Nikon F4 Autofocus Problems

CB_ · Apr 27, 2021

So I received a new (to me) Nikon F4S in minty, almost new condition from Japan a couple of weeks go, and today my Nikkor 85mm 1.8 AF arrived. Unfortunately after attaching the lens to the camera it's nothing but bad news; the camera whines, makes lots of noise, and the autofocus pretty much doesn't work.

It will either not focus at all, or focus midway to the subject and stop, wherein I will have to release and half-depress the shutter again to focus all the way, which it still rarely hits. Most of the time it will just make a quick whining sound and immediately give up and refuse to focus. While testing there was a brief period of time where it appeared to work, focusing smoothly and quickly as I would have expected it to, however that only happened for less than 30 seconds. I will also note I am testing on bright, easy to focus on, contrasty scenes.

I have replaced the batteries (no corrosion, the MB-21 is totally clean inside and out), locked up the mirror and cleaned the internals with air, and cleaned contacts on both the camera and lens with alcohol - all to no avail. When the focus switch on the camera is set to "M" the lens manually focuses smoothly and normally, indicating that there most likely isn't anything gumming up the works there. Aside from the focusing issue, the camera appears to work great. The meter and viewfinder work good, and both single and continuous firing modes operate fine. So what gives? Any F4 heads out there care to lend some advice?

Really at this point just trying to determine if the cause is the camera or the lens, as I would rather just return one and swap it out rather than paying for a CLA.

Huss · Apr 27, 2021

You need to try to figure out of the problem is with the lens or the camera. You are in Brooklyn, take a trip into the city and visit Adorama or B&H and try out diff lenses on your camera. They should have a tonne in their used camera depts.
My F4s focus rapidly in all sorts of light, indoors dim lighting too. So don't think it needs to be bright out.

shutterfinger · Apr 27, 2021

A copy of the factory instruction manual is available for download here: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/0B1sPJkp-Mdghcm5jU0RvUmRmVE0
Which focus screen is installed?
Post a picture of the electrical contacts on the lens and the camera body.

reddesert · Apr 27, 2021

Check to make sure that the "screwdriver" focus drive is fully protruding from the lens mount, that it moves in and out properly when you switch the body from AF to manual focus, and that the screwdriver is properly contacting the screw slot in the lens. You can't see them when assembled, of course, but you can take the lens off and see where the slot is - the slot should be roughly flush with the lens flange, and should spin when you rotate the lens focus ring.

gone · Apr 27, 2021

If you don't have another AF lens to try on the camera (unless I misread something, it appears that you're trying a new-to-you lens and the same w/ the camera, so the issue may be one or both), try turning the lens drive by hand and see if it's binding. If it's behaving as badly as you described, then it will bind up and get tight by hand too.

As mentioned here, definitely look at the manual for the camera. I've owned a few of those 4s bodies, and what I remember is that the control layout is different than the other Nikon cameras. It may be that the selector switch for AF isn't fully engaged.

destroya · Apr 28, 2021

as mentioned above by a few members, try to figure out if its the lens or if its the body. if its the body, return the camera. if its the lens, return it

Christiaan Phleger · Apr 28, 2021

Try shifting the AF selector switch from S to C and back again, also toggle the frame rate selector from S to Ch or Cl, I recall that the F4 had AF behavior controlled by those two, giving either single shot with focus priority or continuous with release priority.

Huss · May 13, 2021

Soooooo?... what happened? I NEED TO KNOW.

CB_ · May 14, 2021

Huss said:
Soooooo?... what happened? I NEED TO KNOW.

Apologies to the thread - made this post and then life took over for a bit.

Weirdly enough, I gave up messing with the camera and put it down for the night, only for it to work perfectly when I picked it up and switched it on the following morning. Who knows what was going on - could have just needed some time to wake up after not being used for however long. I've used it on two shoots since - no issues, and it continues to work flawlessly aside from the matrix metering seeming to overexpose.. but I still need to test that onc out.

shutterfinger · May 14, 2021

Chandler said:
and it continues to work flawlessly aside from the matrix metering seeming to overexpose..

I always liked centerweighted over matrix on my F4s. The composition affects the meter reading so you may need to use the AE lock with Matrix to get the results you want.

Christiaan Phleger · May 15, 2021

You might want to check the compatibility of the lens; the F4 does Matrix with AF, Ai and Ai-S Lens but will switch to Center Weighted unannounced with *converted* lenses which will affect the meter reading.

Huss · May 16, 2021

RidingWaves said:
You might want to check the compatibility of the lens; the F4 does Matrix with AF, Ai and Ai-S Lens but will switch to Center Weighted unannounced with *converted* lenses which will affect the meter reading.

He's using a Nikkor 85 1.8 AF lens.

The matrix metering with Nikons are just glorified avg pattern meters. If the OP is finding overexposure, I'm betting his subject is in front of a predominantly dark background.
With all matrix metering Nikons I have found this, including my F6 as well as d1gital ones.
It's why they also give you the spot and center metering patterns. Notice there is no 'avg' meter pattern?....

CB_ · May 17, 2021

Huss said:
He's using a Nikkor 85 1.8 AF lens.

The matrix metering with Nikons are just glorified avg pattern meters. If the OP is finding overexposure, I'm betting his subject is in front of a predominantly dark background.
With all matrix metering Nikons I have found this, including my F6 as well as d1gital ones.
It's why they also give you the spot and center metering patterns. Notice there is no 'avg' meter pattern?....

Good looks - you're correct about the dark background. Typically I am incident metering for important photos; however I was curious about the often praised Nikon metering so I wanted to put it to the test on a few behind the scenes snapshots. Luckily it was nothing too important, and the overexposed shots were salvageable anyways.

Huss · May 18, 2021

Chandler said:
Good looks - you're correct about the dark background. Typically I am incident metering for important photos; however I was curious about the often praised Nikon metering so I wanted to put it to the test on a few behind the scenes snapshots. Luckily it was nothing too important, and the overexposed shots were salvageable anyways.

And guess what the fancy 3D Color matrix metering does with backlighting? Underexposes just like a boring ole avg pattern meter.

beatha · Sep 18, 2024

made an account to make a comment here:

Just bought a Nikon F4 to make a return to film (been consistently shooting a d700 for about 10 years).

I bought a Nikkor AF 85 mm 1:1.8 at a local shop today because the lenses that I've used with my d700 are compatible but mode limited to P & S (full disclosure I don't know if that's a user-issue, totally could be, that lens is an AF-S 50 mm 1:1.8G). Played around with the lens a bit and autofocus worked fine, maybe a little slow, maybe a little long for the focus point I wanted at times, whatever. It worked fine, I'm not used to it yet, it worked fine.

I put a roll of film in, load it to the first photo - nothing. I checked the lens pins, the contact pads, the body screw mechanism action, the lens screw mechanism, the lens focus mechanism, I switch lenses (that doesn't work because the other lens doesn't have a screw) and I'm flailing for answers. Maybe panicking a little because I bought the F4 on vacation in Japan. The lens focuses fine on my d700, has to be the F4.

I take 1 photo, the number in the corner of the viewfinder goes from 0 to 1, autofocus turns back on. Camera works perfectly, lens is great.

rcdon · Sep 20, 2024

beatha said:
Just bought a Nikon F4 to make a return to film (been consistently shooting a d700 for about 10 years).

I bought a Nikkor AF 85 mm 1:1.8 at a local shop today because the lenses that I've used with my d700 are compatible but mode limited to P & S (full disclosure I don't know if that's a user-issue, totally could be, that lens is an AF-S 50 mm 1:1.8G). Played around with the lens a bit and autofocus worked fine, maybe a little slow, maybe a little long for the focus point I wanted at times, whatever. It worked fine, I'm not used to it yet, it worked fine.

I put a roll of film in, load it to the first photo - nothing. I checked the lens pins, the contact pads, the body screw mechanism action, the lens screw mechanism, the lens focus mechanism, I switch lenses (that doesn't work because the other lens doesn't have a screw) and I'm flailing for answers. Maybe panicking a little because I bought the F4 on vacation in Japan. The lens focuses fine on my d700, has to be the F4.

I take 1 photo, the number in the corner of the viewfinder goes from 0 to 1, autofocus turns back on. Camera works perfectly, lens is great.

Congrats on the camera, I was on vacation in Japan a few months ago myself and bought an F3 for my 'return to film'. Then when I got home I also picked up a nice F4 from a Japanese seller on eBay (I was really torn about which to get while in Japan). I've put about 5 rolls through each, mostly B&W which I developed myself.
Anyway, yeah G lenses will focus on the F4, but since there's no way to manually set the aperture, you are limited to P and S modes as you noticed.
When you say you loaded film 'to the first photo' - something doesn't sound right if you didn't see a '1' on the upper LCD after doing that. You physically put the roll in the camera, closed the back, and then? If you did the right thing and held down the shutter button, it should automatically advance the film to the first frame and then display a '1', both on the LCD and the mechanical display. Then it's ready to shoot. Page 21 of the instruction manual says the shutter won't actually operate during film loading, so I suppose it won't autofocus as well until it's at frame 1?

beatha · Sep 20, 2024

rcdon said:
When you say you loaded film 'to the first photo' - something doesn't sound right if you didn't see a '1' on the upper LCD after doing that. You physically put the roll in the camera, closed the back, and then? If you did the right thing and held down the shutter button, it should automatically advance the film to the first frame and then display a '1', both on the LCD and the mechanical display. Then it's ready to shoot. Page 21 of the instruction manual says the shutter won't actually operate during film loading, so I suppose it won't autofocus as well until it's at frame 1?

Yeah, I think it was user error from lack of familiarity - I physically loaded the film and pressed the shutter button, but maybe I didn't hold it long enough? No idea. The LCD read '0' and the autofocus wouldn't work until I pressed the shutter button again. I'll need to load more film eventually, so I can pay more attention to it then.

Before I figured it out I couldn't find any forum thread or video to help me with it. I guess everyone assumes that you're going to load your film correctly using the functions of the camera. It's so new to me that I couldn't tell it wasn't loaded properly, I just knew it wasn't working right.

Nikon F4 Autofocus Problems

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