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Struggling with D7000 in low light

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Absolutic

Absolutic

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Hi. I am on my second D7000. I had one last year and I got one again about a week go. I also own D300 and until recently had D700, and pretty much all the previous Nikons and many Canons DSLR. I am far from an amateur.

However, unlike my previous (and other current Nikons) I am struggling with autofocus in low light. For example I took D7000 with 50mm 1.8 AF-D on a stroll with my wife late last night and tried every possible autofocus mode from Auto Area to Single point. Especially I was surprised in Auto Area mode, because my D300 and D700 in auto area mode, in low light would focus on people's faces (as it supposed to with Nikon's scene recognition). D7000 which supposedly also has Nikon's scene recognition, which, from all my reading, supposed to give priority to eyes, would not even focus on my wife's face.

Please note that I typically leave autofocus assist light off on all my Nikon cameras because I don't like blinding people with that annoying light. That usually presented zero problems for my D300 and D700.

Can anyone share their techniques with D7K re: shooting in low light, I am especially interested to know which autotofocus modes have been proven to be successful. I do like the small form factor of D7K, but my wife is very impatient.
 
Absolutic said:
Hi. I am on my second D7000. I had one last year and I got one again about a week go. I also own D300 and until recently had D700, and pretty much all the previous Nikons and many Canons DSLR. I am far from an amateur.

However, unlike my previous (and other current Nikons) I am struggling with autofocus in low light. For example I took D7000 with 50mm 1.8 AF-D on a stroll with my wife late last night and tried every possible autofocus mode from Auto Area to Single point. Especially I was surprised in Auto Area mode, because my D300 and D700 in auto area mode, in low light would focus on people's faces (as it supposed to with Nikon's scene recognition). D7000 which supposedly also has Nikon's scene recognition, which, from all my reading, supposed to give priority to eyes, would not even focus on my wife's face.

Please note that I typically leave autofocus assist light off on all my Nikon cameras because I don't like blinding people with that annoying light. That usually presented zero problems for my D300 and D700.

Can anyone share their techniques with D7K re: shooting in low light, I am especially interested to know which autotofocus modes have been proven to be successful. I do like the small form factor of D7K, but my wife is very impatient.
Click to expand...
You need to post some photos with EXIF before anyone can help you with this. "low light" is not a quantifiable term and means different things to different people. Although I consider the D7000 to have good AF capabilities, I also feel it is unrealistic to expect the same AF performance from a sub-frame DSLR to that of a full frame DSLR costing twice as much. especially in lower light conditions.

Best regards,
Jon
 
Just got my d7k yesterday. Tested on Nikon 14-24, I have not issue with low light auto-focus. I was using af-s with single point.
 
That lens @ 1.8 hunts on my D90 as well. You have to open it up some to get accuracy in low light...

Jim
 
mrjpack said:
That lens @ 1.8 hunts on my D90 as well. You have to open it up some to get accuracy in low light...

Jim
Click to expand...
Thanks, that is what I am thinking. I used 35mm 1.8DX before on D7K and while I do remember occasional hiccups in low light, nothing like I had yesterday with the 50mm 1.8 AF-D. I opened it up to F/2.0 last night. I will retest again with 35mm 1.8DX and with Tamron 17-50 F/2.8 to see if I see improvement. Unfortunately I don't have 17-55 F/2.8 at my disposal to check.
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I have the Tammy 17-50 2.8 non bim and it does pretty good on my D90. Over all, how do you like your D7K versus the D700. Im ready to upgrade & just dont know if the 7000 is a big enough leap to make it worth while. Im looking for accurate focus for sports shooting & good detail in the shadows...
 
mrjpack said:
I have the Tammy 17-50 2.8 non bim and it does pretty good on my D90. Over all, how do you like your D7K versus the D700. Im ready to upgrade & just dont know if the 7000 is a big enough leap to make it worth while. Im looking for accurate focus for sports shooting & good detail in the shadows...
Click to expand...
I had D7000 early in October of 2010 and I took it on vacation to France where I thoroughly tested it (Took over 3000 shots in every possible lighting condition). It did fairly well. But compare to my D700 it was a day and night

1) my D700 has never ever struggled in low light, never under any circumstances, with any lenses.

2) with D700 you could actually trust the camera and leave it sometimes in autoarea mode and it would focus on human faces instantly.

3) D700 makes cheap lenses shine, my $80 Nikkor 28-105 AF-D Macro looks supersharp and amazing on it
4) Dynamic range is unreal

5) D7000 (my first one at least) had problems with tracking white birds on contrasty background. D700 has never had any problems with tracking and just tracked amazingly.
6) The 3d Tracking on D700 is superb.
7) low light ISO is great
ISO 12800



and where there is a noise it is a nice noise, the one that is not objectionable. D7K on the other hand, is pretty good in low light, but when it gets noise, that noise is an ugly one.

8) D700 makes you lazy, with its 1/1.4 MP per sm square pixel density (3 times less than D7000) every photo looks great and sharp even if you are slacking. With D7K you have to be supercareful in everything you do and your technique must be perfect on every shot.

On the other side, you dont have video (which is nice sometimes). D700 is also heavier and larger camera. Carrying it for 6-8 hours on vacation (I've done it) is challenging, while D7K is much lighter and compact. Unfortunately I had to sell my D700 due to financial reasons.

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Dominique Dierick said:
50mm 1.8 is not well known for great AF...

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Equipment: Nikon D3s, D7000, Panasonic GH2 for video
Click to expand...
Great to know, Ive not used the 50mm 1.8 before (it had been lying in my bag for the last 2 years). I got it because it was cheap. I typically would use 35mm 1.8DX.
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This is what I was thinking...

They close down when the shot is taken. Reason being, to avoid the things OP posted about...
binary_eye said:
mrjpack said:
That lens @ 1.8 hunts on my D90 as well. You have to open it up some to get accuracy in low light...
Click to expand...
Isn't f/1.8 wide open? Regardless, all lenses are wide open until you release the shutter.
Click to expand...
--
Rick Halle wrote:

" Keep in mind that tall buildings sway back and forth so they require faster shutter speeds."
 
My mistake, I meant close it down. For some reason that lens does hunt, seems worse wide open. But in reality its just an illusion I guess as it's just not sharp at 1.8 & you need to get to at least 2.8 before it starts to become sharp. The lens itself is just not fast at focusing, at least not on the D90....
 
jonikon said:
Although I consider the D7000 to have good AF capabilities, I also feel it is unrealistic to expect the same AF performance from a sub-frame DSLR to that of a full frame DSLR costing twice as much. especially in lower light conditions.
Click to expand...
Considering the AF unit is physically separate from the sensor, sensor size should have no impact on AF performance (except in live view). Thus, if there is a difference, it's because Nikon chose to make there be a difference. If Nikon chose to make the D7000's AF worse in low-light vs the current crop of FX bodies, it's because they either wanted to save money (unlikely as it's not an expensive part of the body), or they wanted an artificial way to differentiate between the pro bodies and the D7000.

An example is the D300 AF unit vs the D700. AFAIK, they are the same (which is why the AF points cover a smaller area on the FX bodies). Thus, AF performance for a D300 should be the same as a D3s or a D3x. This is an example where Nikon chose not to differentiate the AF's performance due to sensor size.
 
mrjpack said:
That lens @ 1.8 hunts on my D90 as well. You have to open it up some to get accuracy in low light...

Jim
Click to expand...
I don't understand. "Open it up"? AFAIK, AF on Nikon bodies is done with the lens wide-open. Or are you talking about live-view focus? If so, I'm not surprised a screw-driven lens has trouble. But for the non-live-view autofocus, your aperture setting shouldn't matter, as the body always sets the aperture lever to wide opening for autofocus (then stops down just before taking the picture)
 
This shot of yours taken with your D700 does not look sharp to me at all, and the colors are way off with a strong magenta cast. What's up with that? :(
I get muh better results with my D7000 than what I am seeing from your D700!



Best regards,
Jon
 
jonikon said:
This shot of yours taken with your D700 does not look sharp to me at all, and the colors are way off with a strong magenta cast. What's up with that? :(
I get muh better results with my D7000 than what I am seeing from your D700!



Best regards,
Jon
Click to expand...
This shot was for illustration of Noise at ISO12800 on D700.

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