D800 f/1.4 Focusing Issues Fully Resolved!

primeshooter wrote:

Might as well post this, as it may help others. I spent alot of time with this camera getting OOF results with fast prime lenses when shooting them (f/1.4's) wide open. It seems that with every lens I own I needs between +15 to +20 AF fine tune to counteract the front focus in the body. Yeh, it seems like the body is out, calibration wise but I have checked this out and talked to Marianne Oelund who advised me that if it works there is no need to send it in to Nikon. I can now focus, like the D700 in any light, in low contrast, at distance, and close up, medium distances, wide open. The AF fine tune has worked perfectly. What is surprising is that close up focusing with AF fine tune OFF the issue was hidden, subjects still looked sharp. The thing is, at distance it looked terrible, totally OOF like some of the example pics I have seen on this forum. Now after tuning I notice that up close subjects are just a touch sharper and at distance now they are actually in focus - best of both worlds. Don't get me wrong, I still get the odd one or two that back or front focus (just like the D700 did in challenging conditions).

To re-iterate. Getting excellent results at all distances using:

AF-S (yes, despite what people say on here you do not need AF-C on static subjects, sorry)

True single point AF - no area or dynamic mode, centre mainly (or one of the centre cluster with a cross type sensor).

AF-fine tune is evidently very important. And it works much better if the lenses are fine as in my case but the body is out. Also you do get between -20 to +20. The DEFAULT setting gives you even more leeway as well as I have found in testing and had confirmed by Marianne Oelund. If you have focus issues with the D800 and haven't fine tuned try it because it has worked wonders. People are "worried" about leaving a camera tuned to +10, or +20. It's just a number and makes no difference I've found other than making each lens a whole lot sharper.

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