Having issues with my 80-200 af-s

[Restomage]

Hey everyone, I seem to be having focusing issues with my Nikon 80-200mm AF-S. Whenever I'm shooting sports or something fast-paced, quite often my lens won't focus no matter how many times I push down the shutter release to focus and will only work if I give the manual focus ring a quick turn. The problem usually happens while I'm shooting in AF-C however it does happen occasionally in AF-S. It's very frustrating because I missed a lot of great shots at a basketball game last week.

Has anyone had this issue before? Thanks.

 

[Big Mike]

You may be at the limits of what you gear can handle. *edit*

While the D90 is a decent camera, I don't think it's AF is as advanced as what something like the D300 or D700 has. That may be an issue.

I don't know much about your lens, but the response time of the focus motor may not be all that fast, thus contributing to the problem.

And of course basketball is played in gyms...and gyms typically have terrible lighting.

 

[Restomage]

You may be at the limits of what you gear can handle. The lens has a small max aperture, which doesn't let in much light for the camera's AF system to work with. A faster lens would help with that (and also allow you to get faster shutter speeds).

While the D90 is a decent camera, I don't think it's AF is as advanced as what something like the D300 or D700 has. That may be an issue.

I don't know much about your lens, but the response time of the focus motor may not be all that fast, thus contributing to the problem.

And of course basketball is played in gyms...and gyms typically have terrible lighting.

That is one possibility I had considered and come to think of it I've mainly had these issues in poorly lit conditions. More the reason to upgrade to the D700... Thanks!

 

[Big Mike]

Sorry I thought, at first, that you said you were using your 18-200mm lens.

Your 80-200 F2.8 doesn't have a small aperture and shouldn't really be holding you back.
The low light is probably to blame.

 

[Garbz]

Any other lenses affected? Focusing mechanism can get dust in them (they are sensors in the bottom of the camera looking up at the mirror afterall).

 

[PhotoXopher]

I had the same issues with my D90/80-200 combo, my best guess is that it's the body and not the lens since I now use a D300s/80-200 combo error free.

 

[Restomage]

I had the same issues with my D90/80-200 combo, my best guess is that it's the body and not the lens since I now use a D300s/80-200 combo error free.

That's somewhat of a relief, thanks for the info.

And no I haven't had any other issues with other lenses, considering my other lenses are DX format.