Out of Focus

Mr_T

Mr_T

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Hi All

I have come once again to the gurus here for advice. Recently I have been getting back into film instead of the digital I am used to. I spent a lot of savings on a D200 a year ago and there is not a day that goes by where I am not impressed by it in every way. I didn't think it would be too much of a problem in going back to my F80 but I started the notice that I just couldn't get things in focus. For quite some time I thought it was just me but I decided to try and make a fair test to get rid of human error (me :(). What I did was use my D200 to focus on some writing and get it pin sharp then switch the D200 with the F80 making sure they were in the same place. I used the same lens and didn't change a thing but it will still slightly out of focus. I have tried to get it any sharper and failed. I was wondering if this is a problem with going from digital back to film or it would be a problem resting with the camera itself. I realize that the D200 could be considered out of the F80's league however you should still be able to get pin sharp shots from it. If anyone has any advice on this matter it would be much appreciated as an assignment deadline looms.
 
Swapping bodies doesn't sound like a very accurate way to test, esp. when you consider you need to get the film/sensor plane of both bodies in exactly the same place. Just a mm or two out will be enough to ruin the test.

When you say you couldn't get things in focus do you mean just looking through the viewfinder or from looking at prints or developed film?

And the obvious question - has the diopter setting on the F80 been moved (if it has one)?
 
The prints generally come out OK however looking through the viewfinder I simply can't get it in focus. I realize there are differences so I tried to 'tweak' the focus a little the only reason I did it was to get it roughly in focus. Embarrassingly I'm not too sure about the diopter setting so I will find out if there is one on the F80 body to see if the situation can be improved. Many thanks for your post.

*EDIT*

It did turn out to be a diopter problem. I guess my eyes have changed a little since I last used the camera. I don't think I need glasses but I could always be wrong. Thanks again!
 
I really despise shameless bumps like this but I thought it may be worth a shot as I don't want to make a separate topic about it. I was wondering why I don't have to change diopter (or is it dioptre :runaway:) setting on my digital SLR. I would have thought if I was a little short sighted this would affect both of them however it doesn't. The only thing I can come up with is that the viewfinder on my D200 is larger than the one on my F80. I am now using a -1.8 diopter (so far as I can tell you get the choice of -1.8, neutral and +0.8). I was wondering if from this you can tell how far 'out' my vision is from being OK (if it is out). I am probably being completely paranoid but if it is quite far out it is probably worth an eye test (I don't currently wear glasses).

Thanks again and I'm sorry for these silly posts (you are probably sick of me and my bracketed insanity here)
 
Well I'm guessing that if your D200 looks ok as is and the F80 never looks sharp you don't need an adjustment which I why I suggested checking the F80 hadn't been changed...
 
Actually, the easy way to check is to look through the viewfinder at an OOF wall and see if the lines in the finder are sharp or not.
 
pxl8 said:
Well I'm guessing that if your D200 looks ok as is and the F80 never looks sharp you don't need an adjustment which I why I suggested checking the F80 hadn't been changed...
Click to expand...

My D200 was sharp as anything but my F80 simply wasn't. I have adjusted the diopter on the F80 now and it is once again sharp. I just thought it odd that I only needed to do this for the F80 and not the D200 as well. I was using text to do this to try and make it as fair as test as possible. It just seems a little odd to me.
 
It could be that the D200 was set to your Diopter by chance.. and the F80 wasnt.. also i dont think that the diopter adjustment on any camera is very accurate as an eye test.. 1.8 on the F80 maybe 1.0 on the D200, but turn out the same result, id ont think it'll be calebrated to exacts.. i suppose it could be to do with the way they are built, the distance between the eyepiece and the focus screen will no doubt be different on each camera, even if its just millimeters it'll work out a differnt diopter...
Thats what I think... :shrug:
 
I had exactly that problem last year when I was doing self portraits with my ETRSi and D70, although, as it turns out, I actually do have an out of focus head. Bummer.
 
I've a couple of canon bodies and I sometimes find the eyesight correction wheel gets moved , probably whilst putting and taking the camera out of it bag. maybe this happened.
It's usually obvious when it happens and a simple tweak brings it back again
 
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