Nikon D7200 - Possible Buyer's Remorse - Focus Confusion!!!! (Page 3): If she shot F/11 her shutter speed would be so slow and ISO would be so high images would be useless...

hangman45 Loc: Hueytown Alabama

Morning Star wrote:

Never (laugh at you! Maybe with you????) br I just... (show quote)

If she shot F/11 her shutter speed would be so slow and ISO would be so high images would be useless

Erv Loc: Medina Ohio

One more thing.:) Go online and look to see if Darrell Young has put out a book on your camera.He does only Nikon cameras. He is very smart, but his writing and book layouts are very easy to follow. I have gotten one of his books for every Nikon I have had so far.

Morning Star Loc: West coast, North of the 49th N.

hangman45 wrote:

If she shot F/11 her shutter speed would be so slow and ISO would be so high images would be useless

Which is exactly why I suggested in my post earlier on this thread that a flashlight would be necessary.

camerapapi Loc: Miami, Fl.

It is well known that the majority of the AF issues are the result of inexperienced operators. I do not own a D7200 but I am sure its AF system is fast and precise. I never had any issues with the AF system of my Nikon bodies.
To photograph inside areas where basketball is being played you need or a fast lens or to raise the ISO setting. Your 18-140 IS NOT a fast lens and it was impossible for me to look at the picture exif with my computer but I would bet your ISO setting was not high enough and most probably you were not shooting at a large lens opening either. You can see some children in very acceptable focus but others are not and that is the result of depth of field not focus. The slight movement of hands or feet do not bother me because they imply movement with still photography.
You should be able to find interesting and instructive articles in the Internet about using AF for action and your camera manual should have a very acceptable explanation on how to use the AF of the camera.
In regard to portraits make sure that the shutter speed equals or better yet surpasses the focal length of the lens in use. In the case of your 18-140 I would use 1/250 in spite of its VR just to make sure. Here also and shooting in low light it is a must to raise the ISO setting if not using flash.

Meives Loc: FORT LAUDERDALE

[quote=mgstrawn]On the basketball picture. F 4.5 is not a fast lens. This is hard to do. You may have room to increase ISO to Max. And seed up the shutter and stop down to F 8. I will check the portrait next. Because you made a composite with 2 pictures, you lost all the camera data. If you had posted them by themselves I could have advised better. But if the settings were near the basketball picture I would again say the poor quality lens and open F stop cause the out of focus. David

SBrodsky Loc: Northern Colorado

The continuous Auto Focus AF/C mode should work for the kids. For indoor hoops, I have been using a friend's 7100, which I assume is very close to the 7200. He also lent me his 70-200m 2.8 lens. Did a couple of things, with these units, as I sat on the corner of the baseline. Went all manual-settings and focus and set Fstop to 4 and shot at 1/800th of a second. Set ISO at 6400. Focused on the hoop and the floor beneath (the key) and when players came into, I sprayed (continuous high speed) and prayed. Could have gone wide open-F 2.8, but unless players were exactly in focus zone, I often got less than sharp images. Hence I stayed at either F3.5 or 4. Will experiment next time w/F 2.8. Wasn't all the way zoomed in either-probably about 135 or 140mm. Lighting can be a challenge. Kept White Balance on Auto.

Both of these were obviously the same game, but shot at different ends of the floor, where lighting was slightly different.

jimmya Loc: Phoenix

mgstrawn wrote:

Hello! I treated myself to the Nikon D7200/18-140m... (show quote)

The basketball photos: There will be no freeze unless you're able to use at least 1/500 shutter speed... better at 1/1000.
In the available light shown that can't happen, simply not enough light.

I would suggest, if you're not already using it, single - dead center focal point. If you're using full auto you're allowing the camera to pick it's focal point and rarely seems to work.
With single point you're forcing the camera to focus at that point. Simple procedure, in your view finder, place the single point over the subject's eye, half press and hold while you adjust the frame to what you want and shoot. Repeat every time. This should solve you focus problem unless your subject moves at slower shutter speeds.

Refer to your owner's manual to set up single point if you've not already done that. Best of luck.

DaveyDitzer Loc: Western PA

mgstrawn wrote:

With the D5100 I was able to bump up the shutter speed and ISO to get good results. This past Saturday, I used every setting I've ever learned thinking it should work on the 7200, but it didn't. When I bumped up the shutter speed, and adjusted the ISO, it was too noisy. Perhaps it is my lens. I was using the newest Tamron 18-270mm which has always performed great.

Did you evaluate the 18-140 lens you mentioned at the outset?

Reinaldokool Loc: San Rafael, CA

davefales wrote:

Valid comments so far, but maybe your lens and camera do not match up well. A start for understanding:
https://luminous-landscape.com/are-your-pictures-out-of-focus/

"Causes of the problem

The main causes of the problem are camera and lens design, combined with manufacturing tolerances of mass produced devices.

Lets face it, the vast majority of cameras and lenses are mass produced. If the manufacturing tolerances were incredibly tight, and each piece was tweaked and adjusted to perfection, prices would have to rise and quantities would shrink. Many people could not afford these very expensive cameras, and even those who could might have to wait for a long time to get their hands on one because of the limited supply. This would not be a particularly appealing situation.

Instead, things are massed produced to be within tolerances, but being within tolerances means that each piece is within a certain range of error that is considered to be acceptable by the manufacturer. Also, as most of us have experienced, periodically a piece that is out of spec seems to slip through all quality control and is sold to a customer.

The point I am trying to make is that the sensor will not be exactly where it is supposed to be, the mirror in an SLR will not come to rest in the perfect position, the autofocus system may be mounted just a wee bit off from the perfect position, it may be slightly out of perfect calibration, the focusing screen may be a little thinner or thicker than the spec, it may be placed slightly off in the camera, the lens mount may be slightly deeper or shallower than the spec, etc.

So, the consequence of mass production in large quantities at reasonable prices is that all these small deviations will pile up on top of each other and can cause the AF system in your camera to be out of focus. There is also a statistically significant probability that even if the autofocus system is working superbly, manual focus on the screen does not match the autofocus system on the camera."

You can make back/front focus corrections on your camera.

Valid comments so far, but maybe your lens and cam... (show quote)

:thumbdown:

The other comments are far more accurate. Manufacturing is much better than that. It's why $100 P&S cameras and cellphones take pretty decent snapshots.

The D7200, at its worst, takes excellent photos.

You do need higher speeds to get kids. Also BBF is far and away the way to go. You will pay some price for using higher ISO, but the increase in noise should not be too significant. It should be troublesome only to a pixel peeper. Now, if you were shooting still life art images, that would be different. But given your subjects, a little noise ought not to be troublesome.

Bear2 Loc: Southeast,, MI

I did not read all the responses above, but:
First, my 7200 is much sharper than my 7000, or 5000. 24mb vs 16mb vs 12mb.
Second, the 7200 is much better in low light
Third, on the 7xxx series, you can "fine tune" your lenses to your camera.
No turning back, very satisfied but had I known about the d500 I would have weighted.
Maybe I will sell my 7000 toward a d500 after they have been out for a while.
Hope this helps.
Duane

CatMarley Loc: North Carolina

mgstrawn wrote:

Hello! I treated myself to the Nikon D7200/18-140m... (show quote)

If you want to stop action, you will need to use shutter priority and at least 1/250 to 1/500. But often a little action blur on moving subjects is a desirable thing. As for focusing on the eyes, are you using single point focus? If you are, and you are still soft, you may have to fine tune your focus. I would suggest manual, but manual focus with a large aperture and kids is pretty difficult..

mgstrawn Loc: Atlanta, GA

CatMarley wrote:

If you want to stop action, you will need to use shutter priority and at least 1/250 to 1/500. But often a little action blur on moving subjects is a desirable thing. As for focusing on the eyes, are you using single point focus? If you are, and you are still soft, you may have to fine tune your focus. I would suggest manual, but manual focus with a large aperture and kids is pretty difficult..

Thank you, CatMarley, I appreciate it!

mgstrawn Loc: Atlanta, GA

Bear2 wrote:

I did not read all the responses above, but:
First, my 7200 is much sharper than my 7000, or 5000. 24mb vs 16mb vs 12mb.
Second, the 7200 is much better in low light
Third, on the 7xxx series, you can "fine tune" your lenses to your camera.
No turning back, very satisfied but had I known about the d500 I would have weighted.
Maybe I will sell my 7000 toward a d500 after they have been out for a while.
Hope this helps.
Duane

Duane, thank you for the tip and encouragement. I really appreciate it!

mgstrawn Loc: Atlanta, GA

Reinaldokool wrote:

:thumbdown: br br The other comments are far mor... (show quote)

Thank you so much! I will definitely learn how to use the BBF!

mgstrawn Loc: Atlanta, GA

DaveyDitzer wrote:

Did you evaluate the 18-140 lens you mentioned at the outset?

I read several favorable reviews and articles prior to purchasing the package. Maybe I just haven't given the lens a chance! Thanks so much!