Random Focusing issues with my 5 yr old D70

[sudip_choudhury]

<p>Hi All,<br>

I have been seeing some strange focusing problems with by D70 recently. Not sure if it is due to its age. I bought it about five and half years back. I do not want to really believe that Nikon Cameras would start having focusing Issues after taking about 25000 Pictures. Want to know from other experts if it is a possibility.<br>

Basically I am experiencing too many out of focus pictures(about 30%) irrespective of whatever lens i use. I am seeing the problem with the kit lens, Nikon 105mm VR II , Nikon 50mm 1.8. The problem is more prominent when using the 105mm VR II lens. Initially I though it probably is a lens issue and now started to see the problem with my kit lens. In fact I return one lens as I was not able to get any sharp pictures with that particular lens. So my feeling is, it is something wrong with the Camera itself. The pictures are not totally out of focus, but rather are not sharp. While taking the picture, it shows it is getting right focus. But when I take the picture, in some cases, I can make it from the LCD it got screwed. but in many cases only after loading to PC I know it was spoiled. There are few patterns of the problem..<br>

For the Kit lens, the problem is about 25% images and it happens for all focallength from 17mm to 70mm.<br>

For the 105mm Lens, the problem is more when the subject is far. In fact the miss ratio is as much as 90% for the case where the subject is Far. But for the Half size portrait, the problem is less. Overall, I would say the miss ratio is 50%.<br>

For the 50mm 1.8 lens, it is as much as 15%. It seems to be impacting least for this lens.</p>

<p>So my question here is, can I conclude that it is some issue with the camera body ? And if yes, is there a solution ? Or the better idea is to starting looking for a change...Any advice will be very much appreciated.<br>

Thanks<br>

Choudhury</p>

 

[MichaelChang]

<p>Sudip, have you checked the back-focus on your D70? Plenty of information here:<br>

<a href="http://www.google.ca/#hl=en&source=hp&q=D70+back+focus&meta=&aq=f&aqi=&aql=&oq=&gs_rfai=&fp=c14a64fc2f4efbbd">http://www.google.ca/#hl=en&source=hp&q=D70+back+focus&meta=&aq=f&aqi=&aql=&oq=&gs_rfai=&fp=c14a64fc2f4efbbd</a></p>

[Sanford]

<p>I experienced something similar today with my D80. It seems I had inadvertently hit the AF button near the shutter release which cycles through C (continuous), A (automatic), and S (single spot). I was stuck in "continuous" and had a lot of shots out of focus. Might be worth checking if the D70 works this way.</p>

[devon_mccarroll]

<p>You might also try doing a reset on the camera. There are instructions in the manual for it--I can't remember exactly how it's done.</p>

[errol young]

<p>Reset button on bottom. Use pin.</p>

[sudip_choudhury]

<p>Thanks all for the reponse. I did checked the backfocussing issue as D70 is ill known for this and ruled that out.</p>

<p>Also I did check the focussing mode and it is set to 'S'...(Single). I am aware that the having it set to 'C' would indicate the camera to not wait for achiving full focus before it fires, which in turn could cause some out of focus picture.. So this case is also ruled out.</p>

<p>I did not try resetting. So this is something that i can try. <br>

Thanks again.<br>

Choudhury</p>

[hans_janssen]

<p>Camera on a tripod, 45 degrees down, paper on the ground, aperture wide open, focus on a small headline, take pic. Check where the focus is: before or after the line. Do this several times and check if the results are the same and check if the results with all your lenses are the same.</p>