I may be blonde, but holy crap, I cannot figure this out! I asked another Nikon buddy of mine and he couldn't figure this out either. (He sticks with film cameras so he's not too familiar with dslrs).
Ok, so I have a Nikon D5000 and 2 lenses: AF-S Nikkor 18-55mm 1:3.5-5.6G & AF-S Nikkor 55-200mm 1:4 5.6G ED. They both have the A & M for auto and manual focus. I have been having trouble with the autofocus lately. I noticed after I bought it that it was kinda slow with the autofocus and I tend to lose a lot of potentially good action shots because its too slow. The action is over before the camera decided "hey, thats what I want to focus on!" And then lately its been randomly refusing to focus. For example, yesterday I was at a horse race. After a few races I was able to inch my way down to the finish line. I really wanted to get a shot of the horses as they crossed the finish line. Ironically that race had ended in a "photo finish" I am I wasn't responsible for that call. My camera decided to crap out on me. I timed everything perfectly and held the shutter release halfway down. Nothing. Tried it again. Nothing. One last time. Finally it decided to try and focus. Right after the last horse crossed the finish line. I freaking missed it! Its doing it more and more lately. I press the shutter halfway down to focus and it doesnt even try to focus!
So anyway, hubby suggested I try to manually focus. Haha, yeah right! Both lenses have the "option" to switch to manual focus, but neither of them will actually "do" it. I looked through the camera manual (I don't know if the lenses came with manuals, and if they did I don't know where they are) and all it said was to adjust the focusing rings on the lenses. Neither lenses have focusing rings. So now what? My friend's band wanted a me to shoot video of them playing, but how can I if I can't manually focus the darn thing? And autofocus doesn't work while shooting video.
I asked a question about this a few weeks ago on the discussion board. I figured out that my problem is humidity. I am storing my camera with tiny silica gel packets. I am placing my camera in a medium temperature & humidity room 30 minutes prior to taking pictures. Both help. I plan to put my camera in a bag of rice, as soon as I buy the rice. I also have problems with my camera when the battery is dying and/or when the memory card is getting full. I hope you find the answer to your problem.
I don't know. How long have you had the camera? Cos you should have a 2 year warrantee with Nikon and they're fairly good at sorting stuff. At least try to ask on their forums where their tech guys will answer.
@daisy Thanks I will try that. Does it matter what type of bag?
@wormentude I bought it back in September and already sent it back to them once for a bad sensor. it doesn't do it every time. When I'm playing around with it, it works fine, but when I am actually trying to take pictures, it sometimes works, sometimes doesn't.
beggared if i know but mine refuses to focus sometimes, fortunately i can manual focus mine but noit much use when you need to get that picture quickly
My D90 has two AF/M switches, one on the lens, the other on the body. The body release is on the lower right hand side if you are looking at the front of the camera, the lens switch is directly next to it when the lens is mounted. Also your lenses should have a focus ring, it should be the first (probably narrow) ring as you go from lens to camera. It should rotate freely if your settings are on manual. As for not working consistently, it may be the motor in your lens unless it is happening with both, then it maybe the connection between the lens and camera, you could have a bad pin or connection to the pin.
I hope this helps.
What focus mode are you using? I have a D5000 to and if i'm shooting action shots I always use the continuous (called dynamic on camera) focus area mode rather than single point. To do this:
1)Press the bottom 'i' button
2)Click on the 6th button down and select 'af-s'
3)Then click on the 7th button down and there will be an icon inbetween these '[ ]
3)Select the one with the picture of the motorbike
then the lens will always focus on that point.
Hope this helped.
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@wormentude I bought it back in September and already sent it back to them once for a bad sensor. it doesn't do it every time. When I'm playing around with it, it works fine, but when I am actually trying to take pictures, it sometimes works, sometimes doesn't.
I still can't get it to focus manually though.
I hope this helps.
1)Press the bottom 'i' button
2)Click on the 6th button down and select 'af-s'
3)Then click on the 7th button down and there will be an icon inbetween these '[ ]
3)Select the one with the picture of the motorbike
then the lens will always focus on that point.
Hope this helped.