Autofocus

[blakemcguire]

I notice when focusing with my D90, that the center point seems to focus to the very bottom of the square in the viewfinder.

I'm not planning to go crying to Nikon or anything, but I'm wondering how to manage something like that. My concern is that in the heat of the moment I'm going to end up being focused on something I wasn't planning on, such as an ear or a background.

Is it a quirk of the camera that I just need to keep in mind? I'm going to be shooting sports soon for the student newspaper, so I'm working on my focusing technique.

[Manfred M]

It sounds like you may have changed your focus point accidentally. Unlock where your focus point is using the focus selector lock switch on the back of your camera and move it back to the centre with the multiselector and then lock it when it is where you want it.

[blakemcguire]

It sounds like you may have changed your focus point accidentally. Unlock where your focus point is using the focus selector lock switch on the back of your camera and move it back to the centre with the multiselector and then lock it when it is where you want it.

No, it's set to center. When I say below, I mean at the very bottom of the center box, not at the bottom of the frame.

[Brocken]

For sport, I would suggest Custom Setting Menu > a1 AF-Area Mode > 3D-tracking (11 point)

[jcuknz]

Can you reduce the size of the focusing area in Nikon cameras, or the D90 in particular? Alternatively would selecting the square immediately above centre help you ?

[benm]

The location of the actual focus point is not necessarily the shape of the rectangle you see in the viewfinder, is not necessarily coincident with the rectangle, and is not necessarily the same size as the rectangle. Now that you know where the sensitive spot is you are miles ahead of most photographers. (And the other 10 focus points may all be slightly different than the center point and not just simply offset the same as the center point.) Don't you just love quality control?