Jump to content

Welcome to NikonForums.com
Register now to gain access to all of our features. Once registered and logged in, you will be able to create topics, post replies to existing threads, give reputation to your fellow members, get your own private messenger, post status updates, manage your profile and so much more. If you already have an account, login here - otherwise create an account for free today!
Photo

D5500 Autofocus Issues


  • Please log in to reply
1 reply to this topic

#1
DHEdington

DHEdington

    New Member

  • Forum Member
  • Pip
  • 1 posts
  • Country Flag
  • LocationColorado

About three weeks ago, I noticed I was having issues with my D5500 and the autofocus. The mechanism would just run back and forth through three or four cycles eventually stopping on a completely unfocused image. Switching to manual focus enabled me to finish the day. The attached image is the first shot of the day when I noticed the issue.

 

The specs: D5500 with my go-to lens, an AF-S 18-140 mm. For most of my scenic shots, I am using the "Point and Shoot" "auto flash off" mode. This has served me well for the 14 months I've had the camera/lens. Recently, I began dipping my toes into B&W images with the "P" mode.

 

A little experimenting showed that the problem seemed to be mostly when I had the lens zoomed to 18 mm and I was shooting a broad vista. If I pointed the camera at something close, or if I zoomed the lens to something other than 18 mm, the autofocus seemed to work. This was true for Auto or P modes.

 

I then tried my AF-S 55-300 lens and saw similar results: when zoomed at 55 mm and aimed at a broad vista, the lens would not focus. Any other vista or zoom seemed to work fine.

 

A took the camera to my retail dealer and he suggested that the AF-area mode default of Auto-area AF is the culprit. He said that Auto-area AF sometimes has difficulty focusing when there is a wide range of distances to the subjects in the frame. He suggested that I should select single-point AF or dynamic area (9, 21 or 39 points) as my choices for both P and Auto modes. Basically, he is saying that it's user error.

 

I don't buy his explanation because Ive been using the Auto-area AF setting for over a year with no difficulty.

 

So, question 1 is, Is my camera broken and do I need it serviced or is it, as he suggested, a user issue?

 

OK, assuming he is right, I am now using 9 point dynamic area for my shots. The second issue I've noticed is that this choice is not remembered. For example, I'll be shooting in Auto mode and I choose the area focusing method by pressing the "i" button, scrolling to AF-area mode and selecting 9 point dynamic area. That works fine until I change shooting modes to "P" then back to Auto mode. The AF-area mode reverts back to Auto-area AF.

 

I've noticed other things are not being remembered like the viewfinder grid display. I turn it on in Auto mode, but if I switch mode to P then back to auto, if turns off and stays off.

 

So my second question is, what do I have to do to get these setting to "stick"? Perhaps I'm assuming too much that I have some control in Auto mode? Should I just switch to P (or A or S) mode for general work?

 

I should mention that I've reset the shooting menu options and taken the battery out for 30 minutes or so.

 

Sorry for such a long-winded first post.

 

 

 

 

Attached Thumbnails

  • DSC_0160.JPG


#2
mikew

mikew

    Forum Veteran

  • Forum Member
  • PipPipPipPipPipPipPip
  • 798 posts
  • Country Flag
  • LocationNorth East Lincs

I suppose you could set your camera for Back button focus,this way you would know if it was focusing on something that should give no problems,then recompose the shot.

 

Cant help with the other things as i don't have that camera,have always used the D7XXX series.