Nikon F100 compose and frame - focus problem

tkamiya · Jul 19, 2013

This can't be a unique problem.... I have THREE F100s and they all do the same thing.

Say, I have a focus point fixed in the middle. That's how I like to use all of my camera bodies. I have SINGLE SHOT focus mode selected, instead of continuous focus mode. I aim at the subject I want to focus on, press the shutter button half way down and get a positive focus lock, then move my head and camera to recompose. So far, so good.... right?

NO! At this point, 90% of the time, the body gets confused into thinking the subject moved (no, I MOVED) and enables the focus tracking then it tries to refocus. According to the manual, this is not supposed to happen. Focus tracking supposed to take place when the subject moves regardless of the mode. (continuous or single shot)

What I want instead is, for the camera body to honor my focus lock and recompose, and not refocus.

I read somewhere (may be here?) there is a menu selection to change but I cannot find it now.

Can someone please help? Oddly enough, N80 and Dxxx do not do this.

NDKodak · Jul 20, 2013

I had focusing problems with my F100 when I first got and had to research it online. My problem was I had to go into the menu system and turn off the feature that told the camera to always auto focus on the nearest object in the viewfinder. I would focus on what I wanted but could not fire the shutter because camera thought it was out of focus and wanted to refocus on the nearest object.

fotch · Jul 20, 2013

Good grief! I have been wanting some new Nikon bodies, like F100 and F5. But stuff like this drives me nuts (yes, it has caused my nuttiness). Never do I have to worry with my F3, or FE, F2, M3, well, you get the picture.

epig · Jul 20, 2013

You need to disable Custom Function 9 which will turn off "Dynamic AF mode with closest subject priority in single servo mode".

Eric

NDKodak · Jul 20, 2013

Yes there is a learning curve with the more automated camera bodies. It took me a few months to figure out what was going on, but on the other hand it is all printed in the manual. I would recommend reading about and studying all the options that are controlled by the Menu feature, then you know right away what can go wrong if things aren't set the way you want. Or if you press and hold two certain buttons all the options return to the default settings.
I like the manual bodies as well. Now days with digital being king, a person can cause quite a scene just by opening a camera back and loading a fresh roll of film.

summicron1 · Jul 20, 2013

epig said:
You need to disable Custom Function 9 which will turn off "Dynamic AF mode with closest subject priority in single servo mode".

Eric

ya know, the instruction manual for my Leica CL doesn't contain even one single sentence that is 1/10th as confusing as this one. Custom Function 9??? Dynamic AF mode with closest subject priority? Single Servo mode?

Cripes.

We're trying to take pictures here, folks, not launch the Space Shuttle.

Focus, match needle, shoot. End of story.

<Rant mode><exit>

NDKodak · Jul 20, 2013

summicron1 said:
ya know, the instruction manual for my Leica CL doesn't contain even one single sentence that is 1/10th as confusing as this one. Custom Function 9??? Dynamic AF mode with closest subject priority? Single Servo mode?

Cripes.

We're trying to take pictures here, folks, not launch the Space Shuttle.

Focus, match needle, shoot. End of story.

<Rant mode><exit>

I agree! Set your film speed and there only so many combinations of aperture and shutter speeds you can select, no need for all the fancy exposure modes. I had a buddy who kept getting blurry photos from hockey games. I couldn't convince him he needed to just turn off the auto everything and set his shutter speed at 125 or 250 and shoot with the aperture wide open because the rink was dimly lit. He thought his lens was broke and not focusing properly.

tkamiya · Jul 20, 2013

epig said:
You need to disable Custom Function 9 which will turn off "Dynamic AF mode with closest subject priority in single servo mode".

Eric

I know about this option. But I am not using Dynamic AF mode. I am using Single Area AF, which is option 1 on page 39 of user manual.

NDKodak · Jul 20, 2013

Did you double check to make sure It was toggled off on the Custom Function menu,just in case it did unknowingly get reset to the factory default.

Ricardo Miranda · Jul 20, 2013

tkmiya
If you aren't happy with the F100, have you tried its older brother, the F90X (N90S in the US)? It only has a single AF point and no Dynamic AF.

ya know, the instruction manual for my Leica CL doesn't contain even one single sentence that is 1/10th as confusing as this one. Custom Function 9??? Dynamic AF mode with closest subject priority? Single Servo mode?

Cripes.

We're trying to take pictures here, folks, not launch the Space Shuttle.

Focus, match needle, shoot. End of story.

<Rant mode><exit>

For some types of photography all that extra stuff is there to help, as in case of Sports or fast moving subjects. For other types it can be a hindrance.
For what I do, mainly still nature, there is no need for a fast AF camera. I've been using lately the simplest of all Nikon MF SLRs, the EM and a FG when I need more manual control. They're much lighter than a F4 or F90 and do everything I ask from them.

IndifferentCamera · Jul 20, 2013

Try setting the (auto)focus selector at the front to C: continuous servo AF. This means it will focus when you want but give you shutter release priority over the focus status. I was having a problem where it would not release when reframing if the (new) subject was not in focus and this fixed it.

Jon

L Gebhardt · Jul 20, 2013

I haven't used my F100 in a year so i dragged it out to test. I usually use CSM 4 set to disabled so I need to push the AF-ON button to engage the AF. But I just turned it off to test and my F100 is behaving how I think you want it to work when in Single mode. In Continuous mode it seems be doing what yours is. Both 9 and 10 are set to 0 on my camera. Since all your cameras do it I assume it has to be a setting.

Based on the way you are shooting it sounds like you may want to also switch to only engaging the AF with the AF-ON button. Once I did, it cut down most of my frustration with AF. I have my DLSR setup this way too.

markbarendt · Jul 20, 2013

One of the coolest settings on the F100, IMO, is #4.

When set to disabled, 1, the shutter trigger button no longer triggers autofocus. Instead you have to Autofocus with the AF button on the back which is virtually under your thumb when holding the camera.

I combine that with custom setting 7 enabled, 1, which makes a half push of the shutter button lock the exposure setting.

Nine is set to, 1, disabled.
Ten is set to, 0, disabled.

These settings allow me to pick my exposure in one place (push and hold), pick my focus point in another (push and release), then I can reframe and shoot where I please almost as if it were (for that moment) a fully manual camera.

That ability is why I own an F100 and an F5. It makes life easier for a guy with old eyes.

brucemuir · Jul 20, 2013

Yep, figure out how to set up "back button af" where the back af-on button takes care of all af activation.

epig · Jul 20, 2013

summicron1 said:
ya know, the instruction manual for my Leica CL doesn't contain even one single sentence that is 1/10th as confusing as this one. Custom Function 9??? Dynamic AF mode with closest subject priority? Single Servo mode?

Cripes.

We're trying to take pictures here, folks, not launch the Space Shuttle.

Focus, match needle, shoot. End of story.

<Rant mode><exit>

Yup, that's why I sold off my F100; I wanted to take pictures, it wanted to launch rockets!

Eric

MartinCrabtree · Jul 20, 2013

summicron1 said:
ya know, the instruction manual for my Leica CL doesn't contain even one single sentence that is 1/10th as confusing as this one. Custom Function 9??? Dynamic AF mode with closest subject priority? Single Servo mode?

Cripes.

We're trying to take pictures here, folks, not launch the Space Shuttle.

Focus, match needle, shoot. End of story.

<Rant mode><exit>

Yeah? Could you show me that 8 times a second on a Ducati GP12 going into turn 1 at 170 MPH?

What pictures are you taking? There are tools for every job. Pick the right one and learn how to use it.

EDIT: I did not mean that to come across as harsh as it did. However the point is valid.

markbarendt · Jul 20, 2013

MartinCrabtree said:
Yeah? Could you show me that 8 times a second on a Ducati GP12 going into turn 1 at 170 MPH?

What pictures are you taking? There are tools for every job. Pick the right one and learn how to use it.

EDIT: I did not mean that to come across as harsh as it did. However the point is valid.

I do love the simplicity of my FM2 but (and that's an OMG but) the F100 ain't that tough and the capabilities of F100 for working quick and shooting flash and metering, there is simply no contest.

Chan Tran · Jul 20, 2013

summicron1 said:
ya know, the instruction manual for my Leica CL doesn't contain even one single sentence that is 1/10th as confusing as this one. Custom Function 9??? Dynamic AF mode with closest subject priority? Single Servo mode?

Cripes.

We're trying to take pictures here, folks, not launch the Space Shuttle.

Focus, match needle, shoot. End of story.

<Rant mode><exit>

That is why the CLE is more expensive than the F100 and yet the MP is simpler and the price is higher still. So you have to pay for ease of use. You can see that it's almost impossible to use P&S cameras and that's why they are cheap.

gliderbee · Jul 20, 2013

But that only works at shutter speeds of 1/500 or faster, meaning that you only get 8 1/500-parts of that second and missed 492 1/500-parts of that same second

(I have (ao) the F80, F100 and CLE, and I like them all )

Stefan

MartinCrabtree said:
Yeah? Could you show me that 8 times a second on a Ducati GP12 going into turn 1 at 170 MPH?

What pictures are you taking? There are tools for every job. Pick the right one and learn how to use it.

EDIT: I did not mean that to come across as harsh as it did. However the point is valid.

Verstuurd van mijn GT-P7510 met Tapatalk

MartinCrabtree · Jul 20, 2013

Yeah but that would be video wouldn't it?

tkamiya · Jul 20, 2013

L Gebhardt said:
I haven't used my F100 in a year so i dragged it out to test. I usually use CSM 4 set to disabled so I need to push the AF-ON button to engage the AF. But I just turned it off to test and my F100 is behaving how I think you want it to work when in Single mode. In Continuous mode it seems be doing what yours is. Both 9 and 10 are set to 0 on my camera. Since all your cameras do it I assume it has to be a setting.

Based on the way you are shooting it sounds like you may want to also switch to only engaging the AF with the AF-ON button. Once I did, it cut down most of my frustration with AF. I have my DLSR setup this way too.

Thank you very much for trying it out. On mine, both 9 and 10 are set to zero as well. I cannot always reproduce my problem but when it does, it's pretty consistent. It may be scene dependent that camera fails to confuse camera movement and subject movement. With single servo mode, and with [ ] showing, it tries to refocus when I recompose.

I guess Nikon firmware wasn't as advanced as ones it uses today.

Again, thank you very much for trying it out with yours.

markbarendt · Jul 20, 2013

tkamiya said:
I guess Nikon firmware wasn't as advanced as ones it uses today.

True, what from that era is though?

NDKodak · Jul 20, 2013

A question for Nikon users.... Who thinks the old AF film Nikons auto focus better and faster then the Nikon DSLRs? The cameras I have been using were N6006 and a F100 vs a D80.

MartinCrabtree · Jul 21, 2013

It seems the F5 is faster than the D90 but neither is slow.

film_man · Jul 21, 2013

From personal experience slowest to fastest D70s<F100<D7000=D2H.

D80 would be slow, maybe slower than F100 particularly with screwdrive lenses.

Nikon F100 compose and frame - focus problem

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