Nikon D3000

[thisisengland]

Hi, I have the D3000. In normal light, I have little of no problems focusing. In dull or poor light, such as sunrise or sunset I seem to encounter poor focusing.
My problem is the image in the viewfinder is too small. I wish i had picked a camera with a live view screen so that I did not have this problem, but it has become an issue for me. I dont know if it is just me of if other people have these issues?
this image

I was using F22 at iso 100 and 16/1 sec at 18mm and I was focused at infinity yet the image is just very unsharp. I know it was misty on the low ground but even the bushes nearest me are unsharp and they were at least 50 feet away. I was using a tripod and a remote release and manual focus (at infinity).

This is another I took this morning, but I have sharpened this in photoshop.

The rear trees are totally unsharp yet I was focused to infinity and on F22 again. If I switch on the autofocus it seems to focus on the nearest object, would that be more useful?

I am just trying to get to grips with this camera as I have only had it since January, the viewfinder image is so small it makes delicate focusing in poor light difficult. Any advice, comments?

 

[Karlos]

Hi, I think you need to read up on the hyperfocal distance, I'm sure somebody will be along with a good link shortly.
In short - focusing to infinity means the sharpest point will be at infinity, which is not what you want, what you want is the sharpest point to be about 1/3rd of the way into the picture and gradually dropping off all the way to infinity.

 

[thisisengland]

Hi, I think you need to read up on the hyperfocal distance, I'm sure somebody will be along with a good link shortly.
In short - focusing to infinity means the sharpest point will be at infinity, which is not what you want, what you want is the sharpest point to be about 1/3rd of the way into the picture and gradually dropping off all the way to infinity.

I see, so focusing at infinity is no good if i want any foreground detail. Ok thanks for that. But it is still hard to focus in poor light through that tiny viewfinder :|

 

[Karlos]

I think you'll still have the same problems with live view,

From what I understand the ideal way to set the focal length is by manually focusing to the calculated hyperfocal distance using the depth of field scale which some lenses have on them - in which case live view is of no use

The kit lens on d3000 definitely doesn't have a focal length scale on it, and trying to use the camera's autofocus wont work due to the subject being too dark and too far away for the autofocus assist light to illuminate the subject. Depending on how far off your calculated hyperfocal point is you could use a torch to illuminate something at that distance enabling you to focus on it (and recompose if necessary) before you take your shot. (best to do this in manual focus mode otherwise the camera will try to focus again when you take the shot)

The hyperfocal distance thingy can be a bit confusing and hard to calculate, so a quick cheat is to just focus at something a 1/3rd of the way into your scene, you might not get it quite as sharp, but I doub't you'll notice too much.

Only been doing this since xmas, so pls forgive me if I've not used the correct terms or got anything wrong