge. I'd lean towards a bad lens but you should test the lens on another body if possible or borrow a known good lens and shoot with it.

[john schroeder]

The fist thing I would do is put the camera on a tripod on "M" exposure (adjusted accordingly) and manual focus. Set up something as a target that won't move. Now manually focus on that object and shoot a couple of frames. Now shoot one frame totally out of focus as a segway, then shoot the same pictures with the camera set to "Auto focus". Take a second segway photo and repeat both the manual focus and auto focus shots with a different lens. If all the shots are soft then I would send your camera to Nikon repair with the photos. Be sure to label the photos so the repair tech knows whats what.

[kris_rogers]

Thanks for answering, Today, I have borrowed a N65QD body from a friend and have taken 3 rolls, 3 lens all (28-200) with both bodies, I've set up a doll in the same spot for all situations and lens. Hopefully this will be the end of my wondering and help explain a lot. I will give everyone an update. Thanks for answering and please keep them coming.

[kris_rogers]

Alright..Now that I've taken 3 rolls and have taken pictures of my daughters big doll, I've come to the conclusion that it is not the camera body. It is the lens.Because our camera is QD, I looked at the bottom where the date is printed and my friends lens (Sigma 28-200) is NOT fuzzy, however, my four year old(Quantary 28-200)and my brand NEW (NIkon 28-200) is fuzzy. Can someone please help me? All photos set at 28mm are not very clear, 100mm are okay, and 200 are fine. I'm not going to base my conclusion on the view of the doll but on the clear and crispness of the date.

OKay, now that I've come to the conclusion that it maybe the lens and not body, what now? Do I buy another lens? Should I purchase a Sigma or Quantary cheapy? I didn't mind the cheap one but the expensive did not work for me anyways.

[aardvarko]

judge by the image, not the date.

[rjacksonphoto]

On the photo you posted, what were the aperture and the shutter speed? It's possible that you are using slower film than before (like 100 instead of 400), resulting in shallower depth of field. I say this because the woman's face seems sharper than everything that lies behind her. If you used a slow film on a cloudy day, the camera is forced to widen aperture diameter in order to maintain a fast enough shutter speed to hand hold the camera (it's programmed that way). With a wider aperture, the depth of focus around your focus point is narrower, resulting in more things out of focus.

 

Try setting the camera to A for aperture priority, placing it on a tripod, and taking a photo at f/16, letting the camera decide the shutter speed. This may give you a larger area of in-focus subjects.

 

Just a thought.

[kris_rogers]

However, I almost always take photos in AF mode, when I look at past photos and recent ones I can remember taking them in AF mode only because I had just got the camera and was afraid to try something different than AF.

The pictures now are taken in AF as well. So my guess would have to be the lens at this point. Though, it worries me because I took some photos with the new lens and there was not a change in crispness.

Also, I know that I didn't take photos back then in A mode because I had no idea what A aperture meant.

Man, I feel like I am so rambling on and on but I am truly confused as hell about my camera problem.

Can someone please tell me to "go buy a new one" so I can tell my husband that a professional told me to give up on this one and move on. HAHA.

Please keep your ideas coming, I do appreciate them.

[BrettPrucha]

Looking at your supplied photo I don't honestly see a problem if the digital image has not been run through any sharpening filter. I do see too shallow a DOF where the mom and kid in front are in focus and the father and two other kids are a little softer. Scanned images are also inheriantly softer than the original negative. That's just a limitation of the scanning proccess. Some ammount of software shapening is almost always needed. Also any zoom lens that covers such a wide range as the 28-200 is not going to perform as well as a prime at the far ends of the range.

[kris_rogers]

Should I never try to zoom out to 200mm with this lens? I have notice that at a shorter range I get better pictures, however, I hate to have bought something I can't use.

[kaiyen]

Sure you can use it at 200. You just have to remember that:

 

-the 200 end isn't going to be as sharp as other lenses, or even perhaps as sharp as at the wider end

 

-you will need a faster shutter speed when you're at 200mm to get the same sharpness as when at 28mm

 

allan

[kurt l]

hi.

i also must say the only thing i see is shallow dof,portraits by some people do this(shallow dof)to blur the back ground.

#1 check your lens ,is it locked on the highest number of f stops? like f22this needs to be set to work correctly.

 

#2 if lens is set as above ,try the same type shot one more time,but this time put the auto setting on the camera dial on landscape setting,not on portrait or auto and try this.

did you use auto or portriat on your photo?

 

#3 you can try them in auto or man focus but i think 1 and 2 will get you fixed up,i hope anyway and happy shootin.

kurt.

[kurt l]

i forgot to say that also,if you are shooting this close @200mm

it will tend to give you a shallow dof=blur the back ground.

anyway try like i said in last post and do this shot or one close to it,but use the landscape to help keep everything in focus for you.

also when you do this also try at 200mm then try one at 100mm,and at 85mm try these with your camera dial set on landscape.

kurt