What kind of experience have you had with Nikon's service department. My 5100 is out of warranty so I will have to pay for repairs. My problem is "soft focus" which actually seems to be due to focus being behind the point where both auto focus and the manual range finder say it is in focus. In many of the pictures, when I looked closely, there did seem to be a point of crisp focus that was behind what I was focusing on. (No, it's not operator error!)

As I see it, one of three things can happen. They can fix the problem, they can say they fixed the problem when they didn't and they can say there is no problem.

Is it worth sending back to Nikon, or should I just go out and buy a Cannon. (I keep having this recurring daydream of buying a Cannon, mounting the d5100 on a tripod, mounting the Canon on a tripod focused on the Nikon and starting a video and making a video of me puting a 308 rifle bullet throught the Nikon.)

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See, just thinking about buying a Canon, and you've already moved to the Dark Side.

Visit my Nikonians gallery.

Did this problem begin recently? If not you should have sent it in while the camera was under warranty.

All brands of cameras can occasionally need repair. See this:

http://www.naturescapes.net/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?t=220625

Alan

If you had the camera serviced for the same problem under warranty recently Nikon might fix it for free. If not, they should be able to repair the problem for a fee. They will most likely want you to send in both the camera and lens.
As for purchasing a Canon to capture you destroying your D5100; the grass always appears greener on the other side of the fence.
Good Luck and Enjoy your Nikons!

Best Regards,
Marty

I was thinking of the same thing.

That's equivalent having and Apple Macintosh Computer and some one mentioning the Word Microsoft Window machine, which is considered going to the Dark Side.

Phillip M Jones, CET
pjonescet@comcast.net
http://www.phillipmjones.net/

Visit my Nikonians gallery.

Rather than destroying the Camera. I'd be willing to take it off your hands for shipping cost. My lens for my 3000 should work just fine. Just need the body, battery and charger.

I'd love to move up to the 3200 but can find nowhere I can just get just the body with Battery and charger. I already have the 18-55, the 55-200 and the 35 f/1.8

Don't need to waste money on what I don't need.

Phillip M Jones, CET
pjonescet@comcast.net
http://www.phillipmjones.net/

Visit my Nikonians gallery.

>Rather than destroying the Camera. I'd be willing to take it
>off your hands for shipping cost. My lens for my 3000 should
>work just fine. Just need the body, battery and charger.
>

Yeah, but then I'd be denying myself the satisfaction of destroying the object of my frustration . Actually none of the ranges that I know of here in Virginia would allow me to do it. But the daydream is somewhat soothing.

In any event, I do thank you all for your replies. I looked at the Nikon website and found that it is still just barely within warranty (for some reason, I thought it was only 90 days), so I will be sending it to Nikon this weekend.

If you check out the last eight pictures added to my gallery "My Back Yard" ( http://images.nikonians.org/galleries/showgallery.php?cat=22196 ) and especially the picture of the goldfinch in the same gallery, I think you'll see my problem. It can also be seen in the HF transciever pix in my "Just Playing Around" gallery ( http://images.nikonians.org/galleries/showgallery.php?cat=22223 )

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My D3000 was received from Nikon today. It took two trips to their repair facility but the repair appears to be satisfactory.

Good luck

Laverne

Nikon USA provides a 90 day warranty on refurbished bodies, lenses, and speedlights. They provide a one year warranty on new bodies and speedlights and a 0ne yrar international warranty and 4 additional year Nikon USA warranty on lenses.
Good Luck and Enjoy your Nikons!

Best Regards,
Marty

That's a little more than "Soft" That downright borderline Fuzzy. Doesn't appear to be camera shake

Phillip M Jones, CET
pjonescet@comcast.net
http://www.phillipmjones.net/

Visit my Nikonians gallery.

All of the pix were taken from a solid tripod.

The really frustrating part of the "softness" is in the pic of the goldfinch. Had it been in sharp focus, I think it would have been a magnificent picture. (Note that it is a cropped picture. For the full picture to be displayed on my monitor, it would be reduced to 25% of full size - as were the last eight pictures.

Now, here's a wonder question. I was trying to get a good picture showing the problem to send to Nikon along with the camera. The birds weren't cooperationg so I decided to take a picture of the feeder. It has lots of dark horizontal and vertical lines to focus on (the distance is 15 feet and the lens is at 200mm). While I was waiting, I started fooling with the diopter adjustment and carefully adjusted its focus on the cage of the feeder. Then I shot some pix and when I checked, they seemed considerably sharper than before. (Flowers taken at 2 feet didn't seem to benefit that much from this adjustment)

I saw a diagram of the mirrors and sensors in another model of Nikon (D90, I think) and it showed the focusing sensor on the bottom of the camera and the picture sensor (the "film") on the back. Is it possible that the focusing sensor on the 5100 is on the top, after the diopter adjustment? Does anyone know of a site that has a diagram of the internal layout of the 5100?

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The diopter adjustment has absolutely nothing to do with auto focus. It only corrects for your eyesight so your view through the viewfinder is clearer.

Len

Visit my Nikonians gallery.

Thanks. It didn't seem like the diopter adjustment should have anything to do with the problem. Guess it's just a coincidence that the pix seemed to sharpen up after I played with it.

Visit my Nikonians gallery.

>All of the pix were taken from a solid tripod.
>
>The really frustrating part of the "softness" is in
>the pic of the goldfinch. Had it been in sharp focus, I think
>it would have been a magnificent picture. (Note that it is a
>cropped picture. For the full picture to be displayed on my
>monitor, it would be reduced to 25% of full size - as were the
>last eight pictures.
>
>Now, here's a wonder question. I was trying to get a good
>picture showing the problem to send to Nikon along with the
>camera. The birds weren't cooperationg so I decided to take a
>picture of the feeder. It has lots of dark horizontal and
>vertical lines to focus on (the distance is 15 feet and the
>lens is at 200mm). While I was waiting, I started fooling with
>the diopter adjustment and carefully adjusted its focus on the
>cage of the feeder. Then I shot some pix and when I checked,
>they seemed considerably sharper than before. (Flowers taken
>at 2 feet didn't seem to benefit that much from this
>adjustment)
> had
>I saw a diagram of the mirrors and sensors in another model of
>Nikon (D90, I think) and it showed the focusing sensor on the
>bottom of the camera and the picture sensor (the
>"film") on the back. Is it possible that the
>focusing sensor on the 5100 is on the top, after the diopter
>adjustment? Does anyone know of a site that s has a diagram of
>the internal layout of the 5100?

I don't think diopter has anything to do with auto-focus,.