HELP! New D50 isn't acting right....

[RMThompson]

Ok so I got my D50 in the mail, and got it all ready to take it's first picture... battery is charged, memory card is in the slot, the strap is on, and the 18-55 lens is on.

So, I start to push halfway down and the lens TRIES to focus, over and over again. It eventually does, and I take.... but the next picture is the same way, focusing is sort of loud (not a problem really) and it clicks back and forth, forever, trying to focus and not ever really finding a place to focus.

Any reason for this? Anything I can do?

<- me. Very sad!

 

[zendianah]

I have a D50 and it seems to happen when either A.. Im standing to close to the subject or B my settings are wrong. If my settings are wrong... I turn the camera off let it reset and try again. I hope that helped.. since Im not a pro but own the same camera.

The manual is also awesome.. I read that ALOTTTT.. Maybe that may help to.

 

[fmw]

Usually continual focus seeking results from low light or being near or outside the focus range of the lens. Go shoot something at infinity focus in bright daylight. The focus should lock almost instanteously. If it doesn't then you can worry.

 

[RMThompson]

18mm the building across from me, works great.

55mm doesnt work, goes back and forth and then feels like it "defaults" at a certain length and goes blurry.

 

[Big Mike]

How bright is it? The maximum aperture of the lens affects how much light gets through the lens and to the AF sensor. The maximum aperture of that lens is smaller at 55mm than it is at 55mm.

 

[RMThompson]

It's not too bright, but shouldn't the flash take over at some point? It's somewhat working, so Im not going to freak out, but I hope it gets better.

 

[Kristie]

The flash wont take over if you have it on certian settings (what do you have it at? Manual, Auto, Aperture, etc)

 

[fmw]

It's not too bright, but shouldn't the flash take over at some point? It's somewhat working, so Im not going to freak out, but I hope it gets better.

In the auto mode the flash will "take over" but that happens after the focusing is finished so it won't affect focusing. You probably have a slow lens in dim light. You are asking the AF system to go further than it wants to.

 

[Sw1tchFX]

You're not using AF correctly.

It's a common mistake and people always blame equipment when 90% of the time, it's the photographers fault.

Your AF sensor detects contrast, so if you're trying to focus on..say, a piece of foam core, your AF wil hunt and hunt if you just put your AF point right on the middle of the board. But if you put your AF sensor on the edge of the foam core, where there's contrast to the board and the background, than your AF should lock on real quick and stay locked (unless in AF-C of course).

 

[RMThompson]

Yeah I am beginning to think it might be user error, but does this mean this lens cant be used at ALL indoors? I mean I am focusing on a lamp, about 30 feet away, and its pretty bright, and I get no focus....

 

[RMThompson]

You're not using AF correctly.

It's a common mistake and people always blame equipment when 90% of the time, it's the photographers fault.

Your AF sensor detects contrast, so if you're trying to focus on..say, a piece of foam core, your AF wil hunt and hunt if you just put your AF point right on the middle of the board. But if you put your AF sensor on the edge of the foam core, where there's contrast to the board and the background, than your AF should lock on real quick and stay locked (unless in AF-C of course).

Ok, but one of the objects I was AF to was a baby with a colorful play thing over them, about 5 feet away....

Everything seems so much better at 18mm, probably because of the better f-stoppage.

 

[RMThompson]

Oh and thus far everything was in AUTO mode, to get used to it.

 

[Big Mike]

It could be possible that your aperture blades are not opening all the way...which would cause there to be even less light getting to the AF sensor.

I suggest you go into a camera store and ask to try a different lens on your camera and see how it works. Also, maybe try that lens on a different camera body if you can. This should tell you it it's an equipment problem or not.

 

[Don Simon]

Autofocus is not all that clever and you need to realise its limitations... but it sounds like your problem is not outside the normal limitations of AF, and also it sounds like it's happening rather too often. You're not trying to focus below the minimum focus distance, subjects seem to have reasonable contrast, the light isn't that low... I don't think it's just user error. I find AF works fairly well even with subjects of fairly low contrast; it doesn't get confused that often. This should surely be the case with a Nikon as their AF system is usually said to be very fast and accurate. I would try again in daylight; if you then have any problems at all focusing on simple scenes of people, groups, landscape etc, I'd take it into a store and ask someone to take a look at it like Mike suggested.

Edit: I don't know if anyone's mentioned this already but you could try selecting only a single focusing area and see if that makes a difference... try using each focus point separately (I think there are 5?) and see if there's a particular problem with any one.

 

[RMThompson]

I tried SINGLE AREA/DYNAMIC/CLOSEST OBJECT, and I couldn't get it to decide on a focus in this scene (shot in manual): too close? I was at 24ish... I think.

EDIT: I may be getting the hang of it. lol