D300 Focus issue

[Leonardo]

Hi All,

After using the D200 for almost 2 years I decided to upgrade to the D300, and I got it last month. I'm still testing it but it seems it's much more difficult to get good pics.
Specifically all the shots come with a soft focus not very clear and sharp and with a grainy background (even with low ISO, not more than 400).
I'm using the same lenses used with the D200 (18-200VR, 105VR and 50mm) but for now I cannot achieve the same results. This is really frustrating.
I'm doing somethins wrong or perhaps can be the new d.camera. Any idea or suggestion.

Thanks & have a great day.

[geraldkhoo]

Originally Posted by Leonardo Hi All, After using the D200 for almost 2 years I decided to upgrade to the D300, and I got it last month. I'm still testing it but it seems it's much more difficult to get good pics. Specifically all the shots come with a soft focus not very clear and sharp and with a grainy background (even with low ISO, not more than 400). I'm using the same lenses used with the D200 (18-200VR, 105VR and 50mm) but for now I cannot achieve the same results. This is really frustrating. I'm doing somethins wrong or perhaps can be the new d.camera. Any idea or suggestion. Thanks & have a great day.

Hi bro, I had a similar frustration when I moved from my D200 to D300... and that is where I learnt the differences, and after adapting, the D300 is a far better camera. I cannot remember which post I wrote on the adjustments I made, but I'll just briefly describe what I did, but pls do a search and hopefully you will find the answers you are looking for.

A 12MP camera is much more sensative than a 10MP camera, and slightest movements show up more clearly. Also, the D300 does less in-camera processing, and leaves the photographer to decide how much adjustments he would like to make.

Just off my head, here are some things I did...

- AF Fine Tune all my lenses.

- Decrease LCD brightness by -2

- Increase sharpening in the picture control which I am using (D2XMODE1 - you need to download this) by +3. You can also up your contrast if you like.

There are many more controls to explore, but try them out... you'll eventually like your D300. Also, I have found the metering different. I used to use spot metering in D200, but it gives different results in the D300, so I am using a center-weighted on the D300, which is closer to the D200 spot metering.

[Aisyah]

Same experienced as Leonardo. Sold my D300 within a week and use back my D200.

[Singer high]

For the grainy background/noise issue, it is probably the Active D-Lighting. Try setting it to Low or Off.

[Leonardo]

Hi guys tks for the feedback. Surfing on the web it seems I'm not alone with this issue, indeed many others got focus issue with the D300

Well, this is really bad and confusing at the same time.

Thanks geraldkhoo for your suggestion, and nice to see that you solve the issue.
What should I do adj the focus fine tune for each lens? And what about the combination of lens with ext. tube? This seems to be really troublesome.
On top of this I just noticed that the D300 Nikon user manual just provide very simple info about this (ref pag 327), but no ref about how to perform the fine tuning. Unbelievable!

If as mentioned by Singer high, the grainy background can be due to the Active D-Lighting setting. When can we use this setting safely?

For now I just feel frustrated with my choice, better to save money and keep my D200.
Hope to solve this issue ASAP before getting the same decision of Aisyah.

[geraldkhoo]

You can goto http://focustestchart.com/ and follow the instructions to check if your lens is front or backfocusing, then you can use AF Fine Tuning to adjust + or -. However, if the lens is very front or back-focused, you would not be able to do it with AF Fine Tuning. I have a Sigma lens with bad front-focusing, which AF Fine Tuning could not resolve, so I sent it to Sigma Service Center for calibration.

Also, not all 3rd party lenses are able to be properly detected, e.g. Tamron 17-50 and Tokina 12-24. I have these 2 lenses but the camera could not properly differentiate one from the other. No issues with Nikon lenses.

Another issue which some people faced was the way they shoot, i.e. use center to focus, then shift to focus. When using a fast lens with aperture wide open, you may end up with front-focusing (someone posted about this issue before). This has nothing to do with the camera, but the mathematics behind it, and this happens esp. when you have apertures like f/1.4 where the depth of field is very shallow.

As for using extension tubes, then the sugesstion would be to do a manual focus.

You have to note that this 12MP sensor is very sensative. I read somewhere that it is even more sensative than the D3 sensor because the D3 sensor is 36x24, and the D300 sensor is 24x16, but both are 12MP, so the smaller area sensor would be more sensative than the large sensor given that both are 12MP. You can also try and shoot in mediam size rather than large size.

As for Active D-Lighting... I seldom use it.

Hey... give it some time to learn and get adjusted. The D300 is a far more complex machine than the D200.

[geraldkhoo]

You can goto http://focustestchart.com/ and follow the instructions to check if your lens is front or backfocusing, then you can use AF Fine Tuning to adjust + or -. However, if the lens is very front or back-focused, you would not be able to do it with AF Fine Tuning. I have a Sigma lens with bad front-focusing, which AF Fine Tuning could not resolve, so I sent it to Sigma Service Center for calibration.

Also, not all 3rd party lenses are able to be properly detected, e.g. Tamron 17-50 and Tokina 12-24. I have these 2 lenses but the camera could not properly differentiate one from the other. No issues with Nikon lenses.

Another issue which some people faced was the way they shoot, i.e. use center to focus, then shift to focus. When using a fast lens with aperture wide open, you may end up with front-focusing (someone posted about this issue before). This has nothing to do with the camera, but the mathematics behind it, and this happens esp. when you have apertures like f/1.4 where the depth of field is very shallow.

As for using extension tubes, then the sugesstion would be to do a manual focus.

You have to note that this 12MP sensor is very sensitive. I read somewhere that it is even more sensitive than the D3 sensor because the D3 sensor is 36x24, and the D300 sensor is 24x16, but both are 12MP, so the smaller area sensor would be more sensitive than the large sensor given that both are 12MP (pixel density).

As for Active D-Lighting... I seldom use it... and you may want to check if your D300 has the latest firmware.

Hey... give it some time to learn and get adjusted. The D300 is a far more complex machine than the D200.

[geraldkhoo]

Have a read at the following article about focusing.

http://visual-vacations.com/Photogra...pose_sucks.htm

[Leonardo]

Hi geraldkhoo,

tks a lot for your time & suggestion, really appreciated.
I'll try with the suggested fine tuning and sincerely hope to solve this nightmare, i'm so depressed with the result so far!
In one month I tested my d300 with different lenses 50mm1.4, 18-200VR, 80-400, 105VR and with all the results are terrible. Soft focus & grainy pics! I can't believe that all the lenses that are perfect on my d200 have issue on the d300.

Cheers.

[EdOkH]

Not sure if this is the post that geraldkhoo is talking about but I did have it in my favorites..

http://www.clubsnap.com/forums/showthread.php?t=409368

Hope this helps...

[JacePhoto]

Yup. Me too. Having focusing problems with the D300 that its both depressing and frustrating.

[Leonardo]

Hi All,

finally I got some time to test my D300's focusing issue.

I have made few search on the web and found interesting discussion about the D300 AF fine tuning and focusing issue. Thanks also to the suggestion of geraldkhoo, here listed, pointing to one of the most succesfull solution that seems to be the test at 45 deg proposed by Tim Jackson (http://FocusTestChart.com).

Well, I have tried the 45 deg test and it seems that my D300 is not that bad, here below the result:



so not too much that I can do. What's next? I have also found another interesting test performed by Todd (http://www.kemperphoto.com/blog/?p=6) using a more simple way, just shooting a note positioned in front of the camera.

So I decided to try also this, using a 10 Euro note positioned 30 cm in front of the D300 + 105mmVR (placed on the tripod), I have done some experiment with the different Fine tune setting and well I have to admit that something strange is there.

I have captured 6 different pictures of a small area with many details, just changed the fine tune setting from -20 to +20 using step of 5. Shooting details:ISO200, F/3.3, Ex Time 1/200, A priority.
Then, by using Capture NX2 you can have a direct comparison of the 6 shots enlarged at 100% on the focus area:



a better view at 200%:



I have also decided to make some comparison using a bigger area in the vertical line of the focus area. Here a comparison at 100% related to fine tune 0, -5, +5:



here the comparison at 100% related to fine tune -10, -5, 0:



to be continued

[Leonardo]

and here the comparison at 100% for fine tune -15, -10, 0:



As you can see the last test shows that the focus at fine tune=0 (camera default setting) is shifted from the focus area to the lower part of the shot.

This confirm to me that something is not correct with my D300.
Next step will be to set the AF fine tuning value to -15 (that looks to be the best result in the above test) and try some more macro to see if my D300 can really give me back the pleasure of photography. Sincerely hope that this help.

It will be nice to read comments and feedback from some expert fellows.

Happy shooting.

[JacePhoto]

Thanks for sharing.

My previously posted topic was the difficulty of the D300 with older lenses, namely 50 mm F1.8 or F1.4.

I tested the same method and the results were horrible.

I spoke to NSC people and they confirmed (another CS member had the same answer) that the older lenses have problem with the focus on D300 and other newer models.

I have tested on my 105 mm VR as well. To me, the results were ok. Negible. Its just the older lens that are bothering me. The 50 mm F1.8 is my fav with my D80.

[Leonardo]

Anybody knows if there is any official test chart recommended by Nikon for evaluation the camera focus or to test the focus fine tuning?

[boyboy]

i've lost a few shots because my D300 refused to AF. and that was under decent lighting conditions.

i just treat it as a cranky new toy. a bit crankier than my prev d40x . to work around this, i usually keep pressing the AF on button to ensure that the AF system is "primed" and isn't caught unawares.

did some sports shooting and was quite satisfied with the results. so it's not that the D300 is slow or lousy (which would not be so bad actually). it means that the d300 is actually inconsistent!!!

[Leonardo]

Hi boyboy,

could you please elaborate further about the inconsistency you have experienced?
Did you got your D300 serviced at NSC?
Thanks.

[boyboy]

sometimes cannot AF lock, or take very long time. or sometimes, af lock still blur.

within my tolerance so i can tahan for now. and another thing is that my d300 is grey import. hand-carry from USA.. LOL. go NSC gotta pay

[lsisaxon]

Originally Posted by boyboy sometimes cannot AF lock, or take very long time. or sometimes, af lock still blur. within my tolerance so i can tahan for now. and another thing is that my d300 is grey import. hand-carry from USA.. LOL. go NSC gotta pay

3rd party lens? I experience this sometimes with Sigma lenses, but Nikkors don't give me any problems.

[boyboy]

yeah.. tamron. could be the lens also.

the tamron is inherently slower than my d40x kit lens, which i still use on the D300.

must state that although the lens CAN be slow (sometimes it isn't), the focusing issues are not that major. however, maybe if i were doing a paid shoot i'd throw the camera on the floor though.. but so far haven't been pushed to that level of frustration, LOL.