I think i may have broken my first ever camera!

Andreal · Jun 1, 2007

Hi everyone, I am brand new to photography (ie. I just finished reading the manual and that is the extent of my current knowledge). I was interested in getting into photography and a friend of mine suggested the Nikon D80 to start with, after doing a bit of online research and having a look at the camera in some store I decided that it was the one for me. However after a few weeks of owning it and playing with the settings to learn how it works and stuff, I fear I may have broken it!

Now the problem is, the camera seems to be acting as if it has some sort of manual override. It will autofocus when the shutter release is held down half way, but if I then turn the autofocus ring it will manually change the focus. I have made sure that both lens and camera are set to autofocus and I have reset all the settings on the camera but this still happens. I am 90% sure that this camera didnt used to do this, I could autofocus, turn the dial and nothing would happen. Have a broken something, is it easily fixable, or was I wrong and is the camera functioning properly, anyone with a D80 know?

Would really appreciate any help anyone can give, Im going crazy with worry!

DeepSpring · Jun 1, 2007

As far as I know (at least with Canons cameras) manually turning the focus ring will always change the focus. Now this could damage the lens if is it in auto focus unless it's one of Canons usm lens' which have manual focus override.

Sw1tchFX · Jun 1, 2007

What lens are you using?

Andreal · Jun 1, 2007

Im using the 18-135mm lens that came with the camera. Sorry if this is too vague a description, im still really new to this.

Sw1tchFX · Jun 1, 2007

you didn't break it, its' supposed to do that. It's an AF-S lens, meaning instant manual focus override, just from touching the ring.

It's good that it does that.

Andreal · Jun 1, 2007

Oh thank god

Thanks for all the helpful replies! I guess I just didn't notice it before

BTW, just out of interest and my desire not to be so newb at this, what does AF-S mean? I cant seem to find it in the manual.

darich · Jun 1, 2007

If Nikon use a similar system to Canon then it means it's a digital only lens. The camera you have has a smaller sensor than a full 35mm negative. That means that the lens you have isn't actually 18-135 - you see through it as the equivalent of 28-215 (approx) assuming the crop factor is 1.6.
A Nikon AF lens would fit almost every Nikon body - the AF-S is a digital only lens and will only fit Nikon digitals that aren't full frame.
I believe I'm right in saying there isn't a Nikon full frame DSLR yet?????

Andreal · Jun 1, 2007

Ah, thanx for the reply, although im still a little confused about the numbers 18-135 correlating to 28-215, i guess i can understand what you mean there about not having a full sized sensor, does it just get magnified in the camera to be the same size as a 35mm sensor? Also the numbers never really mean anything to me, I can understand thats a 18-200mm lens will have greater zoom ability than a 18-135mm lens but what do the numbers actually represent? I always find myself thinking will that be enough (I am thinking of buying a new lens so that I can experiment a bit more, hopefully this will help the learning process

).

Anyway, sorry for my ignorence on the subject, it seems like every answer spawns more questions

. Hopefully I will be able to contribute back to these forums someday

Don Simon · Jun 1, 2007

darich said:
That means that the lens you have isn't actually 18-135

Yes it is

It's an 18-135mm. An 18-135mm lens gives a different field of view on an "APS"-sized sensor to a 35mm sensor. It would also give a different field of view on a medium format camera if it could be mounted to one. But it would still actually be an 18-135.

The "equivalent" is only so people can compare with what they were used to with 35mm film cameras (or what they use on 35mm sensors). Otherwise it's meaningless. And the D80 is Andreal's "first ever camera", she presumable hasn't used a 35mm, so it won't mean much. You are right that Nikon doesn't have a full frame dSLR yet, nor do the other companies apart from Canon. Which is another reason why, unless you shoot Canon or remember 35mm film, the "equivalent" is pointless.

Mike_E · Jun 1, 2007

Andreal, don't worry about crop factors or full frame anything just yet, just concentrate on getting the exposure right and the subjects in focus. Your best friend right now is the histogram! (look in your manual) Keep the right side of the body of the histogram as close as you can to the right line with out going over it. "The lines are our friends!"

mike

Andreal · Jun 1, 2007

Hi mike, thanks for the reply! I think I know what you mean (those RGB histograms you can view after the photo is taken?). Mine show the histogram with 3 vertical lines. Your saying i should keep the left withing the lfet line and the right withing the right line right? I looked at some of the photos I have and they are generally within these lines, but the all seem to have a massive spike to the VERY left of the histogram. I know from the manual that this is measuring the quantity of bright/dark pixels, but any idea why it would have such a massive spike at the beginning and what I can do to reduce the problem?

PS. ZaphodB, im a guy, my name come from a spelling error my friend made that I thought was amusing and looked cool

everyone seems to think it means Andrea L though and hence think im a girl, oh well, maybe I should stop making accounts with this name

, thanks for the clarification on lenes and sensor sizes bte

darich · Jun 1, 2007

ZaphodB said:
Yes it is

It's an 18-135mm. An 18-135mm lens gives a different field of view on an "APS"-sized sensor to a 35mm sensor. It would also give a different field of view on a medium format camera if it could be mounted to one. But it would still actually be an 18-135.

The "equivalent" is only so people can compare with what they were used to with 35mm film cameras (or what they use on 35mm sensors). Otherwise it's meaningless. And the D80 is Andreal's "first ever camera", she presumable hasn't used a 35mm, so it won't mean much. You are right that Nikon doesn't have a full frame dSLR yet, nor do the other companies apart from Canon. Which is another reason why, unless you shoot Canon or remember 35mm film, the "equivalent" is pointless.

So are you agreeing, disagreeing or clarifying what i said??

Don Simon · Jun 1, 2007

darich said:
So are you agreeing, disagreeing or clarifying what i said??

All of the above :lol:

I agree that when you look through an 18-135mm on a sensor 1.6x smaller than 35mm you get a field of view equivalent to a 28-215mm on a 35mm sensor/film. I disagree that the lens isn't actually an 18-135mm because it is, it just has a different field of view on a smaller sensor. It's a bit like saying that a 50mm lens on your 5D isn't really a 50mm because you see through it as the equivalent of an 85mm on my medium format camera

The field of view changes depending on the film/sensor size, but the focal length is still the same.

Using the 'crop' or 'equivalent' thing to get an idea of FOV makes sense to me because I'm used to 35mm film cameras. It makes sense to you as well as a Canon full-frame user. But if someone uses a Nikon dSLR (where there's only the one sensor size) and has never used another format, the concepts of 'crop' and 'equivalent' focal length don't mean anything and just confuse. Of course this post will probably confuse even more... maybe someone can clarify my clarification :lol:

darich · Jun 1, 2007

i know a lens of whatever focal length is always that focal length regardless of the camera. i guess i just wasn't clear enough in my crop factor explanation.
Must be thinking of the weekend already!!!
:thumbup:

Mike_E · Jun 1, 2007

Andreal, yes try to keep the blob of the histogram from running over the sides. (how's that for a technical explanation?) It is more important to not go over the right side than it is the left though because you get "blown highlights" that way -where there are white spots in what should be a solid color and the colors look like they're glowing with radio-active waste.

As far as the spikes are concerned, the histogram is just a graph of how many pixels are being used in the shot at a certain brightness, something like this

......8.8.8.........8.......
...4.8.8.8.4......8....4..
2.4.8.8.8.4.2.2.8.2.4.2 (This graph thing may not work)
the thing is not to go over the lines at either side. If there are spikes then that is just a reflection of how whatever you are shooting is represented and you can't really do anything about that except shoot from a different angle. Or if you are seeing a LOT of spikes, you might turn down you in camera sharpness.

mike