Nikon F5 w/ G lenses, focus problem

[Søren]

I recently observed that my Nikon F5 has a hard time focusing with G lenses. The AF-D lenses are way faster, which is not that surprising. However, something which really happens a lot is that when using a G lens (with settings set to non-continuous focusing, and non-dynamic single point focus) and I focus on something the camera would indicate perfect focus (i.e. the indicator dot shows up) but after recomposing (with the shutter button held halfway) the camera would again focus as if the focus wasn't locked in. This is almost a little bit as if the camera was set to continuous focus. The thing is, this never ever occurs with my AF-D lenses on which the focus is ridiculously fast and rock solid. On the other hand, I tested the G lenses (I only have two) on my D90 on which everything's working flawlessly. I tried to find something on this forum and on the net, but only stumbled across problems like focus-shift and such. Someone has a clue what's going on here?

 

[Theo Sulphate]

Have you tried the AF-L button prior to recomposing?

 

[rubbernglue]

For which I know, the nikon lenses work good on my F5, and so does my Sigma 35/1.4 Art - however the later Sigma zoom 24-35mm Art is not working that good. I also heard issues with the Tamron 24-70 while the Tamron 70-200 should work great. I have also tried Nikon 14-24 with great result.

Which G-lenses do you have?

 

[Søren]

Have you tried the AF-L button prior to recomposing?

Yes, and this works, but it should still work without the AF-lock button. Also this button is hard to reach when holding the camera in one hand or in portrait position.

For which I know, the nikon lenses work good on my F5, and so does my Sigma 35/1.4 Art - however the later Sigma zoom 24-35mm Art is not working that good. I also heard issues with the Tamron 24-70 while the Tamron 70-200 should work great. I have also tried Nikon 14-24 with great result.

Which G-lenses do you have?

I have the 50mm 1.8G and also tested the DX 35mm 1.8G (this is of course no FX lens but it should work normally except for the vignetting).

The only conclusion I came up with is that one or two of the body/lens contacts on the F5 are broken in some way (or at least not functioning properly), since the D lenses use 2 contacts less than the G lenses. However, this somehow still seems very unlikely, because I never heard that actually happened to anyone and the type of contacts really don't look like they could fail. I even tried to clean the contacts carefully, but it didn't help.

I think the easiest way to work around this is to disable the AF from the shutter release button and disable focus-priority in the custom settings. This way one could focus with the "AF on" button, recompose and take the shot. Of course this is still very unsatisfying. ;/