D700 AF Freezing

ed_o_brain

ed_o_brain

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Daniel
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Hi,

I was shooting a party last night with a D700, 24-70 F2.8 and an SB-900 on an iTTL remote cord. I had the camera in single shot AF and single AF area modes.

Whilst the guest of honour was getting ready to blow out the candles on his birthday cake, the AF system on the D700 appeared to freeze up. The in-focus indicator became permanently lit, no matter how far away the subject was, and pressing the AF-ON button had now effect. It was not possible to change the selected AF area bracket nor centre it.

Locking and unlocking the AF area had no effect. Nor did switching the camera off/back on. Nor did disconnected and reconnecting the lens.

I switched the D700 off and started using my backup for about ten minutes. When I picked the D700 back up again, turned it back on, and continued shooting, it performed as usual without any hiccups.

The D700 is 18 months old with no more than 15k actuations. The lens is 3 months old and it's about the fifth time I've used it in anger. I'm wondering if I need to send the camera off to be serviced, however the set of symptoms I'd think to be more lens related.

Has anyone ever had any similar experiences? Can anyone offer any advice?
Thanks
 
Weird. I can only think it got in a twist with lowlight somehow. Can you try shooting in similar conditions and see whether you can make it do it again? Then try with a different lens to see if it is repeatable?

Did all the other non AF related buttons work? If so then it points to a lens issue I'd have thought. But if the whole camera misbehaved then I'd think it was some firmware issue with either that particular lens or there is some combination of settings and actions that trips a bug in the firmware so the camera locks up.

I'd probably still contact Nikon and see what they say. Best to report it now then if it does it more you have a better chance of a free repair (assuming 2 year warranty)
 
Have a look at Customs setting menu item a1.
Is it set to permit the shutter only to fire when focus lock is obtained?
If so and the lighting was problematic perhaps the camera could not obtain focus.

I'd email Nikon before sending the camera off.
 
It wasn't the 'L' switch. That was my first thought.
AF-S priority (a2) was set to 'focus'.
AF-C priority (a1) was set to 'release' - but that no bearing on this.

The camera was gripped and running on a slew of AA batteries and a genuine Nikon battery in the body. The top LCD seems to think these are still fully charged.

The light wasn't too bad - ISO800 / f2.8 / 1/100th.

I don't think I'd send the camera off on the strength of this only occurring once and the camera continuing to work faultlessly afterwards. Not unless someone here says it's symptomatic of something more sinister.


Thanks for the replies.
 
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