AF sticking issue (1 Viewer)

[Duke Leto]

Before I part company with my body and possibly lens again to the black hole that is Nikon repair in Surrey I wonder if any one has experienced this?

I'm 99.99% convinced its the body but as both are under warranty I may as well send em both back

With a 300 or 400mm lens attached to my D300 and using multi point AF, either 9 or 21 points, when I focus from near to far the lens is driven to the minimum focus distance and stops, it will not budge, switching to single point AF and refocussing the lens will then achieve a lock on a distant object, doing the same from near to far isn't a problem it works okay.
I had a play at the weekend and couldn't replicate it on the D200 so that's why I'm convinced its the body
The problem is it doesn't do it every time, it does do it when I don't want it too
doesn't do it on single point AF or live view
Googled it and can find no similar reported problems, wonder if the repair in Jan didn't find every issue?

Cant find anything else in the handbook or settings to try so thought Id ask you knowledgeable bunch

 

[I4ani]

Steve,
I have a D300, and 300/4, if you can tell me the settings you are using for custom settings a1,a2,a3,a4 and a5 and I will reset my camera to see if I can replicate the problem.
regards.

 

[Duke Leto]

had the chance to try it on another D300 set up identical last night and it didn't do it so now 100% convinced its the body,

Thanks for the offer to try

 

[Jaff]

If you install the latest firmware for it do you think that may have an effect? Even if you have the up to date one it might be worth trying to re-do it before you part with the camera Steve.

 

[Dave Williams]

Couldn't be something as simple as dirty contacts Steve ?

 

[Duke Leto]

Jaff not a bad idea, Rioja I'll give it another go

 

[TobyH]

I'm not sure if this is coincidence but I use a Sigma 500mm on a D300 and have a similar issue with AF locking. I'm not sure exactly which point it locks at but if for instance I'm trying to get a BIF shot it will often (or I will) miss the target, start autofocusing on something then just lock with the viewfinder a blur, often no discernible objects. I guess this may well mean that it's trying to focus very close as I often then have to point at the ground or object close to me and "walk" the focus back out.

I did update my firmware around 6 months ago I guess when I realised this was an issue. I assumed I had an issue with the lens as I bought secondhand although it was almost new and hardly used. For close work it's spot on.

Interested to hear how you get on. I'd love to try this on a different body to see if it behaves.

TobyH

 

[Watts]

I had a similar problem with my D300. Occurred on all long lenses which shot to minimum focus and stayed there if they didn’t lock on to an object immediately, so very difficult for bif shots. Easy (though annoying) to overcome in the field with afs lenses by manually adjusting focus back to infinity. Impossible with the old 80-400 except by autofocusiing on progressively more distant objects till it got beyond a certain point then it was ok till the next time. When I was in the Farnes last year I switched to my back-up D200 for bif. On my return I had a long chat with a guy on the professional user helpline but we couldn't sort it other than suggesting I try cleaning the contacts. That didn’t seem to work.

Out of warranty but I had no choice other than to drop the body into Nikon in Richmond (a shortish journey for me). Within three days I had a report that they couldn't replicate the problem but had given it a clean. I picked it up, tested it on their forecourt and it was working fine. There was no charge, just a very cordial chat with the technician who (against what I understand is normal procedure) came down to reception to hand back the body.

That was last autumn and it's been OK since.

As an aside, I have once before had occasion to seek a repair from Nikon when I carelessly let a film leader flick onto the shutter as I was firing (remember those days when you had to engage the leader and then cock and fire the shutter to start it winding on?) My wife left the body with Nikon in the morning, spent the day with the children in Kew Gardens and picked it up in the afternoon. I can’t remember what they charged but the service was faultless.


Bill

 

[rogpow]

I had exactly the same problem a few months ago.
Only occurred on Dynamic AF with longer focal lengths. My 70-300 was OK up to about 200mm but locked if zoomed out further. My 500mm was also affected. Both lenses were OK on my D2X.
I phoned the tech guys at Nikon and they suggested trying cleaning the contacts with isopropyl alcohol before I sent it to them for possible repair. I did and it did the trick.
So far, and about 6000 photos later, the problem hasn't re-occurred.

 

[JSER]

before sending the camera back clean lens and camera contacts and RESET all camera functions via menue.