Nikon D7xxx owners thread

[maninsuitcase]

Hi. I joined today mainly to seek advice on the focus of my D7000. With both the kit 18-105 and a nice 85mm 1.4D Prime, I do not get really sharp focused images. My 'rule of thumb' on this is to zoom in on eyelashes on portraits (on camera) and see if they look sharp: they are almost without fail soft. I have not used the camera nearly as much as my old F90-X Pro, but clearly I'd like to benefit from being confident in the kit I have on the digital side too. Treat me as a complete novice (which I am not) and please tell me if I have the settings on the camera off to account for this soft focus? I'm at the point of admitting defeat and 'upgrading' to something that will more reliably generate very sharp images. That's another discussion perhaps.

If it's the same on multiple lenses it may be you have one of the many D7000s that seem to be badly calibrated. A trip to Nikon service should resolve the issue.

 

[Ivan S]

How are your other lenses?

Well I only have the 18-55mm kit lens with the 35mm as well, the kit lens seems best at -6 af tune, but 35mm is all over the place, I have such a downer on the D7000 at the moment

 

[bazfoster]

Hi. I joined today mainly to seek advice on the focus of my D7000. With both the kit 18-105 and a nice 85mm 1.4D Prime, I do not get really sharp focused images. My 'rule of thumb' on this is to zoom in on eyelashes on portraits (on camera) and see if they look sharp: they are almost without fail soft. I have not used the camera nearly as much as my old F90-X Pro, but clearly I'd like to benefit from being confident in the kit I have on the digital side too. Treat me as a complete novice (which I am not) and please tell me if I have the settings on the camera off to account for this soft focus? I'm at the point of admitting defeat and 'upgrading' to something that will more reliably generate very sharp images. That's another discussion perhaps.

Have you attempted any in-camera AF Finetuning? You have up to +20 to adjust for symptoms of Front Focusing and -20 to adjust for Back Focusing. Why the D7000, as a £500+ camera seems to have this problem more than any other Nikon, I'm not so sure.

Mine has come back from 2nd repair (Been without camera for a total of just under 1 month) today and is sat at home waiting to be used. Dreading it if I'm honest

 

[bazfoster]

Well I only have the 18-55mm kit lens with the 35mm as well, the kit lens seems best at -6 af tune, but 35mm is all over the place, I have such a downer on the D7000 at the moment

Seems that the 35mm is one of the biggest examples of back focusing to be found on this thread... I can't believe lenses are manufactured with so much difference in auto focus, and if they aren't, why is the D7000 making them out to be so... more than any other camera?

 

[Ivan S]

Seems that the 35mm is one of the biggest examples of back focusing to be found on this thread... I can't believe lenses are manufactured with so much difference in auto focus, and if they aren't, why is the D7000 making them out to be so... more than any other camera?

No idea, it does seem to be the case though, just had a reply from Nikon

''Thank you for your email.

I can see the focus that you are referring to. The only thing I would advise would be using AF fine-tune to hopefully bring the AF ability into acceptable sharpness on the intended subject. However If this cannot be done then I would having the Nikon D7000 serviced. I have added information below as how to send the Nikon D7000 to us if you would like to have it investigated.

I suggest that you send the equipment directly to our Service Department for checking and possible repair. Note that the turnaround time is generally between 2 and 4 weeks - depending on part availability or parts, testing requirements, etc.''

Only trouble with that is the 35mm requires at least -20, even then it's not quite as good as live view can get, but the thing is up close to things, say closer than a meter are then soft, so what am I supposed to do, keep altering the fine tune at different distances

I find it unacceptable to be sending a near new product back for repair, I might just send it back where i had it as faulty but i'm guessing that will be a pain to sort as it's over a month old.

Let us know if yours is fixed.

 

[Ebilpirate]

Well I only have the 18-55mm kit lens with the 35mm as well, the kit lens seems best at -6 af tune, but 35mm is all over the place, I have such a downer on the D7000 at the moment

N
Interesting,

 

[Ebilpirate]

Well I only have the 18-55mm kit lens with the 35mm as well, the kit lens seems best at -6 af tune, but 35mm is all over the place, I have such a downer on the D7000 at the moment

The 35mm seems to cause many problems. But if the 18-55 is relatively well behaved and only needing -6, I can't get my head around why a good example of another lens would need so much adjustment. Ok the lower dof given by the wider aperture will make missed focus more obvious but -20?

 

[Ivan S]

The 35mm seems to cause many problems. But if the 18-55 is relatively well behaved and only needing -6, I can't get my head around why a good example of another lens would need so much adjustment. Ok the lower dof given by the wider aperture will make missed focus more obvious but -20?

It may be that the kit lens aperture hides it well, -6 seemed to nice.

This is a shot with the 35mm on P mode as that is what Nikon support asked for

[/url]
35mm f1.8g by Ivan Shingler's Photos, on Flickr[/IMG]
focused on the middle box

 

[Dornfield]

Have you attempted any in-camera AF Finetuning? You have up to +20 to adjust for symptoms of Front Focusing and -20 to adjust for Back Focusing. Why the D7000, as a £500+ camera seems to have this problem more than any other Nikon, I'm not so sure.

Mine has come back from 2nd repair (Been without camera for a total of just under 1 month) today and is sat at home waiting to be used. Dreading it if I'm honest

I have not attempted that, so thanks for the suggestion. I'll go and investigate: is their an instructional video anywhere that you know of? Other variable here is that at as I approach the 5.0 (not the Vanilla Ice variety), my eyesight is not what it once was!!
I spoke to Nikon on their 'chat' facility and may still sent the camera back to them to adjust: is the adjustment you speak of the same as they would do, or are they likely to make a more 'permanent' and 'fundamental' re-calibration? They seemed unsurprised by the concern I have with focus. My wife tells me we are off to Bali on holiday (clang!) in September, so I'm really keen that the camera is firing on all cylinders by then. I'm slightly paranoid that if I dig too deep in to menus, I could inadvertently stuff the thing good and proper. Loosing it for a month is probably no great hardship, as I've been so disappointed with the focus performance that I barely use it: certainly not enough to justify the price tag!

Dornfield

 

[SazzyB100]

As a quick guide, you go to the AF fine tune setting (in the menu, think its in the shooting or custom menu), then you can select it away from zero (ie plus 1-20 or minus 1-20. Then hit 'ok' to save the value for the lens that is on. If you dont like it just change the value back or delete it.
Nothing irreversible. I took a few shots, zoomed in then double checked on my laptop tgay it was sharp.
Annoying to have to do it though.

 

[Dornfield]

As a quick guide, you go to the AF fine tune setting (in the menu, think its in the shooting or custom menu), then you can select it away from zero (ie plus 1-20 or minus 1-20. Then hit 'ok' to save the value for the lens that is on. If you dont like it just change the value back or delete it.
Nothing irreversible. I took a few shots, zoomed in then double checked on my laptop tgay it was sharp.
Annoying to have to do it though.

Answering my own question, I note that YouTube is burgeoning with videos on how to fine tune the AF on the D7000, including one that makes the point that "I hope you haven't waited a year to watch how to correct this trivial problem" Ha! No fool me...... I've waited three......

saginfashiondoubledrashin' and grrrrr :bonk:

 

[bazfoster]

Camera now back from Nikon for the second time, and the 85mm I sent away with it now seems pretty sharp with no auto-focus fine tune

I can finally start to enjoy taking photographs again!

 

[Phil Young]

Camera now back from Nikon for the second time, and the 85mm I sent away with it now seems pretty sharp with no auto-focus fine tune

I can finally start to enjoy taking photographs again!

I have the same combo. Pleasure to use!

 

[gordonfraser]

Hi all


I'm back after over 3 years away from DSLR's.

I used to have a Canon 450D and used a few lenses in my time including L's and a lot of Sigmas.

Anyway I ended up selling most of my lenses due to lack of funds and ended up with the 450D body sitting in the cupboard...so I sold that too and bought a pair of gorgeous floorstanding speakers...


Recently I've been finding more and more images on hard drives and I kept saying to my wife, I really loved that time of my life and despite having many hobbies since then, photography was always a great time for me. Long story short, I was back in the market. I did my usual research for hours on end and settled myself on a Canon upper entry level camera - I was used to it, had used Canon extensively and was familiar. Plus my mate has a 100-400L that I could borrow.

Went to John Lewis to pick up a table lamp and thought I'd have a squint at the cameras face to face, as I'd liked the look of the 600D and the new 100D. Sure enough there they were and I liked them. After all, cut me in half and you'd have seen Canon.

Then as I was just crouching down to look at the 600D in the cabinet, the girl behind the desk asked if I'd need any help, and usually I'd say no, I'm just browsing. That day however I said, aye ok lets have it, here's what I'm looking for - "600D as cheap as I can get, with no lens. I always wanted a Sig 50 1.4 and I really just want a decent body. And also a decent SLR body too...hawhaw."

She said, ok, budget around say £300-400? Aye.

Well come over here and hold this beauty, it's magnesium, is weather sealed etc etc etc. Nice nice nice. My wife at this point was over looking at housey things, but wonderfully enough managed to time her arrival precisely when the girl said, "And this one is £800".

I ended up having the 600D, D5100 in front of me with D7k in the background. I held them all, felt totally alien to the Nikon but always went back to it. She recognised my awkwardness and tried to ease my mind with the whole lens fitting thing unlike Canon's EF / EF-S compatibility issue.

Finally I picked up the D7k again, looked through the 100% viewfinder, felt the weight, felt the grip, the cool touch of the body, the awesome look of it with all those buttons and switches and layout compared to the 600D's frankly plastic looking stark body (how could you traitor!?) and then said, I'd have to think about it some more.


Got home and went back to researching, as now I had a real dilemma - do I get a cheaper entry level Canon DLSR and be able to afford the 50mm 1.4 that I'd always wanted with my old Canon 450D along with any accessory I wanted like the grip etc...or do I go all out for the upper enthusiast's D7k body only, and just wait to afford the 50mm and all that other bumpf....


Browsing on a Sunday evening I noticed on camera price buster that the D7k was around £589 for the body only, or you could get the body and 18-105 kit for £629...it took me a while to process this, but for an extra £40, I could get the body and kit! I then could sell the lens on ebay or trade it in for the Sig 50, thus making the body cost around £480! And it was on Amazon too!?

A damn sight cheaper than the £700 in John Lewis.

What-Ho! I got the card out there and then, despite it being out of stock until the Monday, but I'd have it for the Tuesday, Amazon said.

Monday came, no dispatch. Monday night came, no dispatch and out of stock for 8-12 days!! I emailed Amazon on Monday night who said aye, sure enough it wouldn't be back in due to a supplier issue. Checked the price of the kit after the call, just to be sure that I wasn't purchasing a second hand or grey market one, or indeed one of Amazon's many "merchant suppliers" used but new situation.

Nope, brand new, Amazon.co.uk selling, but now the price was £735!? I immediately thought that Amazon had made a boo-boo and had priced it at a massive discount, caught their error and were now trying to get me in a position where it was permanently out of stock and I'd have to pay full dig. Worried, I spent the whole of Monday looking for rules and regs that would allow me to hold Amazon to their price error, or other ways to get around the fact that there had been a foul-up.

True to Amazon form though, the order was changed to dispatched on the Tuesday, and I had a glorious D7k with 18-105 in my hands, brand new from Amazon for the same price as the 600D I was going to go for (If I sold the kit lens)

Couldn't believe my luck.

Moreover with the money I'd saved I bought myself the genuine Nikon grip (used from MPB photography mint cond) and a Sig 50 1.4 (also from MPB used but mint) for £380! (by the way, how good is MPB!?)

So I now had a gripped D7k with kit lens and the lens I'd always wanted to try - a Sig 50mm f/1.4 for a shade over a thousand bucks.

I've had it now over a week now and I have to say, I absolutely love my Nikon. I would never have believed I'd be the proud owner of the dark side, but the D7k is just magnificent. I tried to compare it to Canon's model structure and I think it's a 7D or at worst 60D, but either way I now have a metal bodied upper enthusiasts camera with 2 fabulous lenses, both of which are pin sharp (Sig needed a bit of focus adjustment, but with the D7k's in-camera adjustment, I need not send it all the way back to Sigma for 7 weeks of testing! Oh what!)


I've read the thread here and there's a few people finding issues with their gear, but I have to say I am absolutely over the moon with my Nikon, and the deals I've managed to find. It truly was a case of right place, right time.


I look so much forward to getting back in to it, and with the Nikon D7k and its standing-ovation sharpness for both the kit lens (which I've decided to keep) and the Sigma 50mm, it's just a fantastic experience so far.


Cheers for now

G

 

[badboy1984]

Congratz on getting your D7k. The camera is truly fantastic. The camera never capture a bad shot, only me that capture the bad shots lol.

Enjoy your camera man.

 

[stan the man]

hi guys..i'm hoping to buy a lens in the 70-300 range within the next few days.i've been looking mostly at the nikon 70-300 VR,which seems to have good reviews,but is it that much better than sigma's and tamron's offerings..and how well do they perform on rthe D7000?

 

[rob-nikon]

hi guys..i'm hoping to buy a lens in the 70-300 range within the next few days.i've been looking mostly at the nikon 70-300 VR,which seems to have good reviews,but is it that much better than sigma's and tamron's offerings..and how well do they perform on rthe D7000?

the nikon 70-300 vr is a brilliant lens.the cost to performance ratio makes it one of niokons best. i only sold mine as i bought a 70-200 for the 2.8 aperture.

i cant say how good the sigma and tamron are in comparison but the nikon performs great. i even managed to get a image published with the BBC with that lens.sometimes I do regret selling it, just like many other former owners do. by the way I used it on a d7000 too. you can even use it on fx too.

 

[stan the man]

the nikon 70-300 vr is a brilliant lens.the cost to performance ratio makes it one of niokons best. i only sold mine as i bought a 70-200 for the 2.8 aperture.

i cant say how good the sigma and tamron are in comparison but the nikon performs great. i even managed to get a image published with the BBC with that lens.sometimes I do regret selling it, just like many other former owners do. by the way I used it on a d7000 too. you can even use it on fx too.

many thanks rob..managed to source one near to me,so will be picking it up tomorrow morning..fingers crossed

 

[maninsuitcase]

by the way, how good is MPB!?

I've used them a couple of times now, always been happy for the money!

I suspect the price has gone up as the D7000 is the old model so cheaper than the D7100 and a lot of people look at the differences then go for the money in the wallet! This means demand is probably pretty good still.

Compared to Canon I'd say the D7000 is about halfway between the 7D and x00D series.

The people who've had woes all seem to have bough at similar times, seems there's been the odd bad batch which hit a whole bunch at once.

Sounds like you're happy so good luck!

 

[gordonfraser]

Hi

Here's some samples of my D7k with Sigma 50mm f/1.4, no PP and with -4 AF fine tune.

Shot at f/5, 1/800 with -0.7EV ISO400

and 100% crop

I can't want for any more sharpness straight from this camera and lens combo. Magical!

 

[badboy1984]

That look sharp to me, anything more then that is pixel peep lol

 

[maninsuitcase]

Wish mine was that sharp! Certainly needs to go to the menders!

 

[Hell on earth]

NM

 

[stan the man]

well,picked up my 70-300 VR this morning,and must say how impressed i am with it and the D7000 combo..focussing is very quick,in fact..much quicker than my old a900/70-200 G combo.have taken a test shot in some very poor light...sutter speed was aprrox 1/125th @300mm,and have included a 50% crop..no sharpening applied..




50% crop



can't wait to get some real shots with this combo

 

[darkeeboy]

It's been very quiet here, does that mean everyone has been pleased with their new purchases or have not many people upgraded to the D7100? I'm about to replace my D90 and have mostly dx lenses so not interested in ff although its only another £400 to go from D7100 to D600...

 

[landerson07]

I'm very happy with mine, but I did come from the d3100 so was a big upgrade for me

 

[milster]

I'm very happy with mine, but I did come from the d3100 so was a big upgrade for me

Same here. I deliberated a lot about d7100 and d600, but I decided to go for d7100 so I can upgrade my lenses over time and when I do go ff I'll have lenses to go with it and a good dx body as well.

 

[ManVan]

I'm very happy with mine, but I did come from the d3100 so was a big upgrade for me

Same route for me. Loving mine, its taking me on many new adventures.

 

[JJ!]

I toyed with the D600 for a while, still do sometimes.

Loving the D7100 but sometimes wonder if the high ISO performance of the D600 is a better option.

Then I use the D7100 again and wonder why I doubted it!!

Photography is a vicious circle I tell you!

 

[iwols]

Moved from d90 and glad I did very happy

 

[Deleted sulking member 63079]

I haven't noticed any focus issues with mine, but I'm wondering if that's just inexperience and me not having looked at my photos closely enough..

Think I might have to check the 35mm f1.8 I have since that's what people seem to be having most issues with. Seems straight forward to check from looking at the photo above of the match boxes.

Also hoping to pick up an flashgun this weekend.

 

[SThornton]

I haven't noticed any focus issues with mine, but I'm wondering if that's just inexperience and me not having looked at my photos closely enough..

Think I might have to check the 35mm f1.8 I have since that's what people seem to be having most issues with. Seems straight forward to check from looking at the photo above of the match boxes.

Also hoping to pick up an flashgun this weekend.

I only had issues with that lens. Needed to be fine tuned to about -14 if I remember correctly.

I've used a Nikon 55-300, Sigma 10-20 (f/3.5), and a Sigma 70-200 (f/2.8) without issue.

 

[Deleted sulking member 63079]

I only had issues with that lens. Needed to be fine tuned to about -14 if I remember correctly.

I've used a Nikon 55-300, Sigma 10-20 (f/3.5), and a Sigma 70-200 (f/2.8) without issue.

I'm guessing it's easier to test wide open? Focus on the middle object, and if the middle one is out of focus, and one of the others sharper, that'll show me whether it's front or back focusing?

 

[cotty332000]

I'm guessing it's easier to test wide open? Focus on the middle object, and if the middle one is out of focus, and one of the others sharper, that'll show me whether it's front or back focusing?

If you want to fine tune it accurately there is a method called dot tune which uses the cameras internal focus confirmation!

There's a full thread on here about it or google it,there are videos on you tube!

Would post links but on my phone!

 

[Deleted sulking member 63079]

If you want to fine tune it accurately there is a method called dot tune which uses the cameras internal focus confirmation!

There's a full thread on here about it or google it,there are videos on you tube!

Would post links but on my phone!

Cheers, will search for the links later tonight and check it out

Looking at the Metz 44 AF-1 for a flash to go with it. I *believe* from what I've read that this will work with the Nikon CLS off-camera, not just in manual mode, can anyone confirm this?

 

[SThornton]

I'm guessing it's easier to test wide open? Focus on the middle object, and if the middle one is out of focus, and one of the others sharper, that'll show me whether it's front or back focusing?

Ye, I did mine wide open with a focus chart on my iPad (you can print these out) and the camera on a tripod.

 

[joker2006]

Moved from d90 and glad I did very happy

I did as well rather happy with mine too

 

[Ebilpirate]

If you want to fine tune it accurately there is a method called dot tune which uses the cameras internal focus confirmation!

There's a full thread on here about it or google it,there are videos on you tube!

Would post links but on my phone!

Dot tune takes the pain out of fine tuning. Just remember that you need to setup for back button focus in order to get a accurate reading. Also remember its a compromise between wide and tele when you do zooms. My 50-200 is set at a compromise for 75 and 200.

My 35 1.8 needed -7,

 

[stan the man]

hey guys..what software do you use to work on/convert NEF RAW files?i'm looking for a cheap option,as missus has put a ban on me spending for the moment.there is a freeware called fast stone image viewer that has been recommended to me...anyone use it,and is it any good?

T.I.A.

 

[maninsuitcase]

Free wise you can look at:
Gimp + ufraw. This is similar to Photoshop with ACR>
Google Picassa can read raw.
Capture One Express 6 can be had for free on an offer atm I believe.
If you have linux/mac then you could also look at Darktable.

Of those I'd try find the capture 1 offer.