I picked up a Nikon 50 f/1.4D recently, and am trying to learn how to use it. And frankly, I'm trying to learn if what I think are focus problems/lack of sharpness are hardware related or if I'm just not shooting it correctly.

Anyway, my specific question is this: When focusing in manual mode, the D7000 has the three indicators (left arrow, center dot, right arrow) that supposedly tell you when you have "hit" your focus point.

How do those work? What is the camera looking at to decide if you are in focus or not? Is the circuit that drives those lights related to the regular autofocus system?

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