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When I was shooting my Wedding the other day I came across this problem right in the thick of it.

Now,

The 3 Focus Settings in AFS

I forget the 1st ? ( Check when I get home )
I forget the 2nd ?( Check when I get home )

The 3rd Closest Subject I think ?

The 1st I couldn't get to lock in AF & the 2nd ?
Is was a overcast late afternoon, Brides Dress close in looks to the sky when looking through Camera. Just wouldn't lock onto anything, kept on zooming in and out giving me the SH--s

Only on Closest subject could I get a lock on focus

It is me or might I have a focus problem with camera.

Thanks,

Mic.

mic wrote:When I was shooting my Wedding the other day I came across this problem right in the thick of it.

Now,

The 3 Focus Settings in AFS

I forget the 1st ? ( Check when I get home )
I forget the 2nd ?( Check when I get home )

The 3rd Closest Subject I think ?

The 1st I couldn't get to lock in AF & the 2nd ?
......

Geez mic, I forget

I think?

Ha Ha Greg,

Very helpfull

Mic,

Is it still misbehaving?

I had a similar problem a while back. Focus would hunt to infinity and back. I did not try the other focus modes. I mucked around with it, power off, nothing, drop the battery, nothing... bugger it, hit the reset on the bottom of the body - that fixed it. Curses... exif reading sRGB and normal curve when the camera says aRGB and custom + a few screwy items. Reset all menus, nothing, soft reset, nothing... set menus to default manually, then menu reset, then two button reset, then hard reset just to make sure. That got it. Happy again. Needless to say that if it happens again Mr Maxwell is going to see it.

Nikon equivalent of BSOD???

Cheers

Matt

MattC,
Perhaps it's too hot up there and you abuse it

Mic, Is your D70 firmware up-to-date?

Alistair

AF-single, AF-continuous.

Also be aware of the 'box' selected for focusing - if it's inadvertently shifted to one of the outside ones, you could be pointing the centre at your intended target and the lens will focus from nearest to infinity and back again and not lock on anything.

Hmmmmm Interesting Matt,

Yes up to date AlistairF.

Onyx, That sounds a lot like what was happening, I'll have to check the box, Hmmmmm you might be on to something there or the Big Reset that MattC has suggested.

Thanks,

Mic.

Birddog,

Yep it is hot up here. Wet season has come and gone in a day. I only have about 4 inches of water in the tank after cleaning it out before Christmas. Dust is everywhere and is a bitch to keep out of things - particularly camera gear. I seal my camera gear in a plastic tub to try to keep the dust out. I am losing. If dust is abuse then everything is copping it at the moment.

Cheers

Matt

Hey Mic,

was having similar dramas last night. Doing some portrait stuff and the only light in the room was a weak modelling light off a strobe. I was using the one of the side focus points (line type sensor) and it wouldn't lock on the persons head no matter what. Switched to the centre focus point (cross type sensor) and it worked like a charm. From what I understand the line sensors just aren't good enough in low light. If you weren't using the centre focus point in what sounds like a low light, low contrast situation that may have been the problem.

AF on my F100 kills the D70 (and don't even get me started on the viewfinder thing!)

cheers,

adam

Thanks Adam

That sounds pretty much on the money, I'll have a look when I get a chance and rectify. Thanks for responding with a lot of info.

Cheers,

Mic.

In these cicumstances like low light and low contrast I normally focus manually. Saves the hunting and gives good results.
Cheers,
Gerard

Thanks for the tips guys,

Yes, I had the little eency weency focus point at the top
Now I'm right, lucky I managed to get away with it with just Closest Subject selected

Such a small thing can really wreck your day.

Oh well, ya live en learn don't ya

Glamy Gerard, yeah, I try to do manual but I can never get that little bloody green dot "In Focus Dot" to stay long enough to nail the shot.
Just don't feel confident in fairly quick situations.

Thanks,

Mic.

Ok - this is an old thread but my question seems to follow on from the discussion in the thread so that's why I'm posting here rather than opening a new thread.

OK - having explained that, can someone tell me if it is normal for one's D70 that is set for single area AF mode should reset itself after an extended period of inactivity to closest subject?

Some users probably like closest subject focus, but I absolutely hate it but the number of times my camera has reset itself to closest subject is beyond counting.

It seems that closest subject is the default setting. Can one set one's camera to single area AF mode as the default setting?

Thanks as always

Graham

Graham,

If you set your camera to your preferred AF mode, exit the menus and then go back to the menu, does the setting "stick". ie is it still showing your preferred AF mode? I had a problem where settings in "optimise image" were not sticking (caused by an AF prob. and a hard reset). My fix was to manually reset all of the menus to their default, then I reset the menus using menu reset, then I did a two button reset, and finally a hard reset. Okay, I probably did more than I needed to do, but I was at the point of frustration with those CSM settings not sticking and decided to go through the lot. It worked for me.

Cheers

Matt

EDIT: What happened here??? I thought that I was answering an entirely different thread to this one. There was only a couple of posts. Has everything been moved???

bago100 wrote:... OK - having explained that, can someone tell me if it is normal for one's D70 that is set for single area AF mode should reset itself after an extended period of inactivity to closest subject?
...It seems that closest subject is the default setting. Can one set one's camera to single area AF mode as the default setting?Graham

G'day Graham,
I usually use single point focus and it's never reverted, that may not be helpful but I just mean that I wouldn't expect it to change unless something "went wrong"...

Thanks Matt and Mudder

Mine keeps changing by itself but intermittently

I'll have a go at the 'reset everything' technique Matt

Thanks for your replies and advice

Cheers

Graham

Well since this issue has been raised again I'll ask my newbie question. I've only had my D70 for a couple of months now and I have a problem with the AF. I have looked in the manual (several times) but after trying for the past few weeks still have had no success. I have also read this post twice to see if it relates to my problem but there is a bit ot technical stuff that confuses me so I'm not sure if it relates to the problem I'm having or not.
Here's my drama: I'm shooting alot of sports photography ie Soccer, Footy etc. There are 5 focus points (if thats what you call them?) that you can see. One in the middle and four around the outside lets say top, bottom, left & right.
Lets also say there are 3 players running for the ball, my focal point wants to be on the middle player but when I half depress the shoot button my left "focus point" highlights when I actually want the camera to focus on the player that I have in the centre of my window. I take the shot, then as I suspected the focus of the photo is on that player rather than the one in the centre of the photo (just as the camera told me it was going to do).
In a nutshell........How can I tell the D70 to focus on what I want it to rather than what it decides to?
Sorry for my ignorance but I have searched the manual, tried things that I thought would work but with no success. D70 users was my only hope.
Thanks in advance, Marcus

marcus wrote:Well since this issue has been raised again I'll ask my newbie question. I've only had my D70 for a couple of months now and I have a problem with the AF. I have looked in the manual (several times) but after trying for the past few weeks still have had no success. I have also read this post twice to see if it relates to my problem but there is a bit ot technical stuff that confuses me so I'm not sure if it relates to the problem I'm having or not.
Here's my drama: I'm shooting alot of sports photography ie Soccer, Footy etc. There are 5 focus points (if thats what you call them?) that you can see. One in the middle and four around the outside lets say top, bottom, left & right.
Lets also say there are 3 players running for the ball, my focal point wants to be on the middle player but when I half depress the shoot button my left "focus point" highlights when I actually want the camera to focus on the player that I have in the centre of my window. I take the shot, then as I suspected the focus of the photo is on that player rather than the one in the centre of the photo (just as the camera told me it was going to do).
In a nutshell........How can I tell the D70 to focus on what I want it to rather than what it decides to?
Sorry for my ignorance but I have searched the manual, tried things that I thought would work but with no success. D70 users was my only hope.
Thanks in advance, Marcus

Sounds like you're using "dynamic focus" as opposed to "single focus"... Go into the menu settings for that one (where the focus is dynamic, single or continuous)... I thought dynamic would obtain focus and keep focus on a moving object but never having used it much I'm not sure...

Marcus, What mode do you shoot in? as i shoot in manual, shutter or P mode. If i use it in auto which i never do it will choose the focus point but in the other modes i choose if i want it to be centre or whatever i want and sometimes i will change it by pressing the multi selector on the back to change the focus point. Most times i leave it on centre, but when i first got my D70 and used it on auto it too chose the focus points, i am not sure about the sports mode as i have never used it.
Cheers
John
BBJ

BBJ wrote:...If i use it in auto which i never do it will choose the focus point ... BBJ

Wow, never used auto (I use either Aperture Pri, or manual) so never knew that, gee you pick up some good stuff here... Cheers...

 LOL Dont quote me as i might be wrong but times i have put it in auto and go to take a pic it might pic the bottom focus point a bit like closest subject and so on, but was just a thought but i could be wrong. Thats what i found anyhow and using in the other modes you can choose the focus point.
Cheers

OK thanks. I've been shooting the sports shots in sports mode and this is where I have been mostly having the problem. I have had the same thing happen in manual and tried to select the "centre position" but it would'nt stick. It obviously can be done as you guys have said so I must be doing something wrong. Looks like I'm getting the manual out tonight and reading again.

When you use Auto, Sports, Portrait or other pre-programmed modes, certain settings like focus are overridden with values specific to that camera mode.
These settings are detailed in the manual (I would give you the page number, but my manual is at home).
I think (but check it) the camera defaults to closest subject in Auto mode and continuous focus in Sports mode... In M, A, S & P modes YOU have control over the focus setting via the config menu and subsequently via the 4 way-selector button.