5 replies to this topic

[leyla]

Hello folks!

 

Really glad I found a great forum based on Nikon cameras only. This community seems to help each other very well and I've tried to search for a thread about my problem, but unfortunately I couldn't find anything.

 

I'm a freelance photographer based in London, photographing babies and children indoors as well as outdoors. I've had my Nikon D300 for about a year now. It really is the best advanced camera I've had so far and I never faced any problems with it until now. 

 

About my problem: Since a few sessions, I realised I'm having a massive problem with my viewfinder. When I look through the viewfinder, it is completely dark - basically pitch black. It still lets me take pictures but they obviously turn out very blurry and awful since I cannot see what exactly I'm photographing and focussing on. When I take a picture, I see my subject through the viewfinder for about 0.5 seconds and it goes black again. This problem occurred for the first time about two weeks ago. It wasn't as bad though, it would be pitch black but after taking a couple photos, it would go back to normal and it was fine (hence I didn't think it's an actual issue and only temporary). But since a few sessions it pretty much became almost impossible to take good photos.

 

For example, today I was booked for a baby's 1st birthday party. I was there for about four hours and for four hours straight the viewfinder was black. I ended up with only 300 pictures from the session, whereas I end up taking a minimum of 500 on other sessions like these. I'm absolutely glad the D300 comes with the Live View feature - that's how I saved my working day today and used pretty much all the time. But Live View isn't for me, because I found it extremely difficult to manually focus on my subject(s) all the time, especially on a birthday party like this where everybody is constantly moving.

 

Has anybody any idea why my camera is doing this? I've tried to Google my problem but unfortunately couldn't find anything useful. I wonder if this is just an individual case or if anyone else is familiar with this kind of problem, even if it's not with the D300 in particular.

 

I appreciate any kind of help!

 

PS: I am getting my camera checked out pretty soon but I wonder if there is anything I can do about it until I send it out for repair because I am absolutely helpless.

[Adam]

It sounds like there's a problem with your mirror mechanism, which may need to be replaced.  When you take the lens off (and the VF is dark), do you see the camera's sensor, or do you see the mirror?

 

Since the viewfinder doesn't rely on any electronics, it will always work as long as it can "see" the lens, which requires the mirror to be down. So I'm fairly confident that the mirror is the only thing to blame in your case.

[Russ]

But being a pro, you have a backup camera, right?

 

What Adam said ^^

 

Otherwise set the lens to f22 and wide angle and fire away, everything will be in focus!! 

[greenwing]

Just a thought - since you say you can see the subject through the VF when taking pictures, the mirror must be getting into position during that time, so I wonder if you've selected the Mirror Up (MUp) mode? It's unlikely, I think, but worth asking.

 

If not, you could try the two-button reset.

 

As Russ said, you really should have a backup camera, especially given that your D300 is probably over 5 years old now and may not have had an easy life before you got it..

 

If the Mirror is working properly, a dark viewfinder could mean the aperture is closed down when it shouldn't be, which sounds like a camera problem too unless the lens is broken or not mounted properly. You're not holding down the DOF preview button are you?

 

Chris

[leyla]

Thanks a lot for your answers, really appreciate it.

 

I agree with having a backup camera. When I first got the D300 about a year ago, I carried my older one (D90) with me just in case, but stopped doing that after a few months. Terrible decision. I was always so confident with just the D300 because I never faced any problem before. I should have started to carry my D90 with me again the first time the D300 started acting up. Yesterday's session definitely taught me a lesson 

 

About your suggestions and questions.

 

When you take the lens off (and the VF is dark), do you see the camera's sensor, or do you see the mirror?

 

When I take the lens off I see the mirror. Looking through the VF, it is not dark. In fact, the VF is never dark when I unmount a lens  When I release the shutter, the VF goes dark for about 0.5 seconds, just the way it should be with the lens on. But it seems that whenever I put on a lens, it does the opposite, meaning it's dark and shows the subject for 0.5 secs when taking a picture (I strictly use Nikon lenses only and never mounted any lens incorrectly).

 

 

Otherwise set the lens to f22 and wide angle and fire away, everything will be in focus!!  

 

I'd rather use the Live View and get good looking pictures with a good bokeh than having to shoot in f22 with everything (including the background) in focus   Thanks though.

 

 

Just a thought - since you say you can see the subject through the VF when taking pictures, the mirror must be getting into position during that time, so I wonder if you've selected the Mirror Up (MUp) mode? It's unlikely, I think, but worth asking.

 

Never used MUp and yesterday I unmounted the lens and set the camera to MUp to see what it does, but that's definitely not the issue.

 

 

If the Mirror is working properly, a dark viewfinder could mean the aperture is closed down when it shouldn't be, which sounds like a camera problem too unless the lens is broken or not mounted properly. You're not holding down the DOF preview button are you?

 

Chris

 

Nope, not using the preview button at all actually. I read in a different forum that using that button temporary fixes the issue with the VF (someone was having a similar problem), but it doesn't make any difference at all for me.

 

I will definitely have to carry my D90 with me for now until I get the D300 checked out in probably two weeks. Any other suggestions are welcome though! 

[Merco_61]

Does it go black, or just very dark?

If it goes dark it could be the stop-down linkage that malfunctions and either don't actuate or misses misses the arm coming out of the lens. Probably it doesn't actuate as it sounds like the lens goes to the taking aperture set by the camera on shutter press.

Do you have any -D lenses to do an experiment? There is a custom setting to use the aperture ring instead of the control wheel, activate that. Set the aperture to wide open on the lens. Does the viewfinder work now? If so, you can use it like that until you get a chance to get it fixed. You will still need to open up to focus and then close to taking aperture for each photo.