Nikon AF stopped working, what have I done?

[MiniChris]

somehow, I've managed to turn off my autofocus function in my D7000. I did everything the book suggested - push in AF button and turn main/sub menu wheels to no avail. I know it has to be something incredibly silly I am not doing, but no can figure it out. It worked perfectly fine this morning.

[Raycer]

I don't have D7000, but normally under the lens release button there's an AF/M switch. Also depending on your lens, you may have an AF/M swtich on it as well.

[Dave Humphries]

Yes, the switch on the lens is my first guess too, especially if you've been around the menus

In the manual, there will be a troubleshooting section which will list other possible causes, worth a look.

[Apo]

I encountered this issue on my D90....what i did was, i reset the camera, follow the manual it should be in there.

[MiniChris]

Totally frustrated, I drove back to school last night and got one of the lenses from my D40 cameras and it worked just fine. Have to conclude the auto focus servo in the lens has failed. This is highly disappointing given the cost of this camera and that it is just barely 6 weeks old. I've already turned in a claim to Nikon....arrrggghhhh, now I have to go back and reset all my old presets, etc. Oh well...I think I am going to opt for an upgrade lens. Any suggestions? I prefer landscapes and large industrial machines. Not all that keen on shooting weddings, portraits, etc. as I did that for a living many years ago.

[Dave Humphries]

Chris,

Have you checked the manual for D7000?

I'm not sure how clever the D7000 is, but I just wonder if there is any 'memory' (in camera body) of specific lenses and their properties (e.g. for micro-adjustment of focus and CA, etc.) - just in case it had somehow inadvertently become declared a manual focus lens. OK, I am clutching at straws ...

Cheers,

[Raycer]

Sorry to hear that. May I ask what lens? I haven't heard many AF-S motor fail before. I had trouble with lens calibration and dirty electronic contacts between lens and body before. I send the lens that's out of calibration back to Nikon (Canada) and they returned it a week later re-calibrated and cleaned (under warranty). The dirty contacts caused the body to think it was not a chip lens and that was cleared up with a wipe of q-tip. I was surprised by how dirty those contacts were.

As for upgrade lens (warning, I'm not a landscape guy) I vote for with 14-24 f/2.8. It's pretty wide for DX but its ready for FX if you upgrade in the future. A friend of mine have this lens... Oooo is all I can say. If $$ gets in the way, 12-24 DX may be the way to go.

[MiniChris]

Turns out, the D40 is only working margianlly..didn't have time last night to fully explore the final clarity. However, the D40 lens is allowing the dialogue box to show AF-s or c or whatever one I select when the other lens did not. The lens that came with the camera is a AF-S Nikkor 18=105 1:3.5-5.6 GED.I am awiting some information from Nikon as I write this.
Wow, weirness abounds...now it is suddenly working again as it is supposed to with one exception...Nikon will love this. It doesn't do fine detail focusing at any distances. Stuff that should be exceptionally clear at 45 or 50 feet is a tad toward the blurry side...

[MiniChris]

Nikonusa had me run through a series of tests, then send them files shot today and files shot prior to the problems beginning. I think because it is such a new series camera in their lineup, they want to really have a close look at where the problem might lay. At present, without analzing the photos, they are leaning toward a bad sensor. Howsomever this goes, it is nice to know there is a good support team ready to work with their customer.

[Raycer]

interesting, was it under low light condition?

[MiniChris]

It was. I was trying to do some depth of field experiments with a miniature Christmas tree with lights, bulbs etc...and that's when it went really wacko.

[Raycer]

It was. I was trying to do some depth of field experiments with a miniature Christmas tree with lights, bulbs etc...and that's when it went really wacko.

how many focus points were you using? single, 9 etc...

what do you mean wacko?
did it hunt or recycle the focus at first?

[MiniChris]

9 focus points. It just didn't do anything. you could hear the servo trying to do something...only it wasn't...it just clicked. Most times on my D40 when it couldn't focus due to extra low light or too many foucus point areas, it would go back and forth, searching for a place to stop, generally stopping in the middle, but not in focus. The D7000 did not do that. I tried AF A, AF C and AF S and even went to live view.
Now, for a general reference point, this afternoon while running the Nikon service tests, it did search for a better focus place in a rather pronounced way though when I went back to TTL mode, it went back to its old ways (well, new way now). I know it does focus much faster in TTL mode, but even so, I still think it should have made some decent servo noise...and, the pictures shot this afternoon, when seen in View NX2 are not nearly as sharp as those shot a few days ago. Baffled.

[Shadowman]

9 focus points. It just didn't do anything. you could hear the servo trying to do something...only it wasn't...it just clicked. Most times on my D40 when it couldn't focus due to extra low light or too many foucus point areas, it would go back and forth, searching for a place to stop, generally stopping in the middle, but not in focus. The D7000 did not do that. I tried AF A, AF C and AF S and even went to live view.
Now, for a general reference point, this afternoon while running the Nikon service tests, it did search for a better focus place in a rather pronounced way though when I went back to TTL mode, it went back to its old ways (well, new way now). I know it does focus much faster in TTL mode, but even so, I still think it should have made some decent servo noise...and, the pictures shot this afternoon, when seen in View NX2 are not nearly as sharp as those shot a few days ago. Baffled.

Are you basing your perception of focus on printouts, the viewfinder, or monitor or does the camera just not stabilize on the object? From what it sounds like you are using a different object to focus on each time you test the camera and it works sometimes and not others. Try focusing on text at a certain distance using both lenses and that should give you an indication of whether or not the autofocus works or not.

[MiniChris]

From what it sounds like you are using a different object to focus on each time you test the camera and it works sometimes and not others.

I was pretty careful to shoot a variety of images in a variety of modes to test the focus standard. I rarely trust the image on the camera's monitor or go by what appears in focus at certain magnifications on Nikon's catalouging program. My computer monitor has been very adequately calibrated and is a good, 21" LCD. Later today, I will upload tthe same images I sent to Nikon for their evaluation and let you see what you think.
What started this and still bothers me the most (though Nikon seemed to think if was a triffiling issue) is that I could not get either viewfinder to show the change in the AF setting from AF C to AF S, nor at that point would the camera focus on anything, in any light, at any distance, granted of course that it was all pretty much low light as I was doing my experiments at 8:30 pm. I had to do a total camera setting reset to get any focusing capability.

[Raycer]

I have encounter something similar to that with my D300 in low light as well. Almost as if I didn't hit the tirgger. Turning the camera off and on seems to clear it up for me. Very fraustrating when missing that one chance shot.
Please let me know what you find out from Nikon.

[MiniChris]

It appears from the discussion I have had, shooting at close range in dim light requires you use AF-S, and center weighted metering. I did this and had no problems. If that doesn't work at first, remove the camera lens, then the card, then remove the battery and reverse the action, resetting to AF-S and Center Weighting.