richard_driscoll

<p>Hello RJ. I don't favour a sloping target myself. Since the area covered by the autofocus sensor is not insignificant it will be covering a range of distances with an uncertainty about just what distance is actually being focussed on.<br /> When I checked my D7000 recently I took a test shot using liveview of a sheet of newsprint and then a series with mirror-up autofocus, adjusting fine tune each time. I was then able to choose the one which matched the liveview version. You can also use the green dot to help match the autofocus setting to the LV result (many descriptions on the web, see above).<br /> Sadly, none of this helps explain why you see no difference with your particular lens/camera combination......<br> Pardon my asking but you did actually have fine tune enabled? I made this error myself the first time I tried it!</p>

<p>Mine is similar; it overexposes by about 2/3 EV IIRC. I looked into adjusting it myself but failed to find any repair instructions online, though I did find some info. about the FE.<br> Having said that, with digital I've not used it for several years and the foam seals need replacing now as well.<br> If it really is a uniform error I'd be inclined to put up with it.</p>

<p>Nikon fixed it. It was only a couple of months old.</p>

<blockquote> <p>Surprised though, as this is a new D3200 I bought in December, it should not have these issues.</p> </blockquote> <p>But that is the way of it with mechanical and many electronic devices too. Initially you may get some 'infant mortalities' like yours. After that you get a period of high reliability and eventually you start to get failures due to 'old age'.<br />When my FE2 was almost new the lens release button fell of the front but after that I had no more trouble.</p> <blockquote> </blockquote>

<p>It does seem kind of strange that the list of parts replaced and work done doesn't seem much related to the reported problem unless it's "replace front body."<br> Hope they didn't transpose the work done as well as the address!</p>

<p>+1 to what Michael just said with a couple of caveats.<br> Firstly, of course, manual focus refers to focusing using the 'ground' glass not the electronic manual aid since that uses the AF system.<br> Secondly, by adjusting the mirror it should be possible to get the centre focus point working OK but that does not ensure that the outer focus points are OK. Thom Hogan writes that there are lookup tables within the camera that ensure that the outer focus points work OK. This is presumably necessary since there is no easy way to ensure that the AF sensor is (optically) parallel to the image sensor and the tables correct for this though there is no way for a user to modify them. This means, therefore, that it might be possible to get the centre focus point correct but that the others will be wrong. It was apparently errors in the tables which resulted in the focus issues on some of the D800s.</p> <p> </p>

<blockquote> <p>I notice that "flat" is an option in Capture NX-D, but grayed out for my D3200 raw files. If this is just a picture control, any idea why it's not made available? Is the D3200 NEF file already too processed for the flat control?</p> </blockquote> <p>Pretty sure that I was able to choose it for my D7000 raw. You need to override the default camera picture controls. Pretty sure I could choose it for my D40 too and that doesn't even have in camera picture controls!</p>

<p>Yes, the picture control setting does of course affect the histogram and it seems to me that there is a big difference between shooting RAW and JPEG in that the RAW exposure can if required be so large that the sensor starts to saturate or at least be on the edge of its linear region. However the RHS of the histogram only shows the point where the JPG image hits the endstops; it tells us nothing about sensor saturation etc. Presumably a low contrast JPEG (is that what 'flat' does? Is it lower contrast than 'neutral'?) tells us a little bit more about what the sensor is doing than does a high contrast one.</p> <p> </p>

<p>My guess:-<br> P, S, A, M modes all work with metering.<br> No AF since camera predates AF-S.<br> No VR since camera predates VR.</p>

<blockquote> <p>For stationary subjects isn't it the easiest to just use AF-S, one point focus, locking focus by pressing the shutter button half way down, re-compose as necessary with shutter half way down and shoot when ready.</p> </blockquote> <p>I'm sure we had this discussion a couple of years back and yes, the conclusion was that if you are using AF-S then the two methods are equivalent though perhaps different in convenience. For example using the release to lock you have to keep half pressure on the release to maintain focus lock between shots.<br /> In AF-C it is quite different and I think that most of the AF-ON fans above are mostly using that.</p>

<blockquote> <p>In the lower end cameras the colour accuracy is considered to be a lesser priority and the algorithms tend to aim for a bit more vivid and punchy colours (to catch the eye).</p> </blockquote> <p>Ilkka,<br> I've seen this claim before but have never ever seen it supported by any measurements. Rather to the contrary I did look up saturation errors from imaging resource a few years ago and found that the D90 and D5000 had less saturation error than the D3 and D3x, while the D40, D60 and D40x had a more error. My conclusion was that there was really no difference in terms of camera type or market segment.</p>

<blockquote> <p>DxO suggest that's marginal (though they only measure the presence of noise, not its characteristics).</p> </blockquote> <p>.... and they assume that the effects are uncorrelated when estimating the results of downsizing etc. That is not always true as exemplified by the banding reported for the 24 MP DX Toshiba sensor.</p>

<p>I've had exactly the same thing happen on my D7000 though with an inexpensive M&S (UK) hat with fairly stiff brim! Just a small depression of the flash head was enough to switch it off. It took quite some time to establish just what was happening.</p> <p> </p>