My D90 is back-focusing. Is this common?

The second shot wasn't recomposed at all, the focus point shown in Capture NX was definitely the point of focus. The photograph of the duck can be ignored for the most part because it was so long ago I can't be sure where the point of focus was.

I will give the cereal box method a go now and see where that takes me.

*EDIT*

Here are some full sized jpegs of my findings, they're saved at quality 9 in PhotoShop to keep filesize down. All were taken tripod mounted with shutter delay and a remote release, it was inside too so the cereal box was very stationary. Apologies for the terrible exposure. I had to redo the manual focus shot and the one after than because I goofed on the original MF shot, it was done under the same conditions, just later on in the day.

70-200 AF-S at f/2.8

AF from Infinity
AF from Closest Focus
Manual Focus
AF After Manual Focus

50mm AF-D at f/1.8

AF from Infinity
AF from Closest Focus
Manual Focus
AF After Manual Focus

Had a look at that - can't see an obvious problem there tbh...
 
Naboo32, do you think you could tell us exactly what Nikon said they did to your camera to fix it ?

How do you know it is really fixed? Did you do the tests over again ?

Thanks.
 
Naboo32, do you think you could tell us exactly what Nikon said they did to your camera to fix it ?

How do you know it is really fixed? Did you do the tests over again ?

Thanks.

Hi, sorry for the delay - I thougt this thread had died :D.

This is exactly what Nikon wrote on the service report:

"Autofokus-System justieren" (Auto-focus system adjustment).

Also, I did indeed repeat the tests that I showed earlier in this thread and this time the 'normal' AF and the Live View AF behave in the same way and the results are as good as my (problem-free) D700 when I take random 'real world' shots, as well.

I haven't done any 'proper' photography with this camera since it was repaired, as I only really use it for wildlife stuff and the weather here in Germany has been attrocious for weeks now :(, so I haven't had the inclination to go wandering in the woods.

Anyway, I don't want to spread paranoia amongst D90 owners with this thread :shake:. The fact is, the camera's AF was clealry mal-adjusted and this fact was very apparent with 'real world' photography. If anyone else here has a similar problem with their D90 (or other model, even), it will be very obvious to them. If you don't really notice any major problems with your day-to-day photography and have to resort to 'laboratory tests' to figure out if your D90 is AFing properly, then you probably don't have anything to worry about ;).
 
Thanks for getting back. I just received my D90 after I went to nikon canada for my back focus issue. I also gave them my 35 1.8 and my 16-85 lenses. I also gave them photocopies of the pictures I took and the focusing I thought was not right. Anyway, It has been two and a half weeks and I just got the camera back. I will have to re-check it. They also wrote on the invoice the same thing that you had. But, They also checked my lenses. Thanks for getting back and take care.
 
Thanks for getting back. I just received my D90 after I went to nikon canada for my back focus issue. I also gave them my 35 1.8 and my 16-85 lenses. I also gave them photocopies of the pictures I took and the focusing I thought was not right. Anyway, It has been two and a half weeks and I just got the camera back. I will have to re-check it. They also wrote on the invoice the same thing that you had. But, They also checked my lenses. Thanks for getting back and take care.

Great :)!

Well, I hope that they have done as good a job as their German colleagues did for me. Hopefully your lenses will not be at fault, as I suspect that they might be harder to calibrate than a camera body :thinking:.

Let us know how your test go ;).
 
I have to say I don't see any real difference after NIkon service.

When I shoot in live view it is perfect everytime. Then when I switch to autofocus and half press shutter the focus ring moves towards a farther distance. Then I take the picture. When I compare it still looks like the autofocus is a little worse than in live view. I give up....

#32 is the focus mark next to the focus target.
D4C519C3C490421EBDA81B0BD7348C1E.jpg


another focal length, this time at 70mm
FD3EC572992B4AB3A8DCF19879BB871F.jpg


I tried a different lens, this time my 35mm f1.8
211C977EB7754CCE85C694AE5D7F1680.jpg


here is one more try at 85 mm f5.6. Am I imagining things now??

94F54D03EFA444DFA2455CE7F397CEE1.jpg


now here it is at 85mm but at f10 instead.
D4FFB00DD7CF42C29CC86E0C7D62ECEB.jpg
 
interesting thread. i get lots of slightly oof shots, but fortunately/unfortunately (whichever way you look at it) it's all pilot error.

But is it though? Me and a few others get the same with our 450Ds - slightly softer results in autofocus - yet in manual focus or live view it doesn't happen. Comparisons show that the autofocus system is less than perfect.
 
I have to say I don't see any real difference after NIkon service.

IMHO you are looking for problems that probably were not there...

Your 35mm f/1.8 performance is absolutely fine. f/1.8 wide open is very demanding on caliberation.

Put the test charts and rulers away, and shoot something more interesting :)

In real world shots, judging by your f/1.8 performance you will have no problems.
 
I have to say I don't see any real difference after NIkon service.

When I shoot in live view it is perfect everytime. Then when I switch to autofocus and half press shutter the focus ring moves towards a farther distance. Then I take the picture. When I compare it still looks like the autofocus is a little worse than in live view. I give up....

:( That's really disappointing. Clearly, some of these cameras do have AF alignment problems and from the tests that you've posted, I'd say (although I'm no expert) that yours was a good candidate for an AF improvement following a service. Looks like it hasn't improved at all!

Those early shots, especially, are bordering on unacceptable in terms of softness, IMO. At least, if the 'real world' performance is the same, then I'd say that you've got every right to be p'd off :|.

Not to 'rub it in' in any way, but just to illustrate something, here are some (fairly heavily cropped) shots, which I took at the weekend with my (cured) D90 and a Nikon lens at 200mm and f/2.8. The intended focal point was the eye of the crow, in each case ...

DSC_0749.jpg


DSC_0752.jpg


Not an easy subject for an AF system, I'm sure, what with being black on black and quite small in the (original) frame :shrug:. Still, I think that the AF performance in these shots (and other random test shots at different distances on the day) is just about as good as AF gets!? It's certainly a very different story to how these same kind of shots were coming out before it was serviced.

Again, Aristoc, I'm really sorry to hear that you're not happy with the results of the service that Nikon did (or claim to have done) for you - I was hoping for good news :(.

Perhaps you should take puddleduck's advice and just go out and use it for a day (on various subjects) and then have a look at those results (trying to put the test results out of your mind for a while). Maybe it will perform differently in the (much mentioned :D) 'real world' :shrug:.

Good luck!
 
hI
Just wanted to conclude that my normal centre point viewfinder autofocus is equal to my live view autofocus. Thanks Nikon. Also..no dust bunnies in the camera.

35mm
F742403F87E441DAA0A161639A5C0CBC.jpg


16-85mm
AF4B7B419AA44F03936A02565103C975.jpg


real world inside my car dash board:
386FE570AEF4410B9C76D7361BD80039.jpg

100% crop
07A7C341131D4F6185A00C6A4EB06115.jpg
 
Back
Top