Dslr Focusing Problems..any Help?

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tim01502

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Hi , i am new to the forum and to DSLR

I have been using a Nikon D1 with 3 autofocus lenses and in low light , the other evening, the 75-240mm lens spent all night trying to focus with no stopping at any focal point, that i could see clearly through the view finder.
The moment i focused manually and went to take the shot, the auto focus kicked in and again ,no picture could be taken
Please may i ask what i am doing wrong with the set up?
Thanks Tim
 
Autofocus relies on contrast to work and in low light the contrast is very low which probably stopped the camera from finding anything to lock on to so it kept "hunting" back and forth as you describe. In a situation where the AF won't function the best thing to do is turn on AF and stick to manual although if the light is that bad you might not be able to focus very well by eye anyway.

An alternative would be to use a flash which provides an AF assist beam to help, assuming you want and/or can use flash in the setting.
 
Thanks for your advice..that is exactly what was happening.
Unfortunately, my 75-240mm does not have switchable manual /AF switch on it. I will try and learn the flash set up using my 28DX flash which does have a beam on it.
Flash is my biggest concern and im sure i will be back in the forum for advice in the future.

Advice and forum well worth joining up for
Thanks again
 
He says he DID focus manually, but the autofocus kicked in.


Did you select Manual Focus on the actual lens itself??


SORRY BEATEN TO IT!!!
 
pxl8 said:
Autofocus relies on contrast to work and in low light the contrast is very low which probably stopped the camera from finding anything to lock on to so it kept "hunting" back and forth as you describe. In a situation where the AF won't function the best thing to do is turn on AF and stick to manual although if the light is that bad you might not be able to focus very well by eye anyway.

An alternative would be to use a flash which provides an AF assist beam to help, assuming you want and/or can use flash in the setting.
Click to expand...

99.5% good information there and the bad bit is probably a typo ;)

As implied if not said, turn AF off if the focus is struggling. If it is just about coping then try to have something high contrast like a dark edge over a lighter background and point the middle of the view there whilst focus is achieved then recompose.

Large aperture lenses (low f number) usually cope better in low light.... where the 50mm f1.8 usually shines.

edit: I type too slow :)

Welcome to the forums.
 
Yep, typo, sorry for any confusion and thanks Robert for clearing it up.
 
...plus the D1 was shocking at AF in low light...oh, how I miss it...NOT!
In anything but very good light we'd go to MF as a default, especially with long lenses.
 
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