your guess: % of D800 AF issues = trolling

In the meantime I have quite a few friends with D800's. One of them told me he had the dreaded left AF problem. Ok, I believe him, it's not his first camera. So I had one friend with a problematic camera it seemed.

Yesterday we met. He came to me with his trolley stuffed with Nikon gear and ... two shopping bags. Before he drove to my place, he passed at the shop and bought a Canon 5D MkIII, lenses and flash. Uh, crazy??? Well, he got frustrated and convinced D800 was unreliable, so he bought the Canon. But was it necessary? No.

The lens he tested the AF issue with, was his 24-70G. One swap on my D800 showed the same problem. NO way to get sharp images with left AF, except with -20 tuning left, and nearly 0 center. Putting my 24-70G on his D800 showed no problem. We tested all my prime lenses, his 35mm 1.4G and he came to the only possible conclusion: his 24-70 has a weak side, making focusing a lucky shot - if at all, with unexplainable AF tuning needed. 'But why don't I see it on my D3s?' was his next remark. Ok, put the lens on the D3s, put it on my D3s, and guess: yes, the problem is there too, but less obvious to notice - less megapixels, and definitely hard to see on the LCD itself + he usually shoots at f5.6, and never looked for problems. Something had happened to his 24-70 over the years for sure (he travels a lot).

Conclusion: we took his newly acquired Canon gear back to the shop, unused, where he swapped it for a 300 2.8 AF-S ED + a second D800 body. Darn, that's a sweet lens I used it for fun in the afternoon, 1/60s handheld and sharp, wow. The 24-70G on the other hand was handed over for repair.

So, does it mean there are no left AF problems? Definitely not, but some will absolutely not be related to the camera.

D.

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Nikon NPS member
D3s/D800/450D-IR/60Da/LX5