My D300 is not SHARP?!?!?

[MindofMel]

Hi all,

I have been noticing increasingly, that my shots are not always as sharp as they should be. Very inconsistent results and many unusable for clients. So much so I got my sensor cleaned and lenses checked over at London Camera Exchange.

However, still ever so not sharp. I then took all my lenses and stuck them on my friend's D90 and the photo's are tack, 99% of the time.

Is there something, I might have clicked / setting? I have all 51 points set, rather than 9,11 or 31 and I am AF not MF. I am lost!

 

[chphotos]

What focus mode are you using and what subjects are you shooting?

 

[MindofMel]

I try continuos and sometimes single. The problem occurs whether I'm on whole scene / moving focus point manually modes. Subjects are everything and anything

 

[-Rob-]

Have you tried placing your camera on a tripod with a 50mm lens that should be tack sharp and shooting something in nice light at iso 200 and f10? If you can eliminate camera shake, eliminate OOF due to DoF and eliminate as many variables as you can then you may be able to narrow it down.

If you can shoot something stationary, on a tripod at a small aperture and still get soft shots then you have an issue.

 

[MindofMel]

I get sharp shots if I do that - but I never need to shoot at f11 on a tripod for my purposes.

I shoot f1.8 - f8 at most on my lenses.

It's not shake / technique at shutter speeds of 2000+

 

[Martyn...]

I get sharp shots if I do that -

That would suggest to me that there is nothing wrong with the camera, however it would help no end in assisting you if you could post a couple of images with full exif info

 

[Martyn...]

I have all 51 points set, rather than 9,11 or 21

This could be it, the camera is picking up the wrong place to focus.

I use single point focus, that way I control what it focuses on, click the switch down to the bottom option. You can then move the focus point around with the rear joypad

 

[allanm]

I only ever used single point focus on my D300. 51 point af will focus on what the camera wants, not necessarily what you want.
Change the af settings and try again, I think you will be pleasantly surprised.
Allan

 

[chphotos]

As has been said, try using single point focus, as by using 51 point af you have no control over the actual point of focus. However, if you're shooting fast moving sports etc. the single point is no good and 51 point tracking is your best option.

 

[Martyn...]

Is the focus switch on the front of the camera set to 'C'

 

[brman]

Just to clarify, it might depend what the OP means by 51 point AF? You can have 51 points in auto area AF and dynamic area AF.

I assume (as others have) that he means auto area as dynamic area uses just the selected spot in single servo mode but it might be worth checking.

Toby

 

[Kaolin]

As others have mentioned I would try using a single point, in single focus mode (s). At least like this you can be completely sure what the camera is trying to focus on and you can assess the results.

 

[ah5168]

Try putting the camera on a tripod and taking a photograph using a single focus point, this uses the cameras phase detection AF system. Leaving the camera in the same position switch to live view and focus on the same point, this will use the more accurate contrast detection AF system.

If the 2 images are the same, then its probably the lens, if the CD image is sharp and the PD images is less sharp, its the phase detection AF thats at fault and may need recalibration or repair or you have the AF fine tune set to something inappropriate.

 

[ausemmao]

I've found it's generally a good idea to keep well away from auto area AF. Dynamic area, 3D and face detect are at worst predictable. Auto area seems to try to minimise the out of focus area for what it thinks are your subjects of interest, which means it ends up having everything slightly out of focus, even more so if you're using wide aperture lenses. I'd say stick to single point AF-S for static shots, and then use single/9-point dynamic/3d AF-C when you have moving subjects, depending on how predictable their movement is.

 

[Assassin]

Does the D300 have micro-focus adjustment in the menu somewhere? A lot of the latest cameras have this. It's obviously not the lens, but look to see if this is in the menu. If not, Nikon service agent can adjust this to your specific lens, infact they can adjust your camera to any lenses that you have. Check out your operators manual for this setting... it's easy to do.... but like the other suggestions, use the single central focusing point to make this adjustment...

 

[clive]

i might be way off here but is sharpening in your picture control settings set to zero if it is this could be your problem.
as said before check af fine tune is not set to something way off .

 

[Deckard]

Might be a good call from Barry there and advice from others. Double check if you've made any changes under Setup Menu > AF fine tune for any lenses. Are you the first owner of this D300? Could a previous owner have made settings there?

I would zero all AF fine tune settings if necessary, set single point AF and AF-C focus and see how you get on with that. You then might like to tinker with the AF fine tune settings if necessary, but my D300 hasn't required any changes.

Let us know how you get on.