Autofocus problems?

Has anyone had a problem with their camera/lens just not focusing. Twice I have had this happen with my D100/L&M Titan...once with the 12-24mm and yesterday again with the 16mm. Yesterday was especially weird since it was fine the first dive (nothing changed) and then 2nd dive seemed fine until I got home and actually saw the big pictures and they were all just slightly out of focus (couldn't tell on the LCD). The previous time I had noticed on the surface and was able to take the camera out of the housing and had to actually turn everything off, remove from tray, and then got it to work again.

I really don't know if it is a lens/camera problem or something with the hotshoe cable or what....but seriously bumming since the 2nd dive yesterday was awesome and all my great pics are ruined

Thanks for any help!

E

[/img]

Strange that you are experiencing this on Wide Angle, personally it is the only time I do use auto focus.

I still have to get a focus ring for my 60mm and its driving me nuts trying to photograph stuff in poor viz.

You may want to check what you have set your autofocus to work ... I do not have my D100 manual handy but you may need to adjust your settings

Is it possible to have the focus sensor position different from what you thought you were using?.....ie: aim and set up your shot with the center sensor location, but accidently have another one activated so it's focusing somewhere else?....it happened to me once with the D70....probably more of a problem with macro than WA

With WA, it shouldn't be off that much...let us know what you figure out

Karl

I've never shot the Titan D100, but I seem to remember that you can prefocus in 2 ways - by half press of the shutter button, or on a separate button on the handle. You need to determine whether both are affected - this will help differentiate between a problem with the camera, or a problem with the Titan electronics.

With the fisheye (non-AFS) you should be able to tell whether the camera is attempting to focus or not - you'll hear and feel the motor. Make sure you are using the center focus area select - it is the most accurate, and you'll probably want to confirm that your port combo is correct. Are you having issues on land?

Another issue could be if you are prefocusing in SS mode, the camera may lock but you change the position before firing the shot. Maybe try CS.

Oh yeah - it is really tough to get things out of focus with a fisheye - seems like the camera may not be attempting focus at all.

It would be a lot easier to help you if you told us more about your camera settings and your experience.

Thanks for the comments. When I had the problem with the 12-24 it definitely was that the camera wasn't trying to focus at all (wasn't doing the wiggle dance to focus) and when I took the camera out of the housing (still on the tray) same problem. I think I had to turn off the camera, take it off the tray, and take off the lens and put it back on. At that time I just figured it was some user error.

Yesterday with the 16mm lens, everything was working fine on the first dive and seemed fine on the 2nd dive...I hadn't changed or done anything in between. Afterwards I took the camera out and switched to a different lens for a few surface shots, and since I didn't realize the problem underwater never tested it on the surface.

Definitely wasn't an issue of where the focus brackets were or half pressing....I really think that sometimes the camera doesn't "communicate" with the lens to autofocus. Not sure if this is a firmware problem or just my camera. Worst is that with the fisheye it is near impossible to notice until you download the pics....I am super bummed because I don't want to lose a whole dives worth of pictures like yesterday!

I am going to read over my D100 byThom stuff and see if I can find anything there. And when I get home from work will take another look at the camera and settings.

Appreciate the input!

E

I have the same rig you have with only the 60mm macro and the 24mm lenses. I haven't experienced the symptoms you have, though my system

sometimes seems to take FOREVER to focus. (I think that's just a problem with lack of contrast/light on my subjects.)

Anyway, forgive me if I insult your intelligence, but the two lenses you have both require port extensions. The 16 mm requires the #1 extension while the 12-24 requires the #4. Is it possible you forgot to install the extensions, or put on the wrong extension for a given lens?

Just a thought. Hope you get to the bottom of it.

John

______________________________

Nikon D100, Light & Motion Titan housing, Ikelite DS125 strobes

Maybe this is going to be one of those mysteries....

Just tried everything on the surface (with 16mm) and works great (though provides some interesting photos of my kitty). Looked over the housing and everything seems to be in place per usual except the selector on the front of the housing that corresponds to M-S-C on the front part of the camera. So maybe that got bumped between dives and then the camera wouldn't autofocus (even though on the camera itself it was still on S I think). Hmmmm, a possibility....

Well I guess I have to stop whining about losing a bunch of cool pictures ; )

Enjoy your diving!

E

Look on the optimistic side little mermaid, if you were using film you would have spent some $ on the film and processing too

.... its driving me nuts trying to photograph stuff in poor viz.

Has there ever been a day with good visibility in Dubai? :wink:

Julian