Can this damage the camera focus motor?

[hewhoknows]

I was using a 24-70 Sigma lens yesterday which has a front ring that slides back and forth from AF to MF. Accidentally it had moved to the MF position, not sure how it happened, and when i tried to autofocus the camera i could hear the camera focuis motor trying to focus the lens. Because I thought I was still in AF mode my first thought was that I had a focus motor failure so tried pressing the focus button several times only to hear the same odd noise coming from my D7000. I then realised that the lens had slipped into manual focus and quickly slipped the focus ring back to the AF position.

I carried on shooting that day and all seemed ok. However today I went to shoot some ice hockey photos using AF-C and I produced a hell of alot more OOF images than normal. First impression was that ive done something to the focusing system on the camera from yesterdays problem :bonk:

My question is, can the camera's focusing system/motor be damaged by it trying to focus a lens that is set in manual focus mode? If so is there a test that can be done to determine this is the case and what steps do I have to go through in order to fix this?

Thanks for any adivce you can offer

 

[towershot]

I do not know for sure,but I would fear the worst.
If the teeth on the auto-focus are plastic you can easily strip them so sometimes it will focus OK then at other times the teeth do not engage because are stripped so will not focus...........hopefully I am wrong......

I would look at the instructions with the lens....

 

[Bristolian]

Matt,

I would doubt very much that what you did has damaged the focus motor in your camera unless you slipped the A/M ring back into A whilst the motor was still running.

 

[hewhoknows]

No i didn't slip the ring back while still trying to auto focus, just tried to auto focus while the lens was in MF mode. All I heard was the camera motor trying to auto focus the lens which of course it couldn't do and am worried of done serious damage to the focusing system.

Is there a way I can check or calibrate a focusing system on a Nikon camera?

 

[Rob 80386]

no it won't damage it, the D7000 has an in-body focusing motor for AF lenses, if the lens has a focusing motor built in to it and the switch on the body is set to AF, if the lens is in MF mode, the in-body motor will run but not be engaged with anything, so damage in not likely.

 

[hewhoknows]

no it won't damage it, the D7000 has an in-body focusing motor for AF lenses, if the lens has a focusing motor built in to it and the switch on the body is set to AF, if the lens is in MF mode, the in-body motor will run but not be engaged with anything, so damage in not likely.

Thats what I thought, but I could actually see the lens focus ring trying to move hence my worry. That twinned with the issues ive experienced tonight shooting sport is even more concerning. I think im going to do a focus test tomorrow and see what results I get