How serious is the AF problem in D7000?

[nikonmaniak]

Hi!

A few members are talking about auto-focusing problem in D7000 in different forums. Is it a universal problem or confined to few early batches? Is the problem too serious? I am asking this because I am planning to get a new D7000 at a bargain price in a day or two. Should I drop the plan and go for D7100 at a much higher price (60% more)? But my requirement doesn't justify this extra expenditure. Please advise.

Thanks.

Nikonmaniak

 

[fotolopithecus]

Hi!

A few members are talking about auto-focusing problem in D7000 in different forums. Is it a universal problem or confined to few early batches? Is the problem too serious? I am asking this because I am planning to get a new D7000 at a bargain price in a day or two. Should I drop the plan and go for D7100 at a much higher price (60% more)? But my requirement doesn't justify this extra expenditure. Please advise.

Thanks.

Nikonmaniak

I had a D7000 until recently which I bought soon after it was released, and never had any auto-focus issues. I think most people don't, but some are ocd about auto-focus, and wee their pants if it's not perfect at all times. One pearl of wisdom I remember from one these guys was "the purpose of a dslr is to auto-focus."

 

[sapple]

The AF in the 7000 is supposed to be the same as the d5200. I own a 5200 and rarely have much trouble. Biggest problem are birds in bushes. The camera will focus on a twig between me and the bird instead of the bird. The 7100 has more focus points so it is supposed to be better. Most people who make the upgrade do it for more than the af issues.
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<a href="http://www.applenegative.com" target="_blank" title="www.applenegative.com" data-mce-href="http://www.applenegative.com">www.applenegative.com</a>

 

[David Lal]

Hi!

A few members are talking about auto-focusing problem in D7000 in different forums. Is it a universal problem or confined to few early batches? Is the problem too serious? I am asking this because I am planning to get a new D7000 at a bargain price in a day or two. Should I drop the plan and go for D7100 at a much higher price (60% more)? But my requirement doesn't justify this extra expenditure. Please advise.

In this forum D7K AF issues are usually ascribed to user error [sic]. Rightly or wrongly. However, if you read this recent post by Leonard Shepherd:

http://www.dpreview.com/forums/post/52678717

you will see that underlying all the user errors is perhaps a design 'feature'. Jim Holtz describes how to set up the camera to deal with all this:

http://www.dpreview.com/forums/post/52677495

Personally I'd save up the extra money needed for a D7100. Some say the AF in the D7100 is better even than the already superlative D300. If that is too much money then you might want to think about a secondhand D300/s although that would not be a particularly brilliant solution if you want the high ISO performance of the newer sensors.

David

 

[scokill]

The AF in the 7000 is supposed to be the same as the d5200. I own a 5200 and rarely have much trouble. Biggest problem are birds in bushes. The camera will focus on a twig between me and the bird instead of the bird. The 7100 has more focus points so it is supposed to be better. Most people who make the upgrade do it for more than the af issues.
--
<a href="http://www.applenegative.com" target="_blank" title="www.applenegative.com" data-mce-href="http://www.applenegative.com">www.applenegative.com</a>

Birds in bushes?? AF is not a laser beam.

 

[arrr]

Hi!

A few members are talking about auto-focusing problem in D7000 in different forums. Is it a universal problem or confined to few early batches? Is the problem too serious? I am asking this because I am planning to get a new D7000 at a bargain price in a day or two. Should I drop the plan and go for D7100 at a much higher price (60% more)? But my requirement doesn't justify this extra expenditure. Please advise.

Thanks.

Nikonmaniak

I have a couple of D7000s. Honestly I've never notice a universal AF issue with either of them. I do however have 2 lenses that back focus on those bodies. A 50mm f1.8 AF-D and 18-70 f4.5 AF-S. Both lenses work perfectly (most of the time) after af Micro Adjustment.

Also, I'd like to add that the D7100 is not a perfect system. It has a smaller buffer than the D300 and D7000. I've seen samples of high iso banding and hot pixels. Also HD video output is "soft" according to DPR.

 

[Jeff4500]

I have and use both the 7100 & the 7000. If $300 difference is not big deal get the 7100. If budget is a real concern get the 7000.

BTW the folks over at DVUSER certainly don't think the video is "soft". Nor do I, comparing apples and to apples (24P at 16 mpx on both cameras). When DPR said that the 1.3 crop video was soft I don't think they changed from the normal sharpening which need to be +1 or 2 as the jpg settings are used on the video.

 

[Danel]

Hi!

A few members are talking about auto-focusing problem in D7000 in different forums. Is it a universal problem or confined to few early batches? Is the problem too serious? I am asking this because I am planning to get a new D7000 at a bargain price in a day or two. Should I drop the plan and go for D7100 at a much higher price (60% more)? But my requirement doesn't justify this extra expenditure. Please advise.

Thanks.

Nikonmaniak

I bought the D7000 the minute it was available to buy and I have never had any sort of auto focus problems what so ever. I find the auto focus to be fast and accurate. Of course all I have used it for is to take photos of subjects that I find interesting. I haven't used it to take photos of, for example, lines of cereal boxes with an f/1.8 lens shot wide open using 39 point auto focus in dimly lit rooms. I also have the camera set to focus priority not release priority, and I haven't shot many photos of people riding by on bikes through the rolled up windows of a moving car. In short, I'm not a measurebater. If your intent is to take photos of subjects that you find interesting you should be fine. If you're intent is to use the camera to be an amateur tester and amateur camera reviewer, then I urge caution, because you may very well "discover" focus issues. I do believe it is possible to find a way to take blurry photos with the D7000 if you "test it" long enough.

 

[morel22]

D7k doesn't suffer any universal AF problems! End of topic. Sorry to be a bit harsh here, but simple logic dictates that this is not true!

The D7k has been the hottest camera in the market for the past three years. The most recommended. The most sold in its category. And succeeding a best seller as well, the D90.

If it had such a maior universal problem, or even some complete batches with AF problem, then the whole blogosphere would be talking it, don't you think?

The D7k's popularity was even one of the reasons I went for it. It means more support, more reliability (in terms of feedback/update ratio), and simply more cred. And good cred means that these voices you are referring to on some forums, are either ignorant beginner voices, or trolling hateful ones (sometimes paid; happens on major forums! And on constant rate as well. Someone makes up a story, most of the time brings no data or evidence, and asks a question or makes a rant. Serves well for the search engines when someone is researching a popular product and comes across different threads with such topics.)

Could be that Nikon do it as well. Not claiming here that only Nikon are picked on. This became a regular activity over the internet. And obviously popular products are the most targeted.

And doesn't mean that you can't pick a D7k with no hardware defect! But seriously, no pattern of or any specific AF defect was reported or detected on mass!

 

[sshoihet]

Hi!

A few members are talking about auto-focusing problem in D7000 in different forums. Is it a universal problem or confined to few early batches? Is the problem too serious? I am asking this because I am planning to get a new D7000 at a bargain price in a day or two. Should I drop the plan and go for D7100 at a much higher price (60% more)? But my requirement doesn't justify this extra expenditure. Please advise.

I wouldn't say that there was a widespread problem, the most significant issue is that the actual focus sensors are larger than the points in the viewfinder would suggest and this can make focusing on some subjects challenging, especially if they're small.

I have both the D7000 and D7100 and I suggest you get the D7100; there are many reasons in addition to the focus module for that but you'll have to decide for yourself.

You might also look at:

- Skin tones

- bracketing

- controls

- Auto ISO

- High ISO noise

I will shoot both together but there is never a time where I will choose to take the D7000 over the D7100 unless maybe I waned to do some insane shadow push... and in most cases, there is a better way to accomplish what I need to do.

 

[Section10]

First I heard of an AF problem....which means there wasn't, probably means there's only individual camera trouble on some units and of course this forum is also the 'filter of troubleshooting' issues to some...

If I had choice between both, which I did, I chose the D7000 certainly not because it was better but because I got it for a much better deal, have a FF 24mp camera, and won't lose nearly as much money when I sell the D7000 for a newer nikon body when that gets released, (I wasn't entirely sold on the D7100)

Eventually there'll be built in wifi, improved ISO noise reduction to match the Sony's, I don't believe my Nikon is near that.

If you want a camera now to last years and have no need for upgrading any time, then D7100 is the better choice.

 

[kithg]

I am still climbing up the learning curve of my D7000. I believe that it has no focus problem. It does have a very sophisticated AF system among other camera controls that it takes a while to master. You have to have a good grip on what your lens can do and what your camera settings are. It could be that your lens isn't as sharp at its long end as you'd like. It could be that you have the camera set to shoot when you press the button, rather than when you achieve focus. Or you have the max ISO set inappropriately for your shooting habits. Or you're set to dynamic focus when you need single or vice versa. I've had all of these issues affect the sharpness of my pictures. The camera does beautifully if I tell it what to do, appropriately to the task at hand. And the D7100 is not less sophisticated. I believe you'll be happy with either one, once you master it.

 

[WTarcher77]

I was just chuckling about this the other day....... After 30,000 shots or so, I am convinced that it works pretty well ;-)

NEVER use AFA... Learn when to use AFS.... And in my case,leave in AFC 90% of the time.

 

[bflood]

My first thought is to tell you to buy for the future, not the present or past, and therefore you should get the 7100. But realistically, unless you've won the lottery lately, the price really does matter.

I got my D7000 a couple of years ago, and the only focus problem I've encountered happens when the camera's operator malfunctions (that's me). View NX2 shows the focus spot when it displays the image, and I found myself horrified by how often I was off-target when shooting at 400 mm. My focus problem was self-inflicted. It taught me to get better at aiming and keeping the focus spot on the target, and I'm much happier with my results these days. And as an odd coincidence, my lenses got sharper, too. Can you imagine that!

 

[brucet]

The D7000 is not a point and shoot. Simple as that. So to get the best out of it the user needs to learn how to use it. It does have a learning curve. Some folks simply expect too much from an advance camera. Those same folk expect to have everything in a camera yet expect it to perform like a simple point n shoot. The D7000 gives you so many options that it's easy to get it wrong. Master it and you have a real keeper.

regards

 

[sleelio]

After my experience with my D7000, I'm convinced that AF problems can happen with any camera and camera/lens combination - even the latest and greatest. The fact that there are so many D7000s out there might make it seem that this camera has more problems than other models, but I bet the percentage of true "problem" cameras are similar from model to model.

I reached this conclusion after struggling to get sharp focus with my D7000. I mostly shoot action/sports photos. After reading many posts in this and other forums and acknowledging the difficulty in focusing on moving targets, I was very hesitant to blame the camera. This led me to researching every button, dial and menu option on the D7000 - when to use what settings, how the autofocus works etc etc. A few thousands photos later (with many well lit, non-moving, contrasty subjects), I finally took the camera back to where I bought it. Since it was still under warranty, the shop strongly recommended sending the camera back to Nikon for calibration, rather than trying to make adjustments with the AF Fine tuning. I also sent my 2 favorite lenses (35mm f/1.8 and 70-200mm f/2.8) in for calibration.

The camera just came back with a report stating they had adjusted the autofocus operation and adjusted the mirror angle. The shop told me the camera should now be "right on - plus or minus, because there's no such thing as zero error tolerance." I asked how the camera could have passed quality control when it was manufactured, and the shop said that the testing (and presumably tolerances) done at manufacturing was not as extensive or precise as when calibrating. Same for the lenses.

I'm still waiting for the lenses to come back, so they must be doing something with them. The shop said after they come back I may still need to fine tune the lenses, again because "there's no such thing as zero error", but that the amount of tuning should be small, if any.

Good luck - just be aware that any camera you get, regardless of model, could be absolutely perfect out of the box, or not.

 

[chuhsi]

my d7000 is with nikon right now for a 3rd pass at fixing the backfocus issue with all my lenses.

that said, i am probably one of the unlucky few to have gotten a bum camera.

it's a fantastic camera, especially because you can buy one so cheaply now. i have a brand new d7000 from black friday that i may keep as a backup.

 

[jonikon]

Individual D7000's may have focus issues, but I have no reason to believe there is anything wrong with the design of the D7000 AF system. I have owned a D7000 since November of 2010 and have taken tens of thousands of photos with it, (including being the only photographer for three weddings), and have had no complaints with the AF system in my D7000 as it works very well.

BTW, I use Tokina, Nikon, Tamron and Sigma lenses and all AF well, with some requiring a very small amount of AF micro adjustment for maximum accuracy.

- Jon

 

[GerardHaines]

The AF in the 7000 is supposed to be the same as the d5200. I own a 5200 and rarely have much trouble. Biggest problem are birds in bushes. The camera will focus on a twig between me and the bird instead of the bird. The 7100 has more focus points so it is supposed to be better. Most people who make the upgrade do it for more than the af issues.
--
<a href="http://www.applenegative.com" target="_blank" title="www.applenegative.com" data-mce-href="http://www.applenegative.com">www.applenegative.com</a>

Show me an AF system that doesn't have trouble shooting birds/wildlife in bushes...that's what the manual focus switch is for. More focus points isn't going to help out the situation...in fact, it's just going to exacerbate it. Personally, I'd start with a single point and go to manual if that doesn't work.

 

[toomanycanons]

Hi!

A few members are talking about auto-focusing problem in D7000 in different forums. Is it a universal problem or confined to few early batches? Is the problem too serious? I am asking this because I am planning to get a new D7000 at a bargain price in a day or two. Should I drop the plan and go for D7100 at a much higher price (60% more)? But my requirement doesn't justify this extra expenditure. Please advise.

Thanks.

Nikonmaniak

You can't be serious.