Picked up my D70 today.... and I'm disappointed

[ElRonno]

Hello all,

I picked up my 2nd hand D70 this morning, including the 18-70 kit lens.

And a big disappointment this is... I've tried a D70 in a shop before so I knew how it was, but I never really took a picture with it and got to see the results.

Now I did.

Frankly, it's all perfect except for one little thing Auto focus! Almost all the testpics came out out of focus


(resized full picture. 18-70@70, 1/60, f/11, flash, auto focus)

Could this be the infamous back focus problem that I'd read about? Sure looked like it. So a test followed!


(100% crop. 50/1.8, 1/250, f1.8, tungsten (color balance changed afterwards), manual focus)

Nah, that seems all right! Ok, I used a different lens for this pic but I tried to do the same with the 18-70 and got the same result.

What could it be? Hmmm.... well, I remember having a lot of trouble to get the camera to actually focus on the melon. I needed to point on one of the edges before the camera hooked on to something.

Another test then.


(resized full picture. 50/1.8, 1/60, f1.8, flash, manual focus)

It turns out it's the camera's focusing. I was only able to make this pic using manual focus, there was no way to get the camera to focus on any of the filter boxes! (Current setting: single area)

Now that is a big disappointment. I remember stepping up from the N70/F70 to the N90s/F90x for amongst other the better auto focus. Now I'm going downhill again. This can't be true, can it? HELP!

(Meanwhile, I'll RTFM a bit )

[iten]

Two things:
1. You say it's second-hand. Did the person who previously owned it install the firmware updates? I saw something about AF in there...

2. You used manual focus to check a backfocus problem? I thought the backfocus problem was with AF in the first place.

About the having trouble focusing in the first place, I've had trouble sometimes too. If I just change my position a tiny bit, it usually goes away.

EDIT: Also, if that first pic was handheld, 1/60 sec is probably too low of a shutter speed for 70mm. Try somewhere around 1/100.

[ElRonno]

I must add that the camera knows where the focus point should be, because in the manual focus pics the focus indicator comes on exactly when I think it should. However, on auto focus it just focuses back and forth past that very point.

[iten]

This is pretty much grabbing at straws, but how far were you away from the test subject in the second picture? Did you have the AF assist light enabled?

[ElRonno]

Hi iten,

Thanks for your reply!

1. I've updated the firmware and that didn't help.

2. I thought that was about a difference between focus in the viewfinder and focus on the CCD.

3. Yep, AF assist was enabled but lighting should have been ok.

Nevertheless, I think I found it! The focus point was accidentally set off center to the left. I've put it back and locked! Seems to work a lot better now...

[gstark]

What focus and exposure modes do you have set on the camera?

You need to remember that the default focus mode for the camera is closest focus, but being second hand, this may or may not be applicable.

Remember too that you can move the focus point using the thumb pad on the back of the camera; set that to where you want focus to occur ...

[iten]

You're right about the backfocus problem, I looked at some of the complaints again and it was looking fine through the viewfinder.

Glad to hear that the problem's fixed, or at least better, now though!

[hangdog]

<snip>
The focus point was accidentally set off center to the left.<snip>

You're not the only one to have done this! When I read your original post, I was thinking, "hmm, I wonder…nah, couldn't be!"

--Chuan

[kipper]

I'm always accidently doing it as when I handle the camera I sometimes accidently knock the lock switch.