Noisy 4500 Lens in Auto Mode

New to the forum. I just purchased a 4500 from B&H which
I picked up today. The only 2 things that bother me are the
incessant noise from the lens when in full auto-mode and
some white artifacts. The latter is probably me needing to
get used to the camera settings. The first problem concerns
me.

If I rest the camera on a table it will stop (presumably the
camera focuses on the subject. Otherwise, the noise is
very rough sounding. I don't remember a friend of mine who
owned a 990 ever mentioning this and I don't remember
this in the 995 I looked at. Is the camera defective?

Thanks in advance.

Either way, go to a camera shop or two and if you like or feel comfortable, take your 4500 and compare it to what they have. It's free and pretty much definitive. Good luck and let us know what happens!

SteveCo said:

New to the forum. I just purchased a 4500 from B&H which
I picked up today. The only 2 things that bother me are the
incessant noise from the lens when in full auto-mode and
some white artifacts. The latter is probably me needing to
get used to the camera settings. The first problem concerns
me.

If I rest the camera on a table it will stop (presumably the
camera focuses on the subject. Otherwise, the noise is
very rough sounding. I don't remember a friend of mine who
owned a 990 ever mentioning this and I don't remember
this in the 995 I looked at. Is the camera defective?

Thanks in advance.

Click to expand...

SteveCo said:

New to the forum. I just purchased a 4500 from B&H which
I picked up today. The only 2 things that bother me are the
incessant noise from the lens when in full auto-mode and
some white artifacts. The latter is probably me needing to
get used to the camera settings. The first problem concerns
me.

If I rest the camera on a table it will stop (presumably the
camera focuses on the subject. Otherwise, the noise is
very rough sounding. I don't remember a friend of mine who
owned a 990 ever mentioning this and I don't remember
this in the 995 I looked at. Is the camera defective?

Thanks in advance.

Click to expand...

That's the AutoFocus mechanism working. You cannot turn it off when in Auto Focus mode. If you think it's rough sounding, then you should compare it to another 4500. I was concerned at first, then I got used to it. Now I seldom use AF mode and have turned it to manual in the other modes where it allows you to do so.

• Olga

SteveCo said:

New to the forum. I just purchased a 4500 from B&H which
I picked up today. The only 2 things that bother me are the
incessant noise from the lens when in full auto-mode and
some white artifacts. The latter is probably me needing to
get used to the camera settings. The first problem concerns
me.

If I rest the camera on a table it will stop (presumably the
camera focuses on the subject. Otherwise, the noise is
very rough sounding. I don't remember a friend of mine who
owned a 990 ever mentioning this and I don't remember
this in the 995 I looked at. Is the camera defective?

Thanks in advance.

Click to expand...

It's not defective, it's just chuckling. Internally it is going "Is that in focus? Got it. Is that still in focus? Got it...." several times a second. All the Nikons do it. The effect can be turned off in the menu system in Camera Menu > Focus Options > Auto-Focus Mode > Single AF.

When you confirm that, it just auto focuses with a single half-press of the shutter button. In Continuous AF, it chuckles. Don't worry about the battery drain in Continuous AF. It's very minor.

-iNova
--
http://www.digitalsecrets.net

Steve: Olga's said it correctly. I do not use AF either, since I shoot almost exclusively in manual mode. You can set your menu to only focus once, when you depress the shutter halfway down. This saves on battery life. As for the noise, it's not as bad as you might think. That's pretty much normal with the CPs (at least, it's the same with both my 995 and 4500). But as Olga and Icepick suggest, go look at another one. Chances are, you'll find it's normal.

Frank
Whimsy is salvation for a life taken too seriously.
http://www.pbase.com/poetrunner/photo_musings

OlgaJ said:

SteveCo said:

New to the forum. I just purchased a 4500 from B&H which
I picked up today. The only 2 things that bother me are the
incessant noise from the lens when in full auto-mode and
some white artifacts. The latter is probably me needing to
get used to the camera settings. The first problem concerns
me.

If I rest the camera on a table it will stop (presumably the
camera focuses on the subject. Otherwise, the noise is
very rough sounding. I don't remember a friend of mine who
owned a 990 ever mentioning this and I don't remember
this in the 995 I looked at. Is the camera defective?

Thanks in advance.

Click to expand...

That's the AutoFocus mechanism working. You cannot turn it off when
in Auto Focus mode. If you think it's rough sounding, then you
should compare it to another 4500. I was concerned at first, then I
got used to it. Now I seldom use AF mode and have turned it to
manual in the other modes where it allows you to do so.

• Olga

Click to expand...

--
Whimsy is salvation for a life taken too seriously.
http://www.pbase.com/poetrunner/photo_musings

I don't understand what the purpose of continuous autofocus is all about. When I pressed the shutter button halfway down the camera would do one last search for the best focus anyway, so what is the advantage of continuous?

David Clark

Yes, this is really what it sounded like at first...

So I operate in the P mode where I can switch off the autofocus in the Shooting Menu. I then operate it when required by pressing the sutter-release button halfway. Or simply push on the multi-function button.

In AUTO mode, the only way to defeat the autofocus is by TURNING OFF the MONITOR (page 23 of the manual).

The focus will then operate only with shutter-release depressed at half course...

On the other hand, when you are outdoors deeply immersed in the action, the grinding noise can't really be heard!
Cheers!
Pierre

Yes Dave, your question is the million dollar question!!!

Why, indeed, should the delicate coal-fired steam engine assisted autofocus mecanism remain engaged in its eternal quest for the Holy Grail of perfect photography, when the whole matter appears to be resolved when the shutter is being depressed?
Perhaps, our friend Monsieur iNova could help us here...;-)
Greetings to all from Pierre

Because you bypass that slight delay of having to lock focus if continuous focus was off.

Pierre Beauregard said:

Yes Dave, your question is the million dollar question!!!
Why, indeed, should the delicate coal-fired steam engine assisted
autofocus mecanism remain engaged in its eternal quest for the Holy
Grail of perfect photography, when the whole matter appears to be
resolved when the shutter is being depressed?
Perhaps, our friend Monsieur iNova could help us here...;-)
Greetings to all from Pierre

Click to expand...

This slight delay would only matter to people who can take advantage of it. But these people wouldn't even consider using the AUTO mode in the first place...

In the vein of your answer, I imagine it's possible to just "crash the gate" and aggressively plunge the shutter-release without the slightest trace of a pause at the mid-point.

In that case, however, it doesn't mean the autofocus would be perfectly trained on the intended subject matter at the precise moment. That's why people can still come up with blurry main subject with perfectly sharp background on AUTO.

The need to capitalize on such a small delay, as you mention, implies a moving target where the sensors are offered various image planes at various distances every hundredth of a second or so.

On the other hand the real functionality of ongoing autofocus update would be most apparent in a Video mode.
Pierre

Jared Hunter said:

Because you bypass that slight delay of having to lock focus if
continuous focus was off.

Click to expand...

Thanks for the insight. I already use the P mode and manual
mode mostly, but I was a bit concerned since other members
of the family use the auto mode. This is a great forum!
Glad to be a Nikon owner.

SteveCo said:

Thanks for the insight. I already use the P mode and manual
mode mostly, but I was a bit concerned since other members
of the family use the auto mode. This is a great forum!
Glad to be a Nikon owner.

Click to expand...

Steve,

Welcome to the forum. One other focus trick to practice is to prefocus prior to taking the shot with a halfpress and hold. This is useful if you're waiting for someone to get the "right" expression on their face, or for action shots. Prefocus on either your subject or an object in the scene that is the same distance. Also take a look at the Area focus options (the five red bracketed areas). I never use auto focus area because the camera will focus on whatever is closest to the camera, whether it's your subject or not. Left off, it focuses on the center object.

In Macro mode, if you find that the camera is focusing on the background in some cases, focus lock on your hand at the same distance as your subject.

Turn focus confirmation on in the menu, and see how you like this feature. Focus confirmation really helps when you are focusing manually.
--
Be the pixel.
950/990/995 Mac/PhoSho5.5
FJBrad

Steve's Digicams conclusion page on the Nikon 5700 says:

" You can reduce the AF delay up to 50% by using the continuous auto focus mode. It does increase power consumption but it yields the quickest response time. "

http://www.steves-digicams.com/2002_reviews/nikon5700_pg6.html

Thanks,
David Clark

Pierre Beauregard said:

Yes Dave, your question is the million dollar question!!!
Why, indeed, should the delicate coal-fired steam engine assisted
autofocus mecanism remain engaged in its eternal quest for the Holy
Grail of perfect photography, when the whole matter appears to be
resolved when the shutter is being depressed?
Perhaps, our friend Monsieur iNova could help us here...;-)
Greetings to all from Pierre

Click to expand...

Pierre Beauregard said:

Yes Dave, your question is the million dollar question!!!
Why, indeed, should the delicate coal-fired steam engine assisted
autofocus mecanism remain engaged in its eternal quest for the Holy
Grail of perfect photography, when the whole matter appears to be
resolved when the shutter is being depressed?
Perhaps, our friend Monsieur iNova could help us here...;-)
Greetings to all from Pierre

Click to expand...

(Chuckle). The Continuous gets you closer, faster. Less searching happens with it turned on and that saves a bit of time, since the camera already knows that it is close to focus when it starts the exposure sequence. You can see this with all the Coolpix cameras that have the feature including the 4500. No extra steam needed. Single AF can take over 2 seconds to zero into focus, but the Continuous mode is virtually always faster since it already knows what zone it is in, including macro.

There are several "modes" that are specialization functions of the imaging chip and when it is used for live images, it gets close to focus, but when it is asked to get serious, it enters into a different, faster mode. That's what the chip spec sheet seems to imply.

Normal viewing is made with a nearly 8 frame/sec chip mode that samples about 1/16th of the chip pixels but covers the full surface, making viewfinding steppy but accurate.

Precision focus is made at 60 frames/sec (NTSC) on a smaller part of the chip surface and this is not what you see on the screen at all. The image chip is jumping its modes quickly to accomplish whatever it is being asked to do right this instant.

It depends here on what video output video standard is selected, for some reason, but it definitely is a dedicated Auto Focus mode, not an image mode. I guess they have to be compatible for other reasons.

-iNova
--
http://www.digitalsecrets.net

So all of this really matters if you are engaged in moving target picture taking in the AUTO mode.
Who needs the tenths of a second for landscape photography?

On the other hand, there could be some form of capacity (or proximity) switch in the handle that would tell the camera to stop focusing on just about anything at just about any range once it's not being grabbed but just dangling...
Yet, I am not convinced I will get the next Nobel Prize for this.
Cheers