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D800E/D800 Live much better than viewfinder.

grappa

New member
I am shooting the D800 and the D800E.
Mounted on a Gitzo tripod.
Using Nikon Camera Control 2.
Multiple lenses including DC100,50 1.4,etc.
Good natural lighting. Varying amount of light.
51 point or 11 point focus.
The Live view focus is dead nuts on, viewfinder is out of focus.
Strangely the focal point moves slightly between modes.
Both cameras bought months apart exhibit the same problem.
Any ideas other than sending them both back to Nikon ?
I find it hard to believe I need to shoot in live mode all the time to
get decent shots.
 

Bob

Administrator
Staff member
Have you calibrated your lenses?
I found that this helps considerably and I was able to match results live-view and finder focused.
-bob
 

petetsai

Member
The AF detection is different in both methods so your result isn't a huge surprise. Microadjusting should get things working better for you. Another thing is CD focus with a fixed rig will be the sharpest way to go as the af sensor array is designed for speed and accuracy. They can adjust the cams to move shift things a little bit, however if both bodys are doing it I'd double check things against a selection of lens. I'm local to Chicago if you need assistance.
 

grappa

New member
CD focus ? I'm lost here. There is a local to Chicago place to get help ?
Thanks for your reply.
BTW I have made some adjustments to the D800 so it is slightly better than the 800 E that I just received. I was hoping that the 800E would be an improvement since it was manufactured later.
 

petetsai

Member
Contrast Detection focusing. That is how a point and shoot camera works, and how live view focusing works. A Digital SLR uses phase detection sensors, which is a separate sensor array underneath your cameras mirror. In some cases the angle of mirror is used to adjust the focusing on cameras.

For absolute best focus I feel live view is the best way to go (non moving subjects), I know when I shoot really shallow DoF lenses I want critical focus on just an eye, not an eyelash or cheek. In these cases I usually go to LV and have better success.
 

danielmoore

New member
With my D800E live view focusing/viewfinder/AF all work well. Except- when I use AF on closers subjects, minimum focusing distance to somewhere around 5' I can't hit for beans and have to use live view instead. Obviously this is not tolerable in the long term and I'll send it in soon for a look. I wonder if near distance is a factor in your findings? Also, focus adjust on my lenses were at the limits (with one, -20 was not enough). I use the camera often and love it, rarely using it up close thus far.
 

grappa

New member
You got it! My problems exhibit at closer distances,2 to 6 feet usually. Also several of my lenses are at the adjustment limit. This is all on the D800 since I have not messed with the 800E too much yet.
 

danielmoore

New member
Well I only have the one so it should be you who sends their camera in for correction and report back.:):):)

Kidding aside, I'm waiting for the right time to send it in for a checkup.
 

engel001

Member
"The Live view focus is dead nuts on, viewfinder is out of focus."

When live view in focus, then adjust viewfinder diopter until sharp?
 

Bob

Administrator
Staff member
"The Live view focus is dead nuts on, viewfinder is out of focus."

When live view in focus, then adjust viewfinder diopter until sharp?
just look through the viewfinder and adjust the diopter to get optimum focus on the viewfinder markings and shooting data at the bottom of the viewing area.
then use a good target, such as a bit of newsprint, focus liveview and shoot, then focus with normal AF and shoot. If the AF focus is off then adjust the lens setting at Setup/AF fine-tune. reference the manual for details.
-bob
 

jsf

Active member
All lenses tend to backfocus? Nuts, all of these years I just thought it was my lousy eyesight. All of these years I have learned to focus and then fudge a bit, because I thought with my corrected vision I just couldn't see. You learn something new every year. Joe
 

Bob

Administrator
Staff member
Well,
Most large aperture nikkors tend to focus shift to the back when stopping down to varying degrees.
With careful calibration all that I have tried so far can be adjusted to keep the focus point within the DOF.
That means with some, like the 85/1.4, that wide open there is no DOF behind the focus point wide open but once you know their characteristics you can adjust your shooting style accordingly.
-bob
 
Last edited:

k-hawinkler

Well-known member
I checked on tripod my D800E autofocus with the Nikkor 28mm f/1.4 at f=1.4 and near close focus distance of 1.15 feet for the leftmost, center, and rightmost focus point.

Result: LV focus dead on, VF not in focus.

This seems to be consistent with the above descriptions.
I got my D800E from Amazon on June 15.

Next step for me is calibration I guess.
What distance should one calibrate for?

With best regards, K-H.
 

Tektrader

Member
You got it! My problems exhibit at closer distances,2 to 6 feet usually. Also several of my lenses are at the adjustment limit. This is all on the D800 since I have not messed with the 800E too much yet.
You realize you can get a bit more adjustment?

There are 2 adjustments, One is global and the other is individual lenses.

If a lot of the lenses need say +10 or around that. Set the global fine tune to +10 and then adjust each lenses as required with smaller increments. That way you can get say +30 without an issue on that one lens.
 

eleanorbrown

New member
Interesting, most of my Nikon lenses needed minus corrections...the 50 1.4 down to -20! Plus corrections gave me a blurred mess on auto focus. My 35 1.4g needed no adjustment....My Zeiss 100 f2 makro needed no adjustment at all. Eleanor
 

danielmoore

New member
In my case there were a mix of positive/negative adjustments. There are reports of a combination hardware/software recalibration fix for the left side AF tolerance problem now as well. I decided to let Nikon have it for a while and see what happens.
 

Jan Brittenson

Senior Subscriber Member
All my AF lenses backfocus slightly, except for the ones that have been to Nikon; those came back spot on. Oh, apart from the 50/1.4G which backfocuses fiercely.
 

Tektrader

Member
Interesting, most of my Nikon lenses needed minus corrections...the 50 1.4 down to -20! Plus corrections gave me a blurred mess on auto focus. My 35 1.4g needed no adjustment....My Zeiss 100 f2 makro needed no adjustment at all. Eleanor
I wasnt suggesting you need + adjustments.

Just that you have a look at all the lenses and see where average correction sits. THEN set the global fine tune to that.

Then use the individual lens adjustment to fine tune each lens.

This allows a greater total adjustment range to be had and could allow you to adjust a lens that needs to be corrected past the end to be tuned.
 
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