Jules Karney Loc: Las Vegas, Nevada

New problem.
I was shooting soccer the other day and came across this problem.
Nikon d500
Nikon 80-400 4.5-5.6G Vr lens
Very cloudy day
Shooting at 2000 at 5.6 auto iso
A/c

The focus would lock on then go away. In rapid fire, all of a sudden 5 to 7 shots would be so dark you can't see the image. Then the exposure would be fine.
The lens would stop focusing, I turn off the camera then back on, the lens will focus.
Could it be the battery, I have ordered a new one.
Could it be the sensor?

The first shot nice and sunny no problems. Cloudy is where the problems happen.

Thanks for any information and suggestions as always.

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texaseve Loc: TX, NC and NH

My logic says fast camera and slow lens, although that may not be it. I have the same combo and I just have a hard time in low light when I am trying to shoot a moose at the end of the day.

rjaywallace Loc: Wisconsin

I'm assuming you were shooting in Shutter Priority mode with Aperture on Auto. Was ISO on Auto? Were you using any filters? Why not try lowering the Shutter setting a couple of notches? That might improve your focusing odds and maybe give you a bit higher Aperture. Just a thought. /Ralph

Jules Karney Loc: Las Vegas, Nevada

The lens works great on a sunny day. Here in Las Vegas the last couple of weeks is the stormy time. Late afternoon the rain clouds come rolling in.

Jules Karney Loc: Las Vegas, Nevada

I was shooting in manual mode. No filters used. Your right about the shutter speed, I could have lowered it but was afraid of motion blur, camera shake, it's a big heavy lens for this old guy. Trying to blur the background, the system works a bit better shooting at 6.3.

martinfisherphoto Loc: Lake Placid Florida

I use the same lens on either the D600 or D7200. In all cases I only use the center point for both focus and metering. I have used multiple points for focusing and it will at times become confused when photographing birds in flight flying thru trees, reason for using only one focusing point now. The only time it's locked up is when the subject is too close to focus. So if the action is running past in front of you on the side lines this may be the case.. I do have the camera set up to fire only when in focus.

Jules Karney Loc: Las Vegas, Nevada

I tried single focus, but have a hard time keeping it on the soccer player. I switch to group and seems to work better for me. More keepers that hit the four spots of focus.
Martin, do you think the lens is not quite that good in cloudy conditions? It seems to work better with my Nikon 7100.
First shot cloudy day with the 500. Manual settings. Second is with 7100 aperture setting.

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rjaywallace Loc: Wisconsin

Your depth of field is slim in the first shot. Although the player's face seems adequately sharp, the number 8 on her jersey is blurred because it is not at the same plane as her face.

rehess Loc: South Bend, Indiana, USA

I guess this is where "artistic intent" becomes important. If I were shooting scenes like that, I would have wanted a deeper DOF because my POV thinks in terms of plays rather than of players, so {for example} I would want all three of the young women in focus in your soccer shot and all thee of the young men in focus in the football shot.

tdekany Loc: Oregon

What do I know, but if you are using full manual, or at least if I do, if I move the camera just a bit, the exposer changes at time dramatically. Put it in shutter priority with auto ISO and try again

mikeg492 Loc: WIlmington, NC

I've got the same combination I use occasionally on sunny days. Try dropping your shutter speed to 1250 in shutter priority.

SkyKing Loc: Thompson Ridge, NY

...I'm just logging in so I can hear more about this topic...I struggled with a similar situation shooting my son' college lacrosse games on a cloudy and rainy day...

geneg12 Loc: Virginia

Do you have the new 80-400 Nikon lens? I know the old version was a dog at focus and that is why I sold the lens! I know use either the 70-200mm Nikon VRII or a heavy Nikon 200-400mm on a monopod to shot sports. Focus can always be tricky and single point is good with back button focus. With your new D500 you can use the group focus and get good results.

andiamo236

I can see a number of issues that might be causing your problems. Here are some suggested settings: Manual, auto-ISO (6400 upper limit), f8 (for deeper DOF), start with 1/500 sec. if you see some motion blur increase the shutter speed (You should be able to capture this sport activity with a top of about 1/1200 sec.. Are you shooting RAW or JPEG?

Either way if you look through your view finder, hold the shutter release 1/2 way down and note the bottom right of the display, you will see something like this {r13}. This is the number of images that can be stored in the "buffer" during rapid fire of the shutter. The buffer is a "reservoir" that holds the images while the camera processor writes the images to the media card (CF/SD). This may be why it view is going black. (Not sure about the D500 but the D800 buffer is only good for about 13 shots shooting in RAW). So, if you do the math, your camera is probably able to shoot about 5 fps and if the buffer will only hold 13 shots you are only good for a bit more than 2 seconds of shooting before the camera shuts down.

Last to improve your auto-focus tracking you might review your settings for Auto-focus tracking (AF). Try AF-C (Continuous) and set to 21 point dynamic focus range for soccer and football. (You can find these settings in your Nikon manual).

Good luck

Jules Karney Loc: Las Vegas, Nevada

I will try shutter priority at today's game instead of manual for some shots.