Hi Guys, I just got my D800. and after reading so many reviews on the net about the focusing issue i wanted to know what is the best way to test this issue? Any help at all... my cams serial number is 3047***
thanks in advance!
Ruks

Take pictures.

I don't mean to be trite, especially since I was asking myself the same thing after purchasing my D800. In the end, I decided to just go and shoot. If the focus seemed problematic I would then go and get it taken care of it accordingly.

I know this might not help much, but I thought I would offer my perspective.

I invite you to visit my website at:
http://mytakeonphotography.wordpress.com

Ditto on Take pictures.

Visit my Nikonians gallery.

Www.bythom.com has some detailed articles on how to troubleshoot this problem.

MarkF

D800
I still own an F100; do you think film will make a comeback?

Visit my Nikonians gallery.

Visit my Nikonians gallery.

Visit my Nikonians gallery.

You are getting some careless advice. I strongly suggest you read Hogan on the D800 very carefully and then do your best to follow his suggested basic procedure.

Probably fewer than 25% of D800s have that flaw but but if yours has it, it is a significant shortcoming in a $3000 camera. Plus it will kill any chance for a resale a couple of years down the road.


Gator Bob Santa Fe New Mexico
*D800E *D700 *SB800 *RRS TVC-24L
Nikkors: *14-24 *70-200 VRII *T-20E III *50 f/1.8 *PC-E 85 *28-300
Tamron: * 90mm Macro *

>
>You are getting some careless advice. I strongly suggest you
>read Hogan on the D800 very carefully and then do your best to
>follow his suggested basic procedure.
>
>Probably fewer than 25% of D800s have that flaw but but if
>yours has it, it is a significant shortcoming in a $3000
>camera. Plus it will kill any chance for a resale a couple of
>years down the road.
>
>
>Gator Bob Santa Fe New Mexico
>*D800E *D700 *SB800 *RRS TVC-24L
>Nikkors: *14-24 *70-200 VRII *T-20E III *50 f/1.8 *PC-E 85
>*28-300
>Tamron: * 90mm Macro *
Nikon, while admitting the problem, has never published any statistics. So how one may say exact persentage of the problem? Any real knowledge about? Why drive somebody crazy way before any using of that beautiful machine? If problem - God forbid - appears, then we are here to help. With all due respect, Dimitri.

"Nikon, while admitting the problem, has never published any
statistics"

I haven't seen any admission of an admission by Nikon. Can you post a link to where they have done? It isn't something Nikon UK are talking about!

I have tried 3 D800s and they all had the same left AF issue. The last one got sent to Nikon UK because, while denying they had ever heard of this problem, said they could fix it without issue. The first two came from the same batch and so I thought maybe the problem wasn't as widespread as it appeared. Also Nikon were saying they would sort it out.

First time the camera came back with the Left point fine but all the others messed up so that no amount of AF fine tune would work. When I called they told me that the high resolution of the camera was just showing up issues that were in every AF system. When I asked why some points consistently worked and others didn't they told me to send it back in. Even if this was the case, they were basically admitting that their AF system was not adquate for the D800 sensor.

I did return it and the second time it came back I could get the centre AF point to focus on my 50mm f1.4 with a +16 tuning but as I moved to the left side, the AF got progressively worse again.

I've given up and am sending it back to Amazon.

While I'd love the sensor's capabilities, I don't believe Nikon's AF system is up to the job of the higher resolution involved. I am left slightly anxiously wondering what will happen when my D700s really need to be replaced!

There's an interesting blog by Lloyd Chambers here:

http://diglloyd.com/blog/2012/20120811_2-NikonD800-autofocus-precison.html

( you don't need a subscription to read it )

I'm inclined to believe him.


Wooster

Nikon Rumors: "Update on the Nikon D800 left focusing issue". Google. And very, very sorry for your problem. Dimitri

>You are getting some careless advice.

I wouldn't call it "careless"

No-one in this thread is denying that some examples of the D800/E have suffered from a particular focus problem - though of course none of us knows how many - but where the problem does exist it seems to be pretty obvious in normal images shot using the left-most AF point(s).

So take some real pictures - and if mis-focus shows up, then it might be appropriate to perform more detailed checks and act accordingly.

Brian
Welsh Nikonian
Check out the Nikonians Team pages

>>You are getting some careless advice.
>
>I wouldn't call it "careless"
>
>No-one in this thread is denying that some examples of the
>D800/E have suffered from a particular focus problem - though
>of course none of us knows how many - but where the problem
>does exist it seems to be pretty obvious in normal images shot
>using the left-most AF point(s).
>
>So take some real pictures - and if mis-focus shows up,
>then it might be appropriate to perform more detailed
>checks and act accordingly.
Not everytime, but now I've to say: INDEED! Dimitri.

I wouldn't either if i weren't trying to be polite.


Gator Bob Santa Fe New Mexico
*D800E *D700 *SB800 *RRS TVC-24L
Nikkors: *14-24 *70-200 VRII *T-20E III *50 f/1.8 *PC-E 85 *28-300
Tamron: * 90mm Macro *

>I wouldn't either if i weren't trying to be polite.
>
>
>Gator Bob Santa Fe New Mexico
>*D800E *D700 *SB800 *RRS TVC-24L
>Nikkors: *14-24 *70-200 VRII *T-20E III *50 f/1.8 *PC-E 85
>*28-300
>Tamron: * 90mm Macro *
Watch your temper and be so kind to explain your "25%". The rest is not interesting.

It happened, since july of this year, I've been checking about 20 NEW D800/E bodies, in the my friend's store, before sending to customers/buyers, to prevent anything.(BTW, my friend asking every customer's permition to have 10-12 clicks). Not even ONE body showing any flaw. Dimitri.

Hi Ruks,

I did several tests, but here is a simple one to consider starting off with.

I lined up about 15 hard cover books on a table and made sure the sleeves/spines facing the camera were as even as possible.

Camera was set to "P" mode. I then put the camera with a wide angle lens (24mm) on a tripod. I set the camera to AF-S and used the center single focus point first to take a picture of all the books focusing on the middle book. The camera was about 3 feet from the books.

Then, without moving the camera, I repeated this using the individual extreme left, right. top, and bottom focus points. I subsequently made comparisons of all shots to the center point image.

If all focus points look good vs. the center point, you can stop there. If you want to extend the test, you can visit what I did at
http://www.nikonians.org/forums/dcboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=430&topic_id=17375&mesg_id=17375&page=4

Good luck with the new camera!

Nick (Roxbury, Connecticut Nikonian)