Major Focus Problem D300 w/17-55mm lens

[BrianWoolf]

Had a rush photo to do of a Red Cross special needs cot with iv bag, my Leaf Valeo 17wi was down, but i had my nikon D300 with a 1 month old 17-55mm lens. No brainer - right! I did not have a software to read the D300 raw files so I set it to tiff. Set up and worked the lighting, took a few exposures and opened them in Photoshop CS2. The back of the cot and the IV pole and bag were ‘out of focus’. Thought it was my mistake and refocused multiple times, same result. Focused auto and manual on the red cross logo - still soft, shooting between f8 to f11.
 
   Brought in two other lenses the next day, an 18-135mm and a 28mm prime, a little better but mostly same results. Shot raws with all three lenses and was able to get ‘decent’ results at home that evening, with some effort.

   So was the lens or lenses the problem - or was the camera the problem - or both.
   
   To be more confusing, that second day I had to do a close up of mechanicals of the cot - about a 2.5 x 3.5 foot area, shot with the 17-55mm as a tiff and it is sharp and detailed as can be.
   
   Close photos sharp - approaching infinity out of focus? What is going on here?

Thanks for any info
Brian

[Henry Goh]

AF indicator needs to be re-calibrated, just like my D2X

[dwdallam]

You said "approaching infinity out of focus."  If I understand correctly, then you shot infinity too close for infinity to be in "acceptable" focus. I know that's not what happen, but the "infinity thing has confused me. Can you try shooting the same distances again using auto and manual and see what you get. In other words, try to recreate the problem again.

[dwdallam]

AF indicator needs to be re-calibrated, just like my D2X

Then why were his close up shots sharp, and his manual focus not sharp that he shot the say before?

[BrianWoolf]

Thanks,gentlemen,

I attempted the AF fine tune (+10, 0, -10) but saw no difference. It is very possible that I did not 'activate' it, even though I turned it on. In the menu, all I saw was "AF Fine Tune  - -" no on or off, when I opened AF Fine Tune it was on. Read the manual, quite UNCLEAR, they seem to tell you what your options are but not how to activate them, except for turning AF fine tune ON or OFF, which I did. Turn it on that is. Maybe I need a firmware update?

The reference to 'approaching infinity' was about - using manual focus on the red cross logo, I would start out with a close focus and then focus towards infinity. I would go past the sharpest focus and then back up, but right past the focus was infinity. This is a wide angle lens and the markings on the barrel are 10' next is 'infinity', with nothing in between. I would guess the distance between camera and logo to be about 20'.

Brian

[dwdallam]

Thanks,gentlemen,

I attempted the AF fine tune (+10, 0, -10) but saw no difference. It is very possible that I did not 'activate' it, even though I turned it on. In the menu, all I saw was "AF Fine Tune  - -" no on or off, when I opened AF Fine Tune it was on. Read the manual, quite UNCLEAR, they seem to tell you what your options are but not how to activate them, except for turning AF fine tune ON or OFF, which I did. Turn it on that is. Maybe I need a firmware update?

The reference to 'approaching infinity' was about - using manual focus on the red cross logo, I would start out with a close focus and then focus towards infinity. I would go past the sharpest focus and then back up, but right past the focus was infinity. This is a wide angle lens and the markings on the barrel are 10' next is 'infinity', with nothing in between. I would guess the distance between camera and logo to be about 20'.

Brian

Brain, if you are referring to the focus adjustment, you ahve to perform the corect focus steps in order to fine tune your lenses. I did mine with the 1DSIII when I first got it, and all my lenses were perfect. There is a really nice way to do this using a laptop LCD screen and moire from a pattern. If you search the forums you will find it and the link to the image you use. I have recently been thinking that my focus is off a tad after having to have Canon repair my "new" 1DS3 becaue of the inability to communicate with lens defect many of them had. If you find the thread, let me know. I think I'll test my camera again too.

[BrianWoolf]

It seems that my problem with the AF fine tune, is that I don't completely understand the instructions on how to use it. My attempt to use it with a 20 point swing - achieved no visible results and I thought I should see something.

There is "LensAlign" solution mentioned on this site that alerted me to the fact that the D300 had the capability.

I am off to Seattle for a week - will be offline, so unable to reply for that period.

Thanks, Brian